Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Parenting At Midnight: Measuring Parents' Thoughts And Strategies To Help Young Children Sleep Through The Night, Aimee J. Coulombe

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Throughout the night, brief periods of arousal are common and not necessarily indicative of problematic sleep. Awakening without an easy return to sleep (“night-waking”), however, can be problematic for parents and children alike. Approximately 30% of preschool-aged children wake at least once per night and require parental intervention (“help or assistance”). Although parents’ responses to children’s night-waking (i.e., parents’ night-waking strategies) can determine the course of night-waking over time, very little is known about night-waking strategy use among parents of preschool-aged children. The purpose of the present dissertation was to lay the foundation upon which a better understanding of the …

Cross-Sectional Morphology And Mechanical Loading In Plio-Pleistocene Hominins: Implications For Locomotion And Taxonomy, Michele M. Bleuze Ms.

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study explores locomotion and locomotor variability in Plio-Pleistocene hominins by examining cross-sectional properties and mechanical loading patterns in the proximal and midshaft femur of Paranthropus, fossil Homo sp. and H. erectus. Modern human and Pan models are used for comparative purposes. Cross-sectional properties in the proximal and midshaft femur of fossil hominins are examined to test the hypothesis that members of the same genus should exhibit similar locomotor behavior. In the proximal femur, fossil Homo sp. cluster with modern humans to the exclusion of Paranthropus, and East and South African Paranthropus cluster together. Group differences are primarily due to …

The Evolution Of The Retail Landscape, Mathew Novak

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

If the city is a theatre of social interaction (Mumford 1996), then one of the principle stage sets is the retail landscape. Retail districts are generally where people congregate, making places of shopping among the liveliest areas the city. In addition to being social settings, retail areas are also where a large component of the city’s economy is transacted, and they are implicated in the political dramas of the city, particularly those dealing with issues of growth and development. Retail shops are highly visible elements of the urban landscape, lining principle arteries and clustering at major transit nodes. Retailing is …

Social Determinants Of Mental Health And Well-Being Among Aboriginal Peoples In Canada, Susan Wingert

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The articles in this volume address the question: How do social determinants structure the health and well-being of the Aboriginal population in Canada? The first article uses bivariate statistical tests to assess whether First Nations residents’ subjective assessments of personal and community well-being correspond to scores from the Community Well-Being (CWB) Index, which is a measure of socioeconomic conditions in the community. The second article uses path analysis to test the extent to which the stress process model explains the social distribution of psychological distress and well-being in the off-reserve Aboriginal population. Specifically, it investigates whether stress, mastery, and social …

Prospective Evaluation Of A Cognitive Vulnerability-Stress Model For Depression: The Interaction Of Schema Self-Structures And Negative Life Events., Pamela M Seeds, David J A Dozois

Psychology Publications

This study tested the diathesis-stress component of Beck's (1967) cognitive theory of depression. Initially, participants completed measures assessing cognitive organization of the self-schema and depressive symptoms. One year later, participants completed measures assessing cognitive organization of the self-schema, depressive symptoms, and negative life events. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses, controlling for initial depression, indicated that more tightly interconnected negative content was associated with greater elevations in depressive symptoms following the occurrence of life events. More diffusely interconnected positive content for interpersonal self-referent information also interacted with life events to predict depressive symptoms. Cognitive organization dimensions showed moderate to high stability across …

Mobilizing User-Generated Content For Canada’S Digital Advantage, Samuel E. Trosow, Jacquelyn Burkell, Nick Dyer-Witheford, Pamela Mckenzie, Michael B. Mcnally, Caroline Whippey, Lola Wong

FIMS Publications

Executive Summary: The goal of the Mobilizing User-Generated Content for Canada’s Digital Content Advantage project is to define User-Generated Content (UGC) in its current state, identify successful models built for UGC, and anticipate barriers and policy infrastructure needed to sustain a model to leverage the further development of UGC to Canada's advantage. At the outset, we divided our research into three domains: creative content, small scale tools and collaborative user-generated content. User-generated creative content is becoming increasingly evident throughout the technological ecology through online platforms and online social networks where individuals develop, create and capture information and choose to distribute …

Mental Blocks: The Behavioural Effects And Neural Encoding Of Obstacles When Reaching And Grasping, Craig S. Chapman

