Digital Commons Network^™

Aboriginal Interpretation In Australian Wildlife Tourism, Heather Zeppel, Sue Muloin

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

This paper evaluates Aboriginal cultural interpretation at wildlife attractions and on wildlife tours in Australia. The sites included 14 wildlife parks or zoos; three Aboriginal owned emu or crocodile farms; and 16 wildlife tours, river cruises or resorts with Indigenous interpretation of wildlife. Telephone interviews were conducted with 35 manage (nine Indigenous) and 26 Indigenous staff at wildlife attractions that included verbal or written Aboriginal wildlife interpretation. The Indigenous guides verbally presented both traditional uses and personal stories about Australian wildlife followed by Aboriginal 'Dreaming' or creation stories about totemic animal species. Non-Indigenous staff explained traditional Aboriginal uses of wildlife …

Silole Based Acetylenes As Advanced Π-Conjugated Systems For Optoelectronic Applications, Brian Pagenkopf, Mahmoud M. Abd Rabo Moustafa

Chemistry Publications

Nonlinear optical (NLO) and electro-optical (EO) properties of π-conjugated systems have been the subject of intense interest during the past several decades. In this mini-review we focus on semiconducting materials based on alkyne π-conjugation, with particular emphasis on those examples from our laboratory of chromophores containing a silole core. Several closely related examples from the literature are also discussed.

Scan-Rescan And Intra-Observer Variability Of Magnetic Resonance Imaging Of Carotid Atherosclerosis At 1.5 T And 3.0 T, Arvin Vidal, Yves Bureau, Trevor Wade, J David Spence, Brian K Rutt, Aaron Fenster, Grace Parraga

Medical Biophysics Publications

Carotid atherosclerosis measurements for eight subjects at baseline and 14 +/- 2 days later were examined using 1.5 T and 3.0 T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). A single observer blinded to field strength, subject and timepoint manually segmented carotid artery wall and lumen boundaries in randomized images in five measurement trials. Mean increases in the signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) for T1-weighted images acquired at 3.0 T compared to 1.5 T were 90% (scan) and 80% (rescan). Despite significantly improved SNR and contrast-to-noise ratios (CNR) for images acquired at 3.0 T, vessel wall volume (VWV) intra-observer variability was not significantly different using …

Calibrating Function Point Backfiring Conversion Ratios Using Neuro-Fuzzy Technique, Justin Wong, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Danny Ho

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Software estimation is an important aspect in software development projects because poor estimations can lead to late delivery, cost overruns, and possibly project failure. Backfiring is a popular technique for sizing and predicting the volume of source code by converting the function point metric into source lines of code mathematically using conversion ratios. While this technique is popular and useful, there is a high margin of error in backfiring. This research introduces a new method to reduce that margin of error. Neural networks and fuzzy logic in software prediction models have been demonstrated in the past to have improved performance …

Peer Effects And The Indigenous/ Non‐Indigenous Early Test‐Score Gap In Peru, Chris Sakellariou

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

This paper assesses the magnitude of the non-indigenous/indigenous test-score gap for third-year and fourth-year primary school pupils in Peru, in relation to the main family, school and peer inputs contributing to the test-score gap using the estimation method of feasible generalized least squares. The article then decomposes the gap into its constituent components using the traditional Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition method, as well as a modified decomposition method based on the estimation of a cognitive achievement production function. The decomposition results from both decomposition methods suggest that almost all of the test-score gap is explained by various peer, student, family and school …

Editor's Notes And Front Matter, Suzanne Majhanovich

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

No abstract provided.

Globalization And Post-Secondary Education Policy In Canada:A Review Of Trends, Dale Kirby

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

In 2005, provincial governments in Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador each commissioned comprehensive public post-secondary education and training system reviews. While there are considerable differences between the systems and policy approaches in these jurisdictions, the final reports of each of these reviews provide an interesting repository of current post-secondary policy tendencies in Canada. The principal arguments and recommendations put forward in the review reports demonstrate the pervasive influence of economic globalization and the continuing shift to a more utilitarian and market-oriented ideological outlook on post-secondary education’s raison d'être. The policies advocated by both reviews illustrate, to varying extents, the impact …

Negotiating Tensions And Roles In International Development: A Workshop For Graduate Students, Jennifer Hales

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

This paper presents the findings from a qualitative research study involving graduate students who are studying or working in international development. The students participated in an activity-based workshop during which they reflected on and discussed their tensions and concerns about the nature of international development and their roles and positions in this work. Tensions ranged from those on a personal level, where students questioned their individual privilege and power in international development, to those on a structural level, where students questioned the overall nature of development practices.

