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Collaborative Work Environments: Development And Sustainability, Christy L. Thompson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation examines how elementary principals develop collaborative work environments. Specifically, it explores how principals understand collaborative work, examines the strategies principals employ to encourage such an environment, the supports principals use when developing collaborative work environments and the challenges principals experience when trying to create one in his or her school. The study was conducted using a qualitative research design and an interpretivist approach was used to frame the research. Eleven elementary principals were interviewed for this study. The interviews were semi-structured and ranged in length from 45-60 minutes.

Findings included an important emphasis on positive relationship building amongst …

Understanding Views Of Evidence In Public Health Practice And Decision Making In Ontario, Sara Masood

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Background: Perceptions of evidence by public health managers, practitioners and policy makers is one of the key determinants of evidence uptake. Therefore, understanding views of evidence in both practice and policy decision making is important to bridge the evidence-practice and policy gap in public health. Objectives & Methods: Two studies are presented in this thesis. The first is a systematic review synthesizing studies exploring the use of research evidence in public health decision making between 2010-2016. The second study is a qualitative descriptive study examining understandings about evidence in Ontario public health units by comparing perspectives from managers and frontline …

Testing Tensions: The Use Of English Language Proficiency Tests For The Admission Of Ontario High School Applicants To One Ontario University, Samia Lahib

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In today’s globalized world, students have the opportunity to apply to universities around the world. At most universities where the dominant language of instruction is English, applicants whose first language is not English have to prove their English language proficiency by submitting test scores such as the internet-based Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL iBT) or the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) as part of the application process. This study investigated the ability of TOEFL iBT and IELTS to identify applicants with sufficient English language proficiency to succeed academically during undergraduate study at one Ontario university between …

Environmental Heat And Acute Kidney Injury In Older Adults: A Matched Case-Control Study, Rebecca K. Mctavish

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This matched case-control study examined the association between environmental heat exposure and hospital encounters with acute kidney injury (AKI) among adults, 66 years and older, in the province of Ontario, Canada. We matched 52,913 cases who had an AKI event during the warm seasons (April to September) of 2005 to 2012 with 174,222 controls who did not have an AKI event. We matched cases to controls on date, age, sex, residential status, income, and history of chronic kidney disease using a variable one to four matching ratio. We classified heat periods as three consecutive days where the 95th percentile of …

Beyond Burnout: Educators' Experiences Of Mental Health Issues, And Stigma In The Workplace, Jenny Kassen

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study examines Ontario teachers’ experiences of mental issues (MHI) and identity management in the workplace. Although numerous local and national initiatives exist to help raise awareness, decrease stigma, and assist teachers in supporting students with MHI, there appears to be an absence of literature that focuses on teachers' personal experiences with MHI and stigma in their professional environment. Two theoretical frameworks, Framework Integrating Normative Influences on Stigma (FINIS) (Pescosolido, Martin, Lang, & Olafsdottir, 2008), and Jones and King’s (2014) Managing stigmatized identities in the workplace, provide a lens for making meaning of the experiences of the participants. A …

Femininity And Higher Education: Women At Ontario Universities, 1890 To 1920, Marilla Mccargar

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation examines the experiences of women studying at six institutions of higher education from 1890 to 1920. The universities include Queen’s University in Kingston, The University of Western Ontario in London, the University of Toronto and its affiliates Victoria University, University College, and Trinity College in Toronto. While pioneering women who attended universities in the 1880s were opposed by people who believed a belief that women’s intellects were inferior to men’s, women in this study faced the belief that by engaging in the “masculine” pursuit of higher education they risked their future as wives and mothers and thus jeopardized …

Cost-Effectiveness Of Bevacizumab Concomitant With The Standard Of Therapy For Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma, Aren Fischer

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM), a glioma – cancer of the brain’s glial cells – is the most common and deadly malignant primary central nervous system tumor in developed countries. Two recently completed clinical trials investigating the use of bevacizumab (BEV), a monoclonal antibody, to treat newly diagnosed GBM concomitant with the standard-of-care (SOC) showed mixed survival and quality of life outcomes. In this study, a cost utility study was conducted to investigate if BEV should be used to treat newly diagnosed GBM. A three stage time-dependent Markov model was built using survival estimates from the two clinical trials, costs from Ontario …

Stable Isotope Paleolimnology Of Barry Lake, Ontario, Canada Since Ad - 1268, Zijun Liu

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The paleolimnology of Barry Lake, SE Ontario, Canada is described using mineralogy, magnetic susceptibility, carbon:nitrogen ratio, mass accumulation rates, grain-size, δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C of authigenic calcite and mollusc aragonite, δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N of organic matter, and archival records. These sediments span the Medieval Warm Period (MWP), Little Ice Age (LIA), and human settlement. Interval I proxies (AD 1268-1350, MWP) indicate warmer and drier conditions and elevated lacustrine production. Interval II (AD 1350-1615) was cooler and wetter, with lower lacustrine production and low-oxygen conditions causing loss of shelly fauna. Interval III (AD 1615-1850, …