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Analysis and reactions of aqueous selenide and other reduced inorganic selenium compounds under anoxic conditions
Selenide is cited as a geochemically important selenium (Se) species, but it is unknown whether selenide is a stable aqueous ion in natural waters. The feasibility of using anoxic anion exchange chromatography (AEC) coupled to dynamic reaction cell-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry to separate aqueous selenide was investigated with the goal of quantifying this anion to determine its importance in reducing waters.
It was possible to qualitatively identify selenide using AEC, but much of the aqueous selenide oxidises to Se0 faster than the separation procedure could be completed. AEC analyses of solutions containing polyselenides produced peaks for unidentified Se compounds, which have been assigned tentative structures Se2O22-, Se2O32-, and Se2O62- based on close matches in retention time to stable S compounds.
The results of this work show that aqueous selenide can be qualitatively observed in synthetic solutions using AEC, but it is unknown whether these conditions are relevant to natural waters.
Author Keywords: anoxic speciation, polyselenides, selenide, selenium geochemistry, selenium speciation, selenoselenate
An Investigation of Load Balancing in a Distributed Web Caching System
With the exponential growth of the Internet, performance is an issue as bandwidth is often limited. A scalable solution to reduce the amount of bandwidth required is Web caching. Web caching (especially at the proxy-level) has been shown to be quite successful at addressing this issue. However as the number and needs of the clients grow, it becomes infeasible and inefficient to have just a single Web cache. To address this concern, the Web caching system can be set up in a distributed manner, allowing multiple machines to work together to meet the needs of the clients. Furthermore, it is also possible that further efficiency could be achieved by balancing the workload across all the Web caches in the system. This thesis investigates the benefits of load balancing in a distributed Web caching environment in order to improve the response times and help reduce bandwidth.
Author Keywords: adaptive load sharing, Distributed systems, Load Balancing, Simulation, Web Caching
Beyond Paris: Jacqueline Kennedy and the Presidency
A presidential spouse in an era of rigid gender norms, Jacqueline Kennedy frequently straddled the divide between celebrity, social acceptability, and personal desire. Yet, history remembers America's thirty-seventh First Lady more for her fashion and soft-spoken nature. Forgotten is that she was a `transitional' figure, who oversaw America's largest restoration of the White House and served as a `goodwill ambassador' for her husband. When three gunshots brought their tenure to an abrupt end, Jackie's focus shifted and she fixated on the creation of a legacy that immortalized JFK. `Camelot,' is a construct almost exclusively conceived and executed by the former First Lady. In this vein, the coming exploration delves into the private actions of Jackie during her time in as First Lady, contrasting them sharply with her public image. What emerges is a portrait the world seldom saw: one driven by raw intellect and a desire to be of service to her husband and country.
Author Keywords: Camelot, First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Restoration, White House
Punk as Public, Punks as Texts: Some Of This Is True
This thesis is an attempt to explore the role that musical texts played in the development of a public by writing a work of fiction and then applying to it a critical exegesis. Part One, the literary text Some Of This Is True, (re-)creates and remembers punk in its iteration in Regina, Saskatchewan, in the late 1970s. Part two, the critical exegesis, examines how the theories of public formation outlined in Michael Warner's Publics and Counterpublics can partially explain the creation and behaviour of publics, but not entirely. Similarly Mikhail Bahktin's theory of carnival helps explain punk, but not entirely. Some gaps can be filled partly with theory borrowed from art history that reveals useful links between punk and Continental art movements; Michel Foucault's concept of heterotopia fills other gaps. Literature fills the rest.
