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Immigrant’S Personal Network In The Integration Process: A Case Study Of Ghanaian Immigrants’ In The Toronto Census Metropolitan Area, Emmanuel Kojo Kyeremeh

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation focuses on the integration of recent immigrants in receiving societies by analyzing their personal networks' contribution to this process. Although migration studies have stressed the importance of relationships or im/migrant networks in different spatial contexts, gaps exist in understanding this phenomenon. Specifically, studies on immigrants' networks' structure and composition that indicate their integration level in the host society is missing within the literature. This research, therefore, contributes to our understanding of personal networks. It considers the structure of immigrants’ network by examining the role of their migration project and context of reception towards developing ties in the host …

Perspectives Of Canadian University Coaches On Integrating Sport Psychology And Mental Performance Consultants In Varsity Programs, Federico Cisneros Sánchez

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Recently, sport psychology has become a more popular resource for athletes and coaches when looking to increase performance. It is unknown how many Canadian universities utilize sport psychology services in their athletic programs. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with coaches of Canadian university varsity teams to learn about their opinions on sport psychology and mental performance consultants (MPCs). The research was approached from a pragmatic perspective. Results showed that MPCs are important to enhance performance and provide mental health resources. MPCs provide athletes with personal and leadership development, mental skills training, and mental health support. MPCs can also be a resource …

The Role Of Haptic Expectations In Reaching To Grasp: From Pantomime To Natural Grasps And Back Again, Robert L. Whitwell, Nathan J. Katz, Melvyn A. Goodale, James T. Enns

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

© Copyright © 2020 Whitwell, Katz, Goodale and Enns. When we reach to pick up an object, our actions are effortlessly informed by the object’s spatial information, the position of our limbs, stored knowledge of the object’s material properties, and what we want to do with the object. A substantial body of evidence suggests that grasps are under the control of “automatic, unconscious” sensorimotor modules housed in the “dorsal stream” of the posterior parietal cortex. Visual online feedback has a strong effect on the hand’s in-flight grasp aperture. Previous work of ours exploited this effect to show that grasps are …

A Novel Spatio-Temporal Examination Of Children's Accessibility, Exposure, And Engagement To Parks And Recreation Spaces In Middlesex-London, Ontario, Malcolm K. Little

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Children are spending more free time engaged in activities indoors, rather than in outdoor environments such as parks and recreation spaces. Parks and recreation spaces provide amenities that promote physical, cognitive, and social health among children. As it relates to the complexities of children’s living situations, properly measuring children’s levels of interactions with these spaces is poorly understood in geography research.

By examining various attributes of children, this thesis improves on the measurement of children’s levels of interactions with parks and recreation spaces. Research herein utilized household survey data, a high-resolution GIS dataset of environmental factors, and GPS logs from …

“It's All Window Dressing:” Canadian Police Officers' Perceptions Of Mental Health Stigma In Their Workplace, Lesley J. Bikos

Sociology Publications

Purpose: This study will provide a preliminary, general overview of Canadian police officers’ perception of stigma toward mental illness in their workplace culture and its impacts.

Design/methodology/approach: This study uses a mixed methods approach with two nationwide datasets: a self-report survey (N=727) and 116 semi-structured interviews with police officers from 31 police services. Results are grounded in theories of stigma, masculinities, and organizational culture.

Findings: Results indicate that most officers believe stigma toward mental illness in their workplace remains, despite senior management messaging and program implementation. Reporting mental illness was often seen as high risk, both personally and professionally. Policewomen, …

Science And Sex Testing: The Beginnings Of A Female Testing Discourse, Camille M. Croteau

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In the 1960s, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) sanctioned testing to verify the sex of elite female athletes. Sex tests, as they were called, did not extend to male athletes, and they have tended to rely on appearance and performance alone. Now measuring testosterone levels, the Eligibility Regulations for the Female Classification scrutinizes female athletes far more than male athletes. This dissertation contributes to the sex testing literature by investigating three under-explored avenues: the history of the sex testing sports medical literature, a medical discourse analysis of IOC documents based on the implementation of sex testing, and a critical feminist …