The workshop activities, designed by the author and based on a global education …

Operating Under Erasure: Race/Language/Identity, Awad Ibrahim

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

Based on a critical ethnographic research project, this paper is about the impact of becoming Black on ESL learning; that is, the interrelation between identity formation, identification, race, culture and second language learning. It contends that a group of French-speaking immigrant and refugee continental francophone African youths who are attending an urban Franco-Ontarian high school in south- western Ontario, Canada, enters, so to speak, a social imaginary, a discursive space in which they are already imagined, constructed, and thus treated as Blacks by hegemonic discourses and groups. This imaginary is directly implicated in whom they identify with (Black America), which …

Consistency Check Of Planned Adaptive Option On Helical Tomotherapy., M Schirm, S Yartsev, G Bauman, Jerry J. Battista Dr., Jacob Van Dyk

Oncology Publications

This study aims to evaluate a new Planned Adaptive software (TomoTherapy Inc., Madison, WI) of the helical tomotherapy system by retrospective verification and adaptive re-planning of radiation treatment. Four patients with different disease sites (brain, nasal cavity, lungs, prostate) were planned in duplicate using the diagnostic planning kVCT data set and MVCT studies of the first treatment fraction with the same optimization parameters for both plan types. The dosimetric characteristics of minimum, maximum, and mean dose to the targets as well as to organs at risk were compared. Both sets of plans were used for calculation of dose distributions in …

Decentralized Administrations And Decision-Making & Effective Policy Implementation: A Study Of Agricultural Severance In Southwestern Ontario 2001 To 2007, Paul Hicks

MPA Major Research Papers

This paper examines agricultural severance activity, specifically lot creation in agriculturally designated land, in Southwestern Ontario between 2001 and 2007. Data on the number of lots created in agriculturally designated areas in 10 rural municipalities was collected and compared to information on the planning and decision-making structures of the municipalities. The findings reveal that there is a relationship between decentralized administrative and decision-making bodies and the granting of agricultural severances.

Female Participation In The Police Promotion Process: Are Women Competing For Promotion In Numbers Proportionate To Their Statistical Representation In Policing?, Brent Shea

MPA Major Research Papers

This paper examines the participation rate and success of female officers in the police promotion process viewed within the theoretical context of organizational culture, systemic discrimination, and the pipeline and glass ceiling theories. A survey of female officers employed with the Ontario Police Services between 2000 and 2007 was conducted. The findings reveal that although the challenges and obstacles faced by women have not disappeared, encouraging progress has been made. For both the sergeant and staff sergeant ranks, women are seeking promotion in proportions that exceed the historic and weighted seniority requirements associated with police promotions that previously required pre-determined …

Genomic Rna Profiling And The Programme Controlling Preimplantation Mammalian Development., Christine E Bell, Michele D Calder, Andrew J Watson

Obstetrics & Gynaecology Publications

Preimplantation development shifts from a maternal to embryonic programme rapidly after fertilization. Although the majority of oogenetic products are lost during the maternal to embryonic transition (MET), several do survive this interval to contribute directly to supporting preimplantation development. Embryonic genome activation (EGA) is characterized by the transient expression of several genes that are necessary for MET, and while EGA represents the first major wave of gene expression, a second mid-preimplantation wave of transcription that supports development to the blastocyst stage has been discovered. The application of genomic approaches has greatly assisted in the discovery of stage specific gene expression …

The Proton-Translocating A Subunit Of F0f1-Atp Synthase Is Allocated Asymmetrically To The Peripheral Stalk., Monika G Düser, Yumin Bi, Nawid Zarrabi, Stanley D Dunn, Michael Börsch

Biochemistry Publications

The position of the a subunit of the membrane-integral F0 sector of Escherichia coli ATP synthase was investigated by single molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer studies utilizing a fusion of enhanced green fluorescent protein to the C terminus of the a subunit and fluorescent labels attached to specific positions of the epsilon or gamma subunits. Three fluorescence resonance energy transfer levels were observed during rotation driven by ATP hydrolysis corresponding to the three resting positions of the rotor subunits, gamma or epsilon, relative to the a subunit of the stator. Comparison of these positions of the rotor sites with those …

Choosing "Canadian" Ethnic Origin: Trends And Implications, Sharon M. Lee

Migration and Ethnic Relations Colloquium Series

No abstract provided.