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The ability to adeptly interact with a cluttered and dynamic world requires that the brain simultaneously encode multiple objects. Theoretical frameworks of selective visuomotor attention provide evidence for parallel encoding (Baldauf & Deubel, 2010; Cisek & Kalaska, 2010; Duncan, 2006) where concurrent object processing results in neural competition. Since the end goal of object representation is usually action, these frameworks argue that the competitive activity is best characterized as the development of visuomotor biases. While some behavioural and neural evidence has been accumulated in favour of this explanation, one of the most striking, yet deceptively common, demonstrations of this capacity …

Ontario’S Local Immigration Partnership Councils: Renewing Multiculturalism From Below?, Neil Bradford

Migration and Ethnic Relations Colloquium Series

No abstract provided.

Causality And Similarity In Autobiographical Event Structure: An Investigation Using Event Cueing And Latent Semantic Analysis, Christopher M. O'Connor

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The influence of similarity- and causally-based relations on the organization of autobiographical events was investigated using extended strings of related event memories. These strings were elicited using an event cueing paradigm in which participants generated descriptions of memories from their life, which were then presented as cues to subsequent event memories. In Experiment 1, similarity between generated events was investigated using participants’ similarity ratings, Latent Semantic Analysis, and experimenter judgements of shared event properties. For events close together in a string, event owners’ similarity ratings were higher than non-owners’, and non-owners’ ratings were comparable to similarity calculated using LSA. In …

The Information Practices Of People Living With Depression: Constructing Credibility And Authority, Tami Oliphant

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Depressive episodes and chronic depression often provide the impetus for both online and offline everyday life information-seeking and sharing and the seeking of support. While allopathic medication, psychiatric, and other biomedical services are the standard treatments for depression, people often use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) to supplement or supplant biomedical treatments. Depression is a nebulous disorder with varying causes, illness trajectories, and a wide variety of potentially effective treatments. Often, treating and managing depression forms a project for life (Wikgren, 2001) where the need for information is continuous.

In the present study, I have used a constructionist, discourse analytic …

London And Middlesex Local Immigration Partnership – Research Needs And Potential Partnerships, Huda Hussein

Migration and Ethnic Relations Colloquium Series

No abstract provided.

Failing To Ignore: Paradoxical Neural Effects Of Perceptual Load On Early Attentional Selection In Normal Aging, Taylor W. Schmitz, Frederick H.T. Cheng, Eve De Rosa

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

We examined visual selective attention under perceptual load - simultaneous presentation of task-relevant and -irrelevant information - in healthy young and older adult human participants to determine whether age differences are observable at early stages of selection in the visual cortices. Participants viewed 50/50 superimposed face/place images and judged whether the faces were male or female, rendering places perceptible but task-irrelevant. Each stimulus was repeated, allowing us to index dynamic stimulus-driven competition from places. Consistent with intact early selection in young adults, we observed no adaptation to unattended places in parahippocampal place area (PPA) and significant adaptation to attended faces …

Procurement Of Information Technology And Canadian Municipalities, Umera Ali

MPA Major Research Papers

This paper examines the trends for the attainment of information technology (IT) and the barriers to the successful procurement of IT. A literature review, survey of IT managers in Ontario municipalities, and three interviews with municipal IT professionals were conducted. The findings reveal that Ontario municipalities are satisfied with their IT projects for using detailed plans, engaging in formal strategic planning, introducing mechanism controls to avoid risks, and using letters of agreement with formally established terms and conditions for projects, all of which are steps towards a successful procurement process. Nevertheless, there are still some barriers for small local governments …

Digital Prosumption And Alienation, Edward Comor

FIMS Publications

Since the hybrid producer-consumer – the prosumer – was conceptualized three decades ago, prosumption has been embraced by both mainstream and progressive analysts. With digital technologies enabling more people to engage in an array of online prosumption activities, one shared claim is particularly striking: the empowering and humanizing implications of prosumption will mark the end of human alienation. In this paper, I assess this extraordinary prediction by, first, establishing that the core of Marx’s conceptualization of alienation is capital’s dominance over human relations, compelling people to become mere tools of the production process. Second, I assess both general and specific …

Not On The Same Page: Undergraduates’ Information Retrieval In Electronic And Print Books, Selinda Adelle Berg, Kristin Hoffmann, Diane Dawson

Western Libraries Publications

Academic libraries are increasingly collecting e-books, but little research has investigated how students use e-books compared to print texts. This study used a prompted think-aloud method to gain an understanding of the information retrieval behavior of students in both formats. Qualitative analysis identified themes that will inform instruction and collection practices.