Brain Metabolite Levels In Sedentary Women And Non-Contact Athletes Differ From Contact Athletes, Amy L. Schranz, Gregory A. Dekaban, Lisa Fischer, Kevin Blackney, Christy Barreira, Timothy J. Doherty, Douglas D. Fraser, Arthur Brown, Jeff Holmes, Ravi S. Menon, Robert Bartha

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

White matter tracts are known to be susceptible to injury following concussion. The objective of this study was to determine whether contact play in sport could alter white matter metabolite levels in female varsity athletes independent of changes induced by long-term exercise. Metabolite levels were measured by single voxel proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) in the prefrontal white matter at the beginning (In-Season) and end (Off-Season) of season in contact (N = 54, rugby players) and non-contact (N = 23, swimmers and rowers) varsity athletes. Sedentary women (N = 23) were scanned once, at a time equivalent to the Off-Season …

Structure Of Population Activity In Primary Motor Cortex For Single Finger Flexion And Extension, Spencer A. Arbuckle, Jeff Weiler, Eric A. Kirk, Charles L. Rice, Marc Schieber, J. Andrew Pruszynski, Naveed Ejaz, Jörn Diedrichsen

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Copyright © 2020 the authors How is the primary motor cortex (M1) organized to control fine finger movements? We investigated the population activity in M1 for single finger flexion and extension, using 7T functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in female and male human participants and compared these results to the neural spiking patterns recorded in two male monkeys performing the identical task. fMRI activity patterns were distinct for movements of different fingers, but were quite similar for flexion and extension of the same finger. In contrast, spiking patterns in monkeys were quite distinct for both fingers and directions, which is …

Cortico-Subcortical Functional Connectivity Profiles Of Resting-State Networks In Marmosets And Humans, Yuki Hori, David J. Schaeffer, Atsushi Yoshida, Justine C. Cléry, Lauren K. Hayrynen, Joseph S. Gati, Ravi S. Menon, Stefan Everling

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Copyright © 2020 the authors Understanding the similarity of cortico-subcortical networks topologies between humans and nonhuman primate species is critical to study the origin of network alternations underlying human neurologic and neuropsychiatric diseases. The New World common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) has become popular as a nonhuman primate model for human brain function. Most marmoset connectomic research, however, has exclusively focused on cortical areas, with connectivity to subcortical networks less extensively explored. Here, we aimed to first isolate patterns of subcortical connectivity with cortical resting-state networks in awake marmosets using resting-state fMRI, then to compare these networks with those in humans …

Making Sense Of Online Public Health Debates With Visual Analytics Systems, Anton Ninkov

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Online debates occur frequently and on a wide variety of topics. Particularly, online debates about various public health topics (e.g., vaccines, statins, cannabis, dieting plans) are prevalent in today’s society. These debates are important because of the real-world implications they can have on public health. Therefore, it is important for public health stakeholders (i.e., those with a vested interest in public health) and the general public to have the ability to make sense of these debates quickly and effectively. This dissertation investigates ways of enabling sense-making of these debates with the use of visual analytics systems (VASes). VASes are computational …

The Use Of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Based Photogrammetric Point Cloud Data For Winter Wheat Intra-Field Variable Retrieval And Yield Estimation In Southwestern Ontario, Yang Song

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Precision agriculture uses high spatial and temporal resolution soil and crop information to control the crop intra-field variability to achieve optimal economic benefit and environmental resources sustainable development. As a new imagery collection platform between airborne and ground measurements, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is used to collect high spatial resolution images at a user selected period for precision agriculture. Most studies extract crop parameters from the UAV-based orthomosaic imagery using spectral methods derived from the satellite and airborne based remote sensing. The new dataset, photogrammetric point cloud data (PCD), generated from the Structure from Motion (SfM) methods using the UAV-based …

Adding Data-Driven Modelling To Causal Inference And Financial Economics, Sha Wang

