Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Self-Reported Racism, Transphobia, Their Intersection And Impact On Past-Year Hiv Related Sexual Risk Behaviour, Roxanne M. Longman Marcellin

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Background: Studies examining HIV prevalence and risk behaviors within trans subgroups have identified them as high risk. Yet few studies have addressed how discrimination impacts this prevalence. Minority stress theory suggests that there is a relationship between minority stress and HIV-related risk behaviour. We hypothesize that multiple minority statuses may result in discriminatory experiences, specifically self-reported transphobia and racism in synchrony with other attributes, that interact to alter past-year HIV-related risk behaviour.

Methods: Data came from the Trans PULSE project, a mixed-methods, community-based research study that used respondent-driven sampling to access 433 trans Ontarians, between May 2009 and …

Interpretation Of The French And Spanish Subjunctive By L1, L2, And L3 Speakers: Contexts Where Mood Can Alternate Without Ungrammaticality, Audrey K. Restorick Elordi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis looks at how factors such as cross-linguistic transfer affect the degree of attainment of one morphosyntax-pragmatic interface phenomenon in particular: the subjunctive in French and Spanish in contexts where mood can alternate without ungrammaticality.

According to Quer (1998), such contexts present variation amongst native speakers (NSs). In order to identify the external and internal factors that govern this variation, we asked our control groups, 43 NSs of French and 22 NSs of Spanish, to fill out a linguistic profile and a scenario selection task. 36 L1 English speakers completed these same tasks in addition to a linguistic background …

Because I Am Not Here, Selected Second Life-Based Art Case Studies. Subjectivity, Autoempathy And Virtual World Aesthetics, Francisco Gerardo Toledo Ramírez

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Second Life is a virtual world accessible through the Internet in which users create objects and spaces, and interact socially through 3D avatars. Certain artists use the platform as a medium for art creation, using the aesthetic, spatial, temporal and technological features of SL as raw material. Code and scripts applied to animate and manipulate objects, avatars and spaces are important in this sense. These artists, their avatars and artwork in SL are at the centre of my research questions: what does virtual existence mean and what is its purpose when stemming from aesthetic exchange in SL?

Through a qualitative …

Detection And Mapping Of Phragmites Australis Using High Resolution Multispectral And Hyperspectral Satellite Imagery, Nicholas J. Lantz

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Mapping invasive plant species is important to establish an invasion baseline, monitor plant propagation, and to implement an effective plan to deal with the invasion. In this thesis, methods are proposed to map invasive Phragmites australis in a Great Lakes coastal wetland. Chapter 2 presents an object-based Phragmites extraction method using Worldview-2 high-spatial-resolution satellite imagery. For the 4024 ha study area at Walpole Island,Ontario, 94% overall accuracy was achieved.

Chapter 3 uses CHRIS PROBA hyperspectral satellite imagery for mapping the pixel abundance of Phragmites using a spectral mixture analysis method. An evaluation method was developed to assess the accuracy of …

Emotional Geographies Of Home: Place Identities Among Senior Women Residing In A Long-Term Care Facility, Malgorzata M. Milczarek

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This research aimed to document the meanings and identities attached to the concept of ‘home’ among older women residing in long-term care. The study is based upon semi-structured, open-ended interviews with eleven senior women who reside in a long-term care home in The City of London, Ontario. This study contributes towards theoretical and methodological debates by combining critical humanism, feminism and the newly developing body of work called ‘emotional geographies’ in its approach. Along with the interview, the novel method of using the body as an ‘instrument of research’ is utilized (Longhurst, 2008). The methodology allows for ‘emotional spaces’ occupied …

Maiden’S Fashion As Eternal Becomings: Victorian Maidens And Sugar Sweet Cuties Donning Japanese Street Fashion In Japan And North America, An Nguyen