Another Look At Bill C-32 And The Access Copyright Tariff: Still Double Trouble For Higher Education, Samuel E. Trosow

FIMS Presentations

Earlier this year, the government tabled Bill C-32, proposed amendments to the Copyright Act. Following a consultation process, the Bill is widely recognized as more reasonable than its predecessor, Bill C-61. On the positive side, the bill would expand fair dealing to explicitly include "education". On the other hand, the digital locks provisions of the Bill are fundamentally flawed and override many existing and proposed users rights. Also this year, Access Copyright filed a proposed tariff for the post-secondary education sector with the Copyright Board. The proposal, which includes a drastic increase in costs as well as numerous new reporting …

Music Library Space Use Study: Assessing When “Times They Are A Changin’”, Margaret Martin Gardiner, Monica Fazekas

Western Libraries Presentations

No abstract provided.

Fall-Related Stigma In Older Adulthood: A Mixed Methods Approach To Understanding The Influence Of Stigma On Older Adults' Reported Attitudes And Behaviours Regarding Falls, Heather M. Hanson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Falls during older adulthood present a major threat to the health and wellbeing of older adults and a challenge to society. While effective fall prevention strategies have been developed to address risk factors for falls, older adults commonly resist participation in such programming and dissociate from the topic of falls in general. After reviewing research findings and the theoretical literature, support was found for approaching falls as a stigmatizing topic for older adults. Three mixed methods experiments were completed to test the influence of stigma on older adults‟ attitudes, opinions, and behaviours. Experiments 1 and 2 tested the labelling aspect …

Fostering An Integrated Society: An Aspiration Or A Reality?, Deborah Carson Tunis

Migration and Ethnic Relations Colloquium Series

Harold Crabtree Foundation Award in Public Policy Lecture, The University of Western Ontario

Outlawry And The Experience Of The (Im)Possible: Deconstructing Biopolitics, Mary J. Bunch

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Outlawry is a legal penalty that banishes wrongdoers from the community; it refers to a refusal to obey the law and a withdrawal of legal rights. Although outlawry is obsolete in western criminal law, Giorgio Agamben links it to modern biopolitics. As outlawry is appropriated to preserve the law, and as the law takes life as its object, the subject of politics disappears. Yet biopolitics also occurs alongside a threat to sovereignty posed by outlawry, and a shift away from the subject as a site of emancipatory politics, toward a politics of difference. Taking a post-structural approach, this project examines …

How Canadian Cities Are Responding To International Migration, Livianna Tossutti

Migration and Ethnic Relations Colloquium Series

No abstract provided.

Is The Very Notion Of "Representation" Relevant For The Regulation Game Of Video Game Developers?, Marie-Josee Legault, Johanna Weststar

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

In this paper we question whether videogame developers face a representation gap due to the lack of unionization or whether their current means of action are appropriate and sufficient protections against employment risk. To answer this question we will first sketch the working conditions of videogame developers and then describe their individual and collective means of action to face employment challenges. We will then discuss the strengths and failings of these approaches vis a vis unionization and propose potential alternatives that would be a better fit than the traditional Wagnerian model of union representation.

Public Participation In Canadian Local Government: A Study Of The Meadowlily Secondary Plan Process In London, Ontario, Michael Hurley

MPA Major Research Papers

This paper examines whether the facilitation of public participation in local government is a worthwhile objective, using public engagement in the Meadowlily Secondary Plan in London, Ontario as a case study. An online survey was administered to citizens who participated in the City’s land use planning process. The findings reveal that by participating in decision-making, citizens learned about the processes and responsibilities of municipal government, in addition to other forms of learning, which demonstrates that the facilitation of public participation in municipal government is indeed a worthwhile objective.