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

My thesis, which consists of three chapters, aims to either adapt ML to solve important questions in financial markets, or apply state-of-the art ML methodologies that specifically target on economic causal inference problems. The first chapter is adapted from a paper co-authored with Lars Stentoft and published on the Journal of Portfolio Management in 2019. We modified a ML model in order to develop a portfolio tracking strategy that solves a pain point for investors. Many investors try to replicate the performance of certain financial instrument, such as a hedge fund strategy return index for its desirable risk-return profile. However, …

The Neural Basis Of Metacognitive Monitoring During Arithmetic In The Developing Brain, Elien Bellon, Wim Fias, Daniel Ansari, Bert De Smedt

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

In contrast to a substantial body of research on the neural basis of cognitive performance in several academic domains, less is known about how the brain generates metacognitive (MC) awareness of such performance. The existing work on the neurobiological underpinnings of metacognition has almost exclusively been done in adults and has largely focused on lower level cognitive processing domains, such as perceptual decision-making. Extending this body of evidence, we investigated MC monitoring by asking children to solve arithmetic problems, an educationally relevant higher-order process, while providing concurrent MC reports during fMRI acquisition. Results are reported on 50 primary school children …

The Language Vitality Of Nahuatl In Santiago Tlaxco, Mexico, Grace Gomashie

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis assesses the language vitality of Nahuatl (also known as Mexicano) in Santiago Tlaxco, a rural bilingual community in the municipality of Chiconcuautla, located in Puebla, Mexico, in the face of the growing trend of language endangerment for many Indigenous languages. It explores the linguistic use and attitudes of community members, and how they contribute to language maintenance and language shift of Nahuatl. The main research questions are: a) what are the language use patterns of the community? and b) what are the prevailing language attitudes of this Nahuatl-speaking community towards its Indigenous language? Data on the language practices …

Treasure Amongst The Ruins: The Policy And Practices Of Adaptive Reuse Of Urban Industrial Buildings In Ontario, Marcello Vecchio

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The practice of adaptive reuse is a unique concept of city building, where demolition and traditional brownfield redevelopment have been common practice. Though an already established method, adaptive reuse is becoming increasingly popular due to a greater intensity to protect heritage, reuse materials and structures, and offer unique architectural spaces. To achieve this, there must be sufficient policy in place to incentivize and mitigate the increase cost and risk which are usually associated with this type of development. This thesis combines a province-wide content analysis of Official Plans in Ontario’s 51 cities, with a more in-depth case study investigation on …

The Psychosocial Functioning Of Children With Chronic Health Conditions: A Meta-Analysis, Serena Thompson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Chronic health conditions are highly prevalent among childhood populations and lead to restrictions in everyday life. Previous research indicates that children and youth with a chronic health condition are at an elevated risk of psychosocial difficulties, including mental illness and social exclusion, compared to typically developing populations. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the impact of chronic health conditions on psychosocial factors during childhood by comparing the psychosocial functioning of children with chronic health conditions and children without chronic illnesses using a meta-analysis. Specifically, three elements of psychosocial functioning were examined, (a) social-emotional functioning, (b) behavioural functioning, …

Making The World A Better Place: How Crowdfunding Increases Consumer Demand For Social-Good Products, Bonnie Simpson, Martin Schreier, Sally Bitterl, Katherine White

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

Crowdfunding has emerged as an alternative means of financing new ventures wherein a large number of individuals collectively back a project. This research specifically looks at reward based crowdfunding, where those who take part in the crowdfunding process receive the new product for which funding is sought in return for their financial support. This work illustrates that consumers make fundamentally different decisions when considering contributing their money to crowdfund versus purchase a product. Six studies demonstrate that compared to a traditional purchase, crowdfunding more strongly activates an interdependent mindset and, as a result, increases consumer demand for social-good products (i.e., …

Who Are We Missing? The Impact Of Requiring Parental Or Guardian Consent On Research With Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Two-Spirit, Queer/Questioning Youth., Eli Cwinn, Courtney Cadieux, Claire V Crooks

Education Publications

PURPOSE: The purpose was to examine whether a requirement for parental or guardian consent systematically limits which lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, two-spirit, queer/questioning (LGBT2Q+) youth participate in research.

METHODS: A total of 60 LGBT2Q+ youth (aged 14-18 years) completed measures assessing gender and sexual minority identity, depression and anxiety, help-seeking intentions, and social support.