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Lolita fashion is a youth street style originating from Japan that draws on Victorian-era children’s clothing, Rococo aesthetics, and Western Punk and Gothic subculture. It is worn by teenage girls and women of a wide range of ages, and through the flow of related media and clothing aided by the Internet, Lolita style has become a global phenomenon. Wearers of the style are known as Lolitas, and local, national, and global communities can be found around the world outside Japan from North American to Europe. This study is a cross-cultural comparison of Lolita fashion wearers in Japan and North America, …

A Comparative Ontogenetic Study Of Biomechanical Adaptations In The Long Bones Of South African Khoisan And Sadlermiut Inuit, Kaye-Lynn Boucher

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This research examines and compares the biomechanical adaptations of juveniles from two different climate-adapted populations: Khoisan foragers from South Africa and Sadlermiut Inuit from Nunavut, Canada. Cortical bone measurements were recorded at three diaphyseal locations on the Sadlermiut and Khoisan humeri, tibiae and femora using biplanar radiographs. Biomechanical strength properties were calculated using the Eccentric Ellipse Method (EEM). EEM calculations were interpreted with consideration to the known behavioural patterns of the two groups. Humeral AP and torsional bending strength were greater in the Sadlermiut compared to the Khoisan – most likely caused by kayak paddling among the Sadlermiut. Few differences …

Somali Children And Youth's Experiences In Educational Spaces In North America: Reconstructing Identities And Negotiating The Past In The Present, Melissa Stachel

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In this dissertation, I examine the experiences of Somali children and youth in both state sponsored and community educational spaces in North America to investigate how these experiences shape their identities and worldviews in the context of displacement, prolonged armed conflict in Somalia, and a post-September 11 environment.

This work is based on two years of preliminary research (2008-2010) and 16 months of ethnographic fieldwork among Somali youth and their families in Kitchener-Waterloo and Toronto, Ontario and Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota (2010-2011). I draw on life history interviews and focus group sessions of 51 Somali children and youth between the ages …

Obesogenic Neighborhoods: The Impact Of Neighborhood Restaurants And Convenience Stores On Adolescents' Food Consumption Behaviors, Meizi He, Patricia Tucker, Jennifer D. Irwin, Jason Gilliland, Kristian Larsen, Paul Hess

Geography & Environment Publications

To examine the relationship between the neighbourhood food environment and dietary intake among adolescents. Cross-sectional design using: (i) a geographic information system to assess characteristics of the neighbourhood food environment and neighbourhood socio-economic status; (ii) the modified Healthy Eating Index (HEI) to assess participants' overall diet quality; and (iii) generalized linear models to examine associations between HEI and home and school food environmental correlates. Mid-sized Canadian city in Ontario, Canada. Participants Grade 7 and 8 students (n 810) at twenty-one elementary schools. Students living in neighbourhoods with a lower diversity of land-use types, compared with their higher diversity counterparts, had …

Tourists' Perceptions Of Aboriginal Heritage Souvenirs, Janet Chang, Geoffrey Wall, Jul-Cheng (Richard) Hung

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

Heritage souvenirs are an indispensable part of indigenous tourism and the authenticity of indigenous heritage is a vital aspect of such tourism. This study adopts a mixed methods approach to explore the perceived authenticity of glass bead souvenirs of the Paiwan Tribe in Pintung County, Taiwan. The study explores differences in the evaluations of authenticity among stakeholders and the factors that influence perceptions of authen- ticity. An understanding of tourists’ perceptions of indigenous heritage offers valuable information for the creation of indigenous souvenirs and for reviving the promotion of indigenous culture.