Domain Compliance And Elastic Power Transmission In Rotary F(O)F(1)-Atpase., Hendrik Sielaff, Henning Rennekamp, André Wächter, Hao Xie, Florian Hilbers, Katrin Feldbauer, Stanley D Dunn, Siegfried Engelbrecht, Wolfgang Junge

Biochemistry Publications

The 2 nanomotors of rotary ATP synthase, ionmotive F(O) and chemically active F(1), are mechanically coupled by a central rotor and an eccentric bearing. Both motors rotate, with 3 steps in F(1) and 10-15 in F(O). Simulation by statistical mechanics has revealed that an elastic power transmission is required for a high rate of coupled turnover. Here, we investigate the distribution in the F(O)F(1) structure of compliant and stiff domains. The compliance of certain domains was restricted by engineered disulfide bridges between rotor and stator, and the torsional stiffness (kappa) of unrestricted domains was determined by analyzing their thermal rotary …

Synthesis And First X-Ray Structures Of Cobalt(Ii) And Cobalt(Iii) Complexes Bearing 2,4-Dioxo-Alkanoic Acid Dialkylamide Ligands, Brian Pagenkopf, Jian Wang, Nicholas A. Morra, Hongda Zhao, Vincent Lynch, Robert Mcdonald, John F. Reichwein

Chemistry Publications

The aerobic oxidation of 5-hydroxy pentenes to trans-tetrahydrofurans (THFs), the Mukaiyama oxidation, has in recent years emerged as a powerful tool in synthetic chemistry. In this report we describe the first crystal structures of 2,4-dioxo-alkanoic acid dialkylamide complexes for both Co(II) and Co(III) salts. The Co(II) structures show an unprecedented arrangement of atoms, with a central Co(II)(H₂O)₆ flanked by two Co(II) atoms each coordinated with three anionic chelating ligands. The dimeric Co(III) structures show two anionic chelating ligands and bridging hydroxyl groups.

Does Socioeconomic Context Influence The Health Of Canada’S First Nations Population?, Nicholas Spence

RDC@Western Research Highlights

No abstract provided.

On Cross-Cultural Interpretations Of Aboriginal Art, Darren Jorgensen

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

This paper critiques three schools of international art scholarship and their relevance to Australian Aboriginal art from remote communities. These schools are primitivism, histories of ornament and aesthetic theory. This is with a view to looking beyond accounts of Aboriginal art as representational, and toward a cross-cultural and sensual account of its practice. While primitivism influenced the scholarship on high art, histories of ornament and aesthetic theory offer new approaches to this art, and new ways of thinking about Aboriginal painting. The paper partly argues that the extensive influence of primitivism has prevented these latter areas of study in having …

Referral In The Wake Of Conscientious Objection To Abortion, Carolyn Mcleod

Philosophy Publications

Currently, the preferred accommodation for conscientious objection to abortion in medicine is to allow the objector to refuse to accede to the patient's request so long as the objector refers the patient to a physician who performs abortions. The referral part of this arrangement is controversial, however. Pro-life advocates claim that referrals make objectors complicit in the performance of acts that they, the objectors, find morally offensive. McLeod argues that the referral requirement is justifiable, although not in the way that people usually assume.

Tethering Polypeptides Through Bifunctional Peg Cross-Linking Agents To Probe Protein Function: Application To Atp Synthase., Daniel J Cipriano, Stanley D Dunn

Biochemistry Publications

Chemical crosslinking mediated by short bifunctional reagents has been widely used for determining physical relationships among polypeptides in multisubunit proteins, but less often for functional studies. Here we introduce the approach of tethering polypeptides by using bifunctional reagents containing a lengthy, flexible PEG linker as a form of crosslinking especially suited to functional analyses. The rotary molecular motor ATP synthase was used as a model subject. Single cysteine residues were introduced into selected positions of ATP synthase epsilon subunit, a component of the rotor subcomplex of the enzyme, and the unrelated maltose binding protein (MBP), then the two purified recombinant …

Examining The Role Of Early Life Social Conditions On Adult Mortality Through Historical Record Linkage: Implications For Contemporary Public Policy, Nora Bohnert, Alain Gagnon