Author Keywords: Creative Writing, Heterotopia, Michael Warner, Michel Foucault, Mikhail Bakhtin, Punk & Punks
Application of the Sexual Self-Control Model and the Two-Dimensional Sexual Double Standard Scale to Heterosexual Undergraduate Men and Women
This thesis examined the applicability of the sexual self-control model to men, which resulted in the creation and analysis of a new two-dimensional sexual double standard scale. In Study 1, a sample of 124 men completed the Self-Control Schedule assessing general learned resourcefulness, the Sexual Resourcefulness Inventory, Sexual Self-efficacy Scale, Reasons for Consenting to Unwanted Sexual Advances Scale, and the Sexual Giving-in Experiences Survey. Contrary to expectations based on female samples, lower sexual resourcefulness was not a unique predictor of consenting to unwanted sexual advances in men. Instead, a mediation model was supported whereby men having more reasons for consenting to unwanted sexual advances were more likely to comply despite having higher levels of sexual resourcefulness skills. Concurrent with Study 1, 11 men were interviewed in Study 2 to further examine their giving-in to unwanted sexual advances, reasons for consenting, and sexual resourcefulness, but men shifted the conversation toward the sexual double standard despite scoring neutral to a quantitative sexual double standard measure in the survey of Study 1. Therefore, a new sexual double standard scale was created based on the content of the interviews. Study 3 examined the new scale's psychometric properties and its association with sexual consenting. The findings revealed that the new scale was best represented by two dimensions: personal attitudes and peer responses. Neither of these two subscales uniquely predicted giving-in to unwanted sexual advances, but were significantly associated with several key variables differentially.
Author Keywords: learned resourcefulness, sexual double standard, sexual health, sexual resourcefulness, sexual script theory, unwanted sex
The sustainability of Community-based Water supply Organizations (CWOs): A case study analysis of rural Colombia
The world has met the target of halving the number of people without access to improved-drinking water . However, the focus in rural areas (where 83% of the people without access to improved-drinking water live) has been on the construction of infrastructure, rather than on the strengthening of existing local institutions to create a long-term sustainable solution. This research aims to understand what are the necessary characteristics that CWOs, the main rural water supplier institutions around the world, must have to offer safe water continuously and in the long term. The results indicate that to offer such conditions, internal and external characteristic need to coexist. Those characteristics will emerge from case studies analysis in rural and peri-urban areas in Colombia, through interviews, surveys, document reviews, observation exercises, and a comparison with the literature. Internal characteristics include proper infrastructure conditions, user satisfaction, best management practices, social capital, be a development catalyzer, and environmental awareness. External characteristics include easy access to subsidies, efficient communication channels with authorities, continuous training, and environmental legislation/education. This study concludes that enforcing these characteristics will strengthen the existing institutions and can provide a sustainable solution for rural water supply issues.
Author Keywords: community-based water supply organizations, costs, management, financial sustainability, rural Colombia, state subsidies, water tariffs
VISUAL INFORMATION-PROCESSING AND THE EVOLUTION OF FLAKE MAKING SKILL
Flaked stones tools are the oldest and longest persisting human cultural remains. Some of these tools were made by hominins who were not anatomically or cognitively modern. My thesis uses an eye-tracking device, developed by psychology, to study modern day novice and expert tool making. By comparing these two groups I was able to characterize the behaviours that lead to successful flake making, and furthermore make inferences about the cognitive capacities that hominins would have had to have to have been successful themselves. This study suggests limited engagement of short-term memory and problem solving skills, which is consistent with other studies. However, this study seems to refute the hypothesis that improvements in hand-eye coordination alone account for the rise of flaked stone technology. My thesis also shows that eye-tracking is a fruitful way to study flake making and, based on my research, I propose several future directions of study.
Author Keywords: Eye-tracking, Human Evolution, Knapping, Oldowan, Skill
Rewiring the State: The Privatization of Information Technology in the Ontario Public Service (1972-2003)
ABSTRACT
Rewiring the State: The Privatization of Information Technology in the Ontario Public Service (1972-2003)
David Rapaport
Senior managers in the Ontario Public Service (OPS) and neo-liberal public policy advocates rationalize the privatization of Information Technology (IT) as an organizational quest for new efficiencies, specifically efficiencies imported from market economies. The findings of the research for this study indicate that IT privatization frequently results in inefficiencies, dependencies and a loss of core skills. The explanation for widespread IT privatization must be sought elsewhere.