Social And Human Capital: The Determinants Of Economic Integration Of South Asian Immigrants In Canada, Muhammed M. Raza

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

ABSTARCT

The labor market outcomes of immigrants have been a primary focus of the research to comprehend the integration of immigrants inCanada. The focus of the research is largely on human capital approaches for the investigation of the earnings of immigrants. This thesis takes a distinct approach in three ways: first, unlike traditional research that compares the earnings of immigrants with native born of the same ethnic/racial groups or with white native born population, the dissertation compares the earnings of visible minority immigrants with non-visible minority immigrants. Comparing across foreign born populations is important to neutralize the impact of exposure …

Essays On Health Insurer And Provider Interactions, Daniel Montanera

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis consists of three chapters on insurer and provider interactions. Despite widespread reports of defensive medicine in surveys of physicians, empirical investigations have produced conflicting evidence that defensive medicine is practiced on a significant scale. Findings imply that the relationships between malpractice pressure and health care spending and quality are non-monotonic. These predictions provide an explanation for the apparent conflicts and inconsistencies in the existing empirical literature, as well as policy guidance for future empirical investigations in separating observations and populations in different equilibrium types.

The next chapter expands the model by making physicians mobile, and includes a location …

Gender Neutral? An Empirical Test Of Life-Course Theories Of Criminal Behaviour, Jennie M. Thompson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The current study systematically assesses four mainstream theories – General Theory of Crime, Interactional Theory, Dual Taxonomy, and Age-graded Theory of Informal Social control – of criminal behaviour over the life-course; while examining the role of gender and several measures argued to be important in explaining the criminal behaviour of women. This study also explores both the within- and between-person variance (i.e., the role of population heterogeneity) and lag effects (i.e., the role of state dependence) in explaining the criminal behaviour. Random-Effects Negative Binomial Models were used to predict both serious and non-serious criminal behaviour over the life-course using panel …

Essays On International And Environmental Economics, Jacob Wibe

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis consists of three chapters employing quantitative open economy models to study international trade transmission, the economic impacts of climate change, and remittance transfers.

The first chapter examines the role of production sharing and trade in the transmission of the 2008-2009 recession. In the model, production sharing is represented by a tradable sector that produces a composite good exclusively for the foreign market. The results suggest that trade transmission can account for 67% of the fall in output in Canada, 24% of the fall in output in Mexico, and about two-thirds of the fall in trade for both countries. …

Biopolitics Of Climate Change: Carbon Commodities, Environmental Profanations, And The Lost Innocence Of Use-Value, Emanuele Leonardi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The analytical core of this study is the historical development of the relationship between nature and the capitalist mode of production. In particular, we aim at shedding light on the process through which the “grammar” of ecological crisis (and consequently of its possible solutions) turned into an exclusively economic one. In addressing this issue we discuss the successive problematisations of the environment that took place since the emergence of biopolitical governmentality (late Eighteenth century). Following Foucault's intuition, and supplementing it with aspects of Marxist analysis, we argue for a profound transformation – based on a crucial leap of abstraction – …

Not Your Mother’S Pda: The Transition From Pda Pilot To Full Acquisitions Integration, Harriet Rykse, Bruce Fyfe, Nicole Nolan, Nazi Torabi, Erin Gallagher, Yves Vanier

Western Libraries Presentations

Western Libraries, an academic library with an FTE of 34,000, and Ingram Coutts, have worked together to implement an e-preferred Patron Driven Acquisition (PDA) program at Western Libraries. This implementation has required collaboration between Coutts and Western Libraries collection librarians to develop effective profiles. These profiles allow the PDA collection to be filtered according to subject and non-subject parameters.

There are several aspects of this project that make it unique. First, every e-book that is selected by a PDA-preferred profile will automatically be loaded into the catalogue for PDA. Patrons will trigger a purchase if the book is accessed twice. …

How To Make Climate Change Research Relevant For Indigenous Communities In Torres Strait, Australia, Claire O'Neill, Donna Green, Willie Lui

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

Several Torres Strait communities have significant infrastructure and sacred sites located only a few metres above sea level. As a consequence, these areas are vulnerable to erosion due to the projected increase in storm surge intensity caused by climate change. Common sense suggests that Islanders would welcome new scientific research about how climate change might affect them, in order to understand the significance of these impacts and the timeframes involved. However, one leader has taken a seemingly counterintuitive stance, and has refused to let new climate research occur. We explore why this position was taken, and the implications of this …

