Rationale: Impulse control deficits are thought to underlie criminal offending. Impulsive choice is a facet of impulse control that refers to a preference for immediate over delayed rewards. This facet of impulse control has been measured empirically using the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), which provides a metric of overall disadvantageous decision-making, as well as metrics of specific maladaptive decision-making strategies. Purpose: To investigate impulsive choice as a measure of impairment in offenders as reflected by performance on the IGT, and to examine maladaptive decision-making strategies that may mimic real-life decisions to engage in illegal behaviour. Methods: 100 Canadian federal offenders (34% female, mean age = 39.14 ± 9.74) and 89 controls (39% female, mean age = 37.04 ± 10.79) completed the IGT. The IGT involves repeatedly choosing cards from four decks. Two decks are “good” and result in a net gain on the task, and two decks are “bad” and result in a net loss. Decks offer a fixed reward, but vary in loss magnitude and frequency. IGT data were analyzed for net score (number of good choices minus number of bad choices), learning across the task, and deck switching patterns. Other assessments included data on offenders’ current sentence and risk for reoffence level. Results: Offenders performed significantly poorer than controls in terms of net score. Controls learned the advantageous strategy across the task but offenders did not. Offenders also made greater use of a “win-stay/lose-shift” strategy. Low-risk offenders performed significantly better than medium- or high-risk offenders on the IGT. Conclusion: These results suggest that, compared with controls, offenders tend to make riskier choices and use maladaptive decision-making strategies that provide a larger immediate reward but are disadvantageous in the long term. The IGT, as part of a comprehensive assessment of risk, may provide valuable information for preventing criminal offending and recidivism. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / Criminal offending is thought to be related to impulse control problems. Research has linked offending to poor performance on a decision-making task known as the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). On the IGT, participants repeatedly choose cards from four decks that provide wins and losses of points. Two decks are “good” and result in an overall gain on the task, and two decks are “bad” and result in an overall loss. In this study, 100 Canadian federal offenders and 89 non-incarcerated control participants completed the IGT. Offenders performed worse than the control group overall, and control participants but not offenders learned the best strategy (i.e., choosing from good decks) over the course of the task. Additionally, offenders with a “Low” criminal risk rating did better than those at “Medium” or “High” risk levels. These results suggest that the IGT may provide important information about the cause and prevention of criminal offending.

This critical discourse analysis aims to explore the construction of discourses on mental health inside of Canadian federal corrections through analysis of two reports published by the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC). Simultaneously utilizing Mad and Critical Disability studies as a theoretical framework, I engage with the material to examine the ways that individuals with mental health concerns are constructed in the texts. Results indicate that CSC relies on medical and individual understandings of mental health and (re)produce discourses of violence and risk as well as individual deficiency or otherness within their texts. Ways in which CSC operationalizes these discourses are explored and include violent treatments for those with mental health concerns such as segregation, forced medication, labelling, and restraint or use of force. An analysis of the ways in which CSC maintains their power and domination over discourse regarding mental health concerns in Canadian corrections is examined, including critiques of the ways they ensure erasure and silencing of mental health consumers as well as their lack of attention to historical, political and social implications in their texts. This research reveals how CSC uses negative discourses, namely discourses of violence or risk and medical or individual deficiency, to authorize various violences on those with mental health concerns within federal corrections. / Thesis / Master of Social Work (MSW)

An alternative approach to the problem of CP-violation is presented. It is based on the possibility of spontaneous CP-breakdown in models with two Higgs doublets. General features of the phenomenon such as stability of the vacuum and the existence of a light axion are discussed. We investigate the feasibility of spontaneously broken CP in the minimal supersymmetric models - the MSSM and NMSSM. The latter is shown to be experimentally viable. The phenomenological implications of the model such as CP-violating effects in the kaon systems and a nonzero neutron electric dipole moment are studied. / Ph. D.

Differential corrections provide a method to improve the real-time accuracy and precision of GPS, but there are several sources of differential corrections and each have an associated accuracy and precision. In dynamic applications, the speed and heading of the rover may also have an effect on the accuracy and precision reported by the GPS receiver. These factors may have more of an effect on one differential correction method than another. An experiment was designed to test the differential correction methods under dynamic conditions. No corrections, OmniStar HP corrections, and RT2 corrections from a local base station were tested at several speeds and headings. The experiment was designed to determine what relationship, if any, exists between these factors and positional accuracy and precision of the differential correction sources. The results of the experiment will help designers choose the most effective solution for their positioning needs. The experiment showed that local RT2 corrections offered the most precision under dynamic conditions. The precision of OmniStar HP was close to that of RT2 corrections. The system with no corrections was the least precise of the three tested. The speed and direction of the vehicle were not observed to have a significant affect on the precision of the systems tested. The type of differential corrections used was not seen to have any influence on relative accuracy. The speed and direction of the vehicle did have an influence on the relative accuracy of the systems. / Master of Science