Use Of An Integrated System Dynamics Model For Analyzing Behaviour Of The Social-Economic-Climatic System In Policy Development, Christopher J. Popovich, Slobodan P. Simonovic, Gordon A. Mcbean

Water Resources Research Report

Climate change remains one of the most critical issues that humans and the natural world face today. Yet while a strong body of scientific research has identified the risks if mitigation and adaptation measures are not taken, there still remains a policy lag. This leads researchers to pose several questions: is there an identified need by the policy domain for more or different science? Is the science that is conducted made policyrelevant? If not, are there tools to better link science to policy? This report will explain the process of science-policy communication related to the development of an integrated system …

The Development And Validation Of An Expertise Development Model For Sport Coaches, Melissa L. Wiman

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The objective of this dissertation was to develop and validate a model for coaching expertise development using semi-structured interviews. The aim of Study One was twofold: first, to examine how coaching expertise is defined and second, to investigate how this expertise develops over time. Interviews were completed with elite athletes and elite coaches and were done in the tradition of grounded theory. Results suggested that there is a need to go beyond identifying a coach as an expert based on the performance of his/her athletes. Some of the additional criteria suggested included: be recognized by peers (other coaches) as experts; …

The Synthespian’S Animated Prehistory: The Monkees, The Archies, Don Kirshner, And The Politics Of “Virtual Labor”, Matt Stahl

FIMS Publications

This article explores the political-economic “prehistory” of the “synthespian” by tracing the emergence of the rock and roll cartoon The Archies (1968—78) from the ashes of the live-action sitcom The Monkees (1966—68) through the career of music publisher and producer Don Kirshner. Drawing on original interviews with the producers of The Archies, it argues that early experiments in “fixing” variable entertainment capital through the organization of divisions of nonproprietary authorship contributed to the development of rights-free “virtual labor.” This analysis brings to light the logics and politics that are never far from “purely technical” advances in entertainment production. The trajectory …

The Multifunctional Transition In Australia’S Tropical Savannas: The Emergence Of Consumption, Protection And Indigenous Values, John Holmes

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

As elsewhere in affluent, western nations, the direction, complexity and pace of rural change in Australia can be conceptualised as a multifunctional transition in which a variable mix of consumption and protection values has emerged, con- testing the former dominance of production values, and leading to greater com- plexity and heterogeneity in rural occupance at all scales. This transition has been explored in accessible, high-amenity landscapes driven by enhanced consumption values. Less attention has been directed to remote, marginal lands where a flimsy mode of productivist occupance can, in part, be displaced by alternative modes with the transitions being facilitated …

Neural Reuse: A Fundamental Organizational Principle Of The Brain, Michael Anderson

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

An emerging class of theories concerning the functional structure of the brain takes the reuse of neural circuitry for various cognitive purposes to be a central organizational principle. According to these theories, it is quite common for neural circuits established for one purpose to be exapted (exploited, recycled, redeployed) during evolution or normal development, and be put to different uses, often without losing their original functions. Neural reuse theories thus differ from the usual understanding of the role of neural plasticity (which is, after all, a kind of reuse) in brain organization along the following lines: According to neural reuse, …

Multiple Mechanisms Of Consciousness: The Neural Correlates Of Emotional Awareness., Jayna M Amting, Steven G Greening, Derek G V Mitchell

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Emotional stimuli, including facial expressions, are thought to gain rapid and privileged access to processing resources in the brain. Despite this access, we are conscious of only a fraction of the myriad of emotion-related cues we face everyday. It remains unclear, therefore, what the relationship is between activity in neural regions associated with emotional representation and the phenomenological experience of emotional awareness. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging and binocular rivalry to delineate the neural correlates of awareness of conflicting emotional expressions in humans. Behaviorally, fearful faces were significantly more likely to be perceived than disgusted or neutral faces. Functionally, …

Cultural Labor’S “Democratic Deficits”: Employment, Autonomy And Alienation In Us Film Animation, Matt Stahl

FIMS Publications

Cultural industries’ reliance on streams of novel cultural material requires granting creative employees significant degrees of autonomy within firms. This article expands on these findings by focusing on key moments in the early history of cinematic animation and aspects of contemporary animation production. Drawing on political‐theoretical analyses of employment to limn substantive limits to the autonomy of artists integrated into Hollywood production, it shows that the institution of employment enables cultural industry employers not only to dispossess artists of their creative work(s), but also, when they deem it expedient, to manage artists like other kinds of workers. It is a …