RESULTS: A substantial proportion (37.6%) of youth reported that they would not have participated in the research if parental or guardian consent was required. Those who would not have participated had more negative attitudes about their sexual and gender identity, less family support, lower levels of …

Toward A Fluid Cinematic Spectatorship And Desire: Revisiting Laura Mulvey’S Psychoanalytic Film Theories, Taylor Ashton Mcgoey

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis project re-evaluates Laura Mulvey’s film theories regarding psychoanalysis and the “male gaze,” first found in her essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” (1975). By re-evaluating the limitations of Mulvey’s use of the Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalytic model this project seeks to understand the desires and processes of identification of cinematic spectators who reject the ideological imperative of the “male gaze”. As many critics have noted, Mulvey’s initial examination of cinema does not account for LGBTQ+ spectators and/or black spectators who occupy looking relations that reject cis-normative and heteronormative white Hollywood cinematic conventions. From this standpoint, we begin the …

Hiv Vulnerability And Resilience Among Heterosexual African, Caribbean And Black Men In London Ontario, Canada, Roger Antabe

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Since Canada’s first HIV diagnosis in 1981, prevalence rates have remained below endemic levels. This, however, tends to mask realities of HIV infection among sub-populations like heterosexual men of African, Caribbean, and Black (ACB) descent, who experience increased risk of infection compared to other groups. Research to unpack ACB men’s vulnerability to HIV has prioritized behavioral risk factors, including the endorsement of traditional masculinity, partner concurrency, condomless sex, and poor use of preventive health services. As such, recommendations from these studies have centered on behavioral changes, which understate the role of structural risk factors in ACB men’s HIV vulnerability. Furthermore, …

The Effects Of Race And Gender On Income And Workplace Position Of Professional Engineers In Ontario: Can Homophily Preferences Help Explain Barriers?, Jayzer E. Flores

MA Research Paper

Canada has an extensive history of anti-discrimination legislation to reduce inequality for minority groups, yet, they continue to experience disadvantage. Recent literature has suggested that barriers for minority groups into and within work persists in part because of subtle processes like homophily as individuals develop a preference for similar others. Studies of professions are important because previous studies suggest homophily preferences along dimensions of race and gender are high within professions, contributing to widening inequalities. Engineering provides an excellent case for analysis of homophily within professions, since Statistics Canada data suggests that engineering is among the most common professions for …

Social Isolation: Do Helpers Help Ward It Off?, Kirsten Young Brown

MA Research Paper

Social isolation is particularly relevant among elderly individuals who are more likely to need care and help with their physical and living needs. Little is known about whether receiving help correlates with social isolation in older adults living at home as often there is no focus from caregivers and helpers on older adults' social needs. Using data from the 2018 US National Health and Aging Trends Study, a sample of adults aged 65 plus on Medicare/Medicaid (N=4,321), I examine the relationship between social isolation and help. I estimate ordinary least squares regression models to test the association between receiving help …

The Mental Health Culture In Hockey: A Scoping Review, Lauren Dormer

MA Research Paper

In any major Canadian city, one can find hockey arenas, outdoor rinks, or a Tim Horton coffee shop on every corner. Between September and April, many Canadians will adorn their favourite players jersey or their favourite teams toque, exuding team pride, further strengthening the idea that Canadian culture is entangled within the world of hockey.

Due to hockey’s role within Canadian identity, this study conducted a scoping literature review in order to conceptualize what we know of mental health within hockey literature. There were three overarching research questions that guided this study: 1) How is mental health defined, measured, or …

Disability And Health Outcomes Of Eastern European Immigrants To The United States, Ina Palii

MA Research Paper

Eastern European immigrants are one of the largest groups of immigrants in the United States. However, little is known about their health outcomes after arrival to the US. This study addresses the importance of differentiating Eastern European immigrants as a distinct category of immigrants with health outcomes that may differ from those born in the US, or other immigrants. This study examined the health of Eastern European immigrants in the United States, by focusing on three measures of disability – ambulatory, independent living, and self-care difficulties – and comparing them to US-born Whites and to other immigrants. The study uses …

Assessing The Impact Of Denizenship In The Making And Evaluation Of Temporary Foreign Worker Policies In Canada, Sihwa Kim

MA Research Paper

Despite the larger number of temporary foreign workers (TFWs) that are channelled through a long-standing Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), their experience with the program and, more broadly, within the Canadian society has been overlooked.