PSC Discussion Papers Series

This study examines the effect of early life conditions on adult mortality. The individual, household and community details of children residing in Quebec in 1901 are linked to their subsequent ages at death in late adulthood using the 1901 Canadian Census and Quebec death registers. Preliminary results of logistic regression and Cox proportional hazards regression analyses indicate that childhood poverty status is not significantly associated with risk of death after age forty. Sex, birth cohort, parental literacy status, farm status and number of siblings in the childhood household are found to significantly effect mortality after age 40. Gender differentials in …

Interface Of Cannabis And Early Psychosis--Priorities In Research And Service Development, Amresh Srivastava

Psychiatry Presentations

Introduction: cannabis continues to affect mental health. Its abuse is on rise globally. In Canada a rise by 30% in last ten years has been observed in high school students. Interrelationship of cannabis with psychosis and schizophrenia is a complex one. Cannabis is highly comorbid with psychosis, & related to functional disability and outcome. It poses several challenges in understanding causal relationship for comorbidity, underlying neurochemical basis and specifics of service development. Prevalence of Cannabis varies from 20 to 50% early psychosis. Objective of this paper is to review available literature to identify challenges for newer targets of research and …

Cannabis & Psychosis: The Interface Emerging Frontiers For Research, Amresh Shrivastava

Psychiatry Presentations

INTRODUCTION: CANNABIS CONTINUES TO AFFECT MENTAL HEALTH. ITS ABUSE IS ON RISE GLOBALLY. IN CANADA A RISE BY 30% IN LAST TEN YEARS HAS BEEN OBSERVED IN HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS. INTERRELATIONSHIP OF CANNABIS WITH PSYCHOSIS AND SCHIZOPHRENIA IS A COMPLEX ONE. CANNABIS IS HIGHLY COMORBID WITH PSYCHOSIS, & RELATED TO FUNCTIONAL DISABILITY AND OUTCOME. IT POSES SEVERAL CHALLENGES IN UNDERSTANDING CAUSAL RELATIONSHIP FOR COMORBIDITY, UNDERLYING NEUROCHEMICAL BASIS AND SPECIFICS OF SERVICE DEVELOPMENT. PREVALENCE OF CANNABIS VARIES FROM 20 TO 50% EARLY PSYCHOSIS. OBJECTIVE OF THIS PAPER IS TO REVIEW AVAILABLE LITERATURE TO IDENTIFY CHALLENGES FOR NEWER TARGETS OF RESEARCH AND …

From Migrant Surveys To Migrants’ Stories: Reflections On Research On And In Southern Africa, Belinda Dodson

Migration and Ethnic Relations Colloquium Series

No abstract provided.

A 'Strategic' Way To Vote 'Smart', Joanna Santa-Barbara, Erika Simpson

Political Science Publications

No abstract provided.

Moving South For Better Paid Jobs? The Experience Of The 2000 Cohort Of University Graduates, David Zarifa, David Walters

RDC@Western Research Highlights

No abstract provided.

Differential Characteristics Of “Good Outcome Schizophrenia” In A Long-Term Ten Years Study, Mumbai, India, Amresh Srivastava, Meghan Thakar, Nilesh Shah, Larry Stitt

Psychiatry Presentations

No abstract provided.

Coping With Clinical Challenges Of Risk Assessment: Towards A New Comprehensive Instrument, Amresh Srivastava, Charles Nelson

Psychiatry Presentations

No abstract provided.

Is There A Trade-Off Between Fertility And Longevity? A Comparative Study Of Three Large Historical Demographic Databases Accounting For Mortality Selection, Alain Gagnon, Ken R. Smith, Marc Tremblay, Hélène Vézina, Paul-Philippe Paré, Bertrand Desjardins

PSC Discussion Papers Series

Frontier populations provide exceptional opportunities to test the hypothesis of a trade‐off between fertility and longevity. In such populations, mechanisms favoring reproduction usually find fertile ground, and if these mechanisms reduce the chances for survival in old age, demographers should observe higher post‐reproductive mortality rates among highly fertile women. We test this hypothesis using complete female reproductive histories from three large demographic databases: the Registre de la population du Québec ancien (Université de Montréal), which covers the first centuries of settlement in Quebec; the BALSAC database (Université du Québec à Chicoutimi), including comprehensive records for the region of Saguenay‐Lac‐St‐Jean (SLSJ) …