Not Your Mother's Pda: The Transition From Pda Pilot To Full Acquisitions Integration, Harriet Rykse, Bruce Fyfe, Nazi Torabi, Nicole Nolan, Erin Gallagher, Yves Vanier

Western Libraries Publications

Western Libraries and Ingram Content Group worked together to establish a Patron Driven Acquisition (PDA) program that has been incorporated into the regular acquisitions workflow at Western. Some features of the program include: all titles selected for addition to the PDA collection are filtered through the approval profiles established by the librarians, the library’s holdings are uploaded to Ingram weekly so that duplicate titles are avoided, invoices for purchased PDA titles are sent weekly and holdings for un-purchased and purchased PDA records are updated weekly. A Patron Driven Acquisitions Working Group established the program at Western by meeting with collections …

The Cost-Effectiveness Of Combination Treatment Consisting Of Either Cetuximab Or Panitumumab Plus Folfiri Versus Treatment With Bevacizumab Plus Folfiri As First-Line Treatment For Kras Wild-Type Metastatic Colorectal Cancer Patients In Ontario, Emmanuel M.G. Ewara

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

I conducted a cost-effectiveness analysis of combination cetuximbab or panitumumab plus FOLFIRI as first-line treatment for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (MCRC) from the perspective of the Ontario healthcare payer. I developed a Markov decision analytical model to simulate the lifetime costs and benefits of each treatment option. The model was parameterized using data collected from administrative databases in the province of Ontario and from published clinical trials. In the base case scenario, treatment consisting of bevacizumab plus FOLFIRI was found to dominate other treatment options. The ICER values were found to be sensitive to the efficacy of first-line treatment, …

Volatility, Duration, And Value-At-Risk, Pujun Liu

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The thesis consists of three essays dealing with the modeling of volatility in financial markets, trade durations, and Value-at-Risk (VaR). The first essay models nonlinearities in the return series to estimate time-varying volatility by incorporating both regime changes and jumps. Two types of regime-switching GARCH-jump models with autoregressive jump intensity are presented. The first model follows the traditional Markov regime-switching model proposed in Hamilton (1989). As the unknown regimes in the Markov model lead to difficulty in forecasting, a threshold GARCH-jump model, in which regimes are known after observing the threshold variable in the previous period, is also proposed. The …

Geography, News Media Discourse, And Water Management: A Case Study Of The Devils Lake Outlet, Daniel J. Bednar

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis explores the print news media discourse surrounding the dispute between Manitoba and North Dakota over a flood mitigation plan in Devils Lake North Dakota. In order to do so, critical discourse analysis was applied to news media from a seventeen year period during the dispute. Findings were compared between media sources as well as to pertinent policy documents. The thesis finds that the political arena provided by local newspapers as well as the discourses of scale, confrontation, history, and economics had the largest effect on the dispute’s public face. A total of nine findings within these areas are …

Diatoms In Castor Lake (North-Central Washington, Usa) – Proxies Of Climate And Hydrologic Variation, Kelly D. Hollingshead

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This research provides a high temporal resolution (1 sample / 2-3 years) record of hydrologic variation for the last 2,000 years using a lake sediment record from Castor Lake, a closed-basin system in Washington, USA. The core was dated using ¹³⁷Cs, ¹⁴C, and tephrochronology. Approximately 600 diatoms were identified and enumerated in 198 samples from a Castor Lake freeze core and Livingstone-piston core. A diatom-inference model for salinity was applied to reconstruct fossil diatom salinity. Diatom-inferred salinity for the last century tracked Palmer Drought Severity Index, indicating diatom community composition tracks effective moisture and can be used to …

Who's In Charge Here? Information Privacy In A Social Networking World, Lisa Di Valentino

FIMS Presentations

No abstract provided.