This study examines the ways in which a denizen status coupled with other social factors, such as race and amount of human capital, create marginalizing migratory experience for low-skilled TFWs in Canada. As denizens, these migrant workers are isolated in the geographical, economic, political, and social periphery of Canadian society. The longstanding inequality embedded in the structure of TFWP legitimizes differential entitlements and experiences of …

Personality Traits And Transition To First Marriage, Sumangala Sasudevan

MA Research Paper

Context: During the search for a potential partner, individuals emphasize personality as a key factor. The Big Five personality types (Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness) have been commonly used in social psychology literature to analyse personality types in relation to marital satisfaction and relationship outcomes (Botwin, Buss and Shakelford 1997; Holland & Roisman 2008). Objectives: The purpose of this study is to 1) analyse the relationships between the big five personality types and the transition into first marriage; and 2) explore how childhood socioeconomic status moderates the relationship between childhood personality types to first marriage. Data and Methods: I …

The Impacts Of Housing Affordability On Immigrant Household Formation And Homeownership, Wanyun Cheng

MA Research Paper

Rising housing costs, in terms of both rent and ownership costs, have been posing challenges to the Canadian population in forming independent households and attaining homeownership, especially to immigrants who had lower homeownership rates since the 1980s. This paper investigates the impacts of housing affordability and the three elements of the housing pathways framework - economic resources, family composition, and cultural variations - on household formation and homeownership differences between the Canadian-born and five racialized immigrant groups. Using the Public Use Census data and the “double cohort” analytical approach, the study also assesses their housing progress from 2006 to 2016. …

In #Flatearth We Trust: The Danger Of The Self-Representation Of Flat Earthers On Twitter, Lauren Gomes

MA Research Paper

The Flat Earth movement has gained substantial online publicity over the last few years as demands for the ‘truth’ in an era of post-truth are increasingly centered on anti-government and anti-expert regulations of knowledge. More individuals are self-identifying as Flat Earthers, or those who believe the earth is flat, on social media applications, such as Twitter. Flat Earthers self-represent on their Twitter accounts as ‘truth seekers’ or uncorrupted by knowledge authorities endorsed by the government, but in representing themselves this way, they mislead the public and further aggravate the public mistrust of the government, experts, and science. Flat Earthers claim …

Ground Warming Leads To Changes In Carbon Cycling In Northern Fen Peatlands: Implications For Carbon Storage, Ericka James

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Northern peatlands store one third of the world’s soil carbon (C), as they remove more C from the atmosphere via photosynthesis than they release to the atmosphere through ecosystem respiration and methane (CH₄) production. Climate change threatens this function by stimulating C release from peatland stores as peat temperatures warm and soil moisture is reduced. Ground heating of +4 °C above ambient peat temperatures was initiated in a Sphagnum moss-dominated, nutrient poor fen and a Carex sedge-dominated, intermediate nutrient fen. Over one growing season, Carex fen heated plots had increases in photosynthesis (+23%), ecosystem respiration (+22%), and CH …

Indigenous Land Claims And Reconciliation: The Importance Of Land And Relationship Between Indigenous Nations And The Government Of Canada, Joy S. Spear Chief-Morris

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis discusses whether Indigenous land claims settlements signal reconciliation between Indigenous nations and the Government of Canada. Using Indigenous methodologies, anti-oppressional and intersectional lenses, and process tracing, it argues that land claim settlements do not signal reconciliation of the Indigenous-Canadian relationship. This is because the modern land claims settlement process exists as a reiteration of the colonial policies and institutions that proceeded it. It examines the historical treaty process, case law on Aboriginal rights and title, existing documents, and statutes that protect and promote Indigenous sovereignty and nationhood. Lastly, it examines the 2015 Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission as …