This study researches and depicts two related IT developments. The first development is the evolution of IT privatization from the earlier practice of body-shopping, i.e. the hiring on contract of IT consultants to the more complex public private partnership. This evolution is a reflection of the maturation of privatization. Body-shopping informs the alienation of IT skills from the public sector, the shaping of a labour hierarchy based on skills distribution, and the foundation for the public-private partnership. The second development, the evolution of OPS management attitudes towards IT privatization, is a reflection of growing neo-liberal hegemony. Archival research indicates middle management disdain towards excessive IT privatization in the early 1980's; particularly its high costs, loss of skills and growing dependency on external private sources. By the
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late 1990's, parliamentary committee transcripts indicate IT management acceptance of more excessive IT privatization.
As neo-liberal practice became more accepted and as governments and central ministries pressured line ministries through budgetary and organizational controls, IT managers accepted their new roles as authors of RFP's and tenders of public sector work. The IT service providing industry gladly bid on contracts and acquired the new skills required for future IT projects, exacerbating the provision/dependency cycle. Furthermore, the new technologies provided an ideological smokescreen of technological necessity to conceal the market forces that promoted and benefitted from IT privatization.
"Why do managers in the Ontario Public Service privatize the production of Information Technology systems?" The dissertation has two tasks when answering this central question. First, it must refute the efficiency arguments. Second, it must formulate an answer within the context of neo-liberal state transformation, new investment strategies of IT service providing corporations and a restructured IT labour hierarchy.
Author Keywords: neo-liberalism, New Public Management, Ontario, privatization, public private partnership, public sector
ECTOPARASITIC INFLUENCES OF DIPTERA ON THE ACTIVITY AND BEHAVIOUR OF WOODLAND CARIBOU (RANGIFER TARANDUS) IN A MANAGED BOREAL FOREST LANDSCAPE IN NORTHERN ONTARIO
Caribou experience direct and indirect negative effects of harassment from biting flies, influencing behavior and activity on several spatial and temporal scales. I used systematic insect collection surveys during the summers of 2011 and 2012 to examine the spatial and temporal distributions of black flies (Simuliidae), mosquitoes (Culicidae), and deer flies and horse flies (Tabanidae) in a managed boreal forest in northern Ontario. Mosquitoes had a positive association with densely treed habitats, whereas black flies more often occurred in open areas, and tabanids had a strong presence in all habitat types. Habitats in proximity to large bodies of water had fewer biting flies than inland areas. Young stands supported higher abundances of tabanids despite vegetation community type. Next, I tested for seasonal effects of biting fly abundance on caribou activity by modelling the seasonal trend in abundance for each fly family for each year and compared this to an index of daily activity for 20 radio-collared female caribou in 2011 and 10 females in 2012. I modeled this index of caribou activity for each animal in each year and extracted the set of partial correlation coefficients from multiple regressions to test for effects of biting fly abundances on caribou activity. Caribou reduced their daily activity when tabanids were more numerous, and increased activity when mosquitoes were numerous. This divergent response may reflect a difference in the efficacy of moving to reduce harassment, owing to the stronger flight capabilities of tabanids.
Author Keywords: Activity, Anthropogenic Disturbance, Behaviour, Insect harassment, Temporal distribution, Woodland Caribou
FIRST NATION COMMUNITY PERCEPTIONS OF POSITIVE BEHAVIOUR CHANGES IDENTIFIED IN YOUTH ASSOCIATED WITH PARTICIPATION IN A COMMUNITY RECREATION PROGRAM: A GROUNDED THEORY APPROACH
This research project focused on the positive behaviour changes in First Nations youth as a result of participation in a community-based recreation program. The study was a secondary analysis based on a qualitative data set. Both adults and youth were interviewed in one-on-one and focus group settings in 12 First Nations communities across Ontario. The data was analyzed using a grounded theory approach and a substantive model was formed based on the themes that emerged from the data. The most significant of these themes were the job of the role model, self-esteem and self-efficacy. The issue of overcoming shyness and peer mentoring are also discussed.