Blood, Organs And Other Tissues For Sale: Diamela Eltit's Impuesto A La Carne And The Afterwards Of The Neoliberal Development In Latin America., Wanda I. Ocasio- Rivera

Hispanic Studies Publications

Abstract

Blood, organs and other tissues for sale: Diamela Eltit's Impuesto a la carne and the afterwards of the neoliberal development in Latin America.

As Marx elaborated in Capital: Volume I at the moment human labour is sold, the subject participates in an ominous plot where she/he becomes a commodity. In a capitalist mode of production, the subject’s alienation from his/her humanity occurs because the individuals can only express labor through a privately-owned system of production in which he/she is an instrument, an object. This dehumanization process submits the subject under the exchange transactions of the market, where labor value …

City Limits: A Psychoanalysis Of Urbanism And Everyday Life, Mark F. Jull

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation begins with Lefebvre’s theoretical framework that space is a social product and provides a brief account of the plans and road networks established with John Graves Simcoe’s founding of York (now Toronto). Foucault’s arguments about gridded street systems and early forms of policing are introduced to explain the intentions and desires associated with the gridded street pattern of Toronto. Foucault’s theory of governmentality is argued to be the marking of a limit rather than a strict prohibition, and is a specifically urban practice. Lacan’s graph of desire and Lacanian concepts are then introduced to continue this discussion of …

The When (And How) Of Intergroup Competition And Discrimination: Distinguishing The Contributions Of Competitive Perceptions And Motivations, Matthew A. Maxwell-Smith

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

A new framework is proposed to examine the effects of intergroup competition on discrimination by assessing the influence of participants’ subjective construal of potentially competitive events. It posits that competitive intergroup perceptions (CIP; the perception that one’s ingroup and another group(s) are attempting to gain a reward or desired outcome at the expense of each other) and competitive intergroup motivations (CIM; the desire for one’s ingroup to acquire more of a reward than the other group(s)) are related but distinct constructs. This distinction implies that CIP and CIM should be strongly related, but not to the point of suggesting they …

Algorithmic Decomposition Of Shuffle On Words, Franziska Biegler, Mark Daley, Ian Mcquillan

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

We investigate shuffle-decomposability into two words. We give an algorithm which takes as input a DFA M (under certain conditions) and determines the unique candidate decomposition into words u and v such that L(M) = u v ifM is shuffle decomposable, in time O(|u| + |v|). Even though this algorithm does not determine whether or not the DFA is shuffle decomposable, the sublinear time complexity of only determining the two words under the assumption of decomposability is surprising given the complexity of shuffle, and demonstrates an interesting property of the operation. We also show that for given words u and …

Policy Imperatives For An Arctic Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone, Erika Simpson

Political Science Publications

No abstract provided.

Expanding The Basic Science Debate: The Role Of Physics Knowledge In Interpreting Clinical Findings., Mark Goldszmidt, John Paul Minda, Sarah L Devantier, Aimee L Skye, Nicole N Woods

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Current research suggests a role for biomedical knowledge in learning and retaining concepts related to medical diagnosis. However, learning may be influenced by other, non-biomedical knowledge. We explored this idea using an experimental design and examined the effects of causal knowledge on the learning, retention, and interpretation of medical information. Participants studied a handout about several respiratory disorders and how to interpret respiratory exam findings. The control group received the information in standard "textbook" format and the experimental group was presented with the same information as well as a causal explanation about how sound travels through lungs in both the …

The Morning After A General Election: The Vice-Regal Perspective, Peter Neary

History Publications

Everywhere in Canada, election night now produces a television extravaganza, with the commentariat out in full force. The next day newspapers chime in with their reporting, as the country wakes up to further analysis of what has happened and what the future might bring. From the vice-regal perspective, however, the path to be followed after every election is always clear and always the same: the conventions of responsible government must be respected and politics eschewed. The vice-regal representative is the protector of the Constitution and not a political actor: the job is to follow convention, stay away from party strife, …