During the last decade, criminal justice and prison reform in the United States has been at the core of many social organizations, rallies and protests throughout the country. While most concerns aim for increased policing, legislative change and the reduction of incarceration rates altogether, the current living conditions for inmates prove to have a significant impact on their psychological wellbeing and ultimately rehabilitation. The experience of an inmate inside a prison appears to be only a small part of the wider issue, however. The U.S. currently holds the highest incarceration rates as well as the highest rate of re-offending in the world, creating a cycle that sustains high crime levels, lack of development opportunities and no coherent plan for a successful rehabilitation. This can be partially attributed to most inmates receiving poor preparation for the outside world, without incentivizing a return to a familiar environment. Together this creates a difficult barrier between the inmates and the general public. The experience while serving a sentence can drastically affect the potential of re-offending. The seclusive approach of most jails and prisons in the US creates an internal society that differs greatly from the society to which inmates are exposed after their sentence has been served. A disassociation and hostility from the general public towards convicts further stigmatizes any interaction between them and the prisoners who ultimately will rejoin that same public. While many of the challenges faced by inmates when re-introduced into the outside society can be alleviated by policy changes, also architecture has the potential to assist in the reform the internal experience of inmates. The hypothesis here proposes that the design of a prison should be closer to an analogy of the outside world in order to generate a greater familiarity with the structures of a society in which they ultimately will have to operate after rehabilitation. This project seeks to create a micro-urban condition within an urban prison through various architectural conditions. Home, neighborhood, city are ideological moments with architectural principles that form the basis of this design approach. The elongation of the typically short paths suggests a sense of commuting. A separation of functional spaces from living spaces, combined with spaces for integration where inmates and public can meet denotes the second major deviation from a typical prison program. While still a controlled environment, it more parallels the lives of the general public, an attempt to diminish the experiential boundaries faced by inmates when they are released. / Master of Architecture / Criminal justice and prison reform in the United States has been at the core of many social organizations, rallies and protests throughout the country. While most demands aim for increased policing, legislative change and the reduction of incarceration rates altogether, the current living conditions for inmates prove to have a significant impact on their psychological wellbeing and ultimately rehabilitation. The U.S. currently holds the highest incarceration rates as well as the highest rates of recidivism in the world, forming a cycle that maintains high crime levels with no coherent plan for successful rehabilitation. This can be partially attributed to most inmates receiving poor preparation for the outside world, experiencing hostility and unfamiliarity upon release. The seclusive approach of most jails and prisons in the US creates an internal society that differs greatly from the framework of our society. Disassociation and hostility from the general public towards convicts further stigmatizes any interaction between them and the prisoners.Many of these concerns could be adressed by policy changes, but architecture has the potential to reform the internal experience of inmates to assist their transition back into society . The hypothesis here proposes that the design of a prison should be closer to an analogy of the outside world in order to generate a greater familiarity with the structures of a society in which they ultimately will have to operate after rehabilitation. While still a controlled environment, it more parallels the lives of the general public, an attempt to diminish the experiential boundaries faced by inmates when they are released.

Foreword / Hans Toch -- Introduction / David Polizzi, Michael Braswell -- A phenomenological approach to criminology / Christopher M. Aanstoos -- Phenomenological and existential approaches to crime and corrections / Hayden Smith, Kenneth Adams -- Offender objectification : implications for social change / John S. Ryals, Jr. -- Theorizing criminalized subjectivities : narrating silenced identities / Dawn Moore -- Dialogue : a unique perspective for correctional counseling / Matthew R. Draper, Mark S. Green, Ginger Faulkner -- The good lives model : a strength-based approach to offender rehabilitation / Tony Ward and Clare-Ann Fortune -- Transforming corrections through psychological jurisprudence redux : towards a radical philosophical and cultural critique / Bruce A. Arrigo -- Mutual respect and effective prison management / Terry A. Kupers -- Civility in prisons : a radical proposal / Catherine A. Jenks, John Randolph Fuller -- Varieties of restorative justice : therapeutic interventions in context / Lana A. McDowell, John T. Whitehead -- Ambiguous loss, concrete hope : examining the prison experience for mothers from an ambiguous loss framework / Beth Easterling -- How the "positive" can influence criminal behavior : growing out of criminal spin by positive criminology approaches / Natti Ronel and Dana Segev -- Correctional treatment and the human spirit : the context of relationship / Michael Braswell, Kristin Wells -- Psycho-spiritual roots of adolescent violence : the importance of rites of passage / Drake Spaeth -- Transforming meaning : the nexus between the utilization of the Rogerian framework and the social construction of pedophilic sex offenders / Roger Schaefer -- Developing therapeutic trust with court-ordered clients / David Polizzi -- Epilogue : toward a more humanistic future in corrections / David Polizzi. / https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu_books/1073/thumbnail.jpg

L’étude des propriétés du boson de Higgs représente une excellente opportunité pour la recherche de Nouvelle Physique. En particulier, sa masse est mesurée avec une précision impressionnante, de l’ordre de 0.1%, tandis qu’elle est aussi prédite par certains modèles au-delà du Modèle Standard, notamment les modèles supersymétriques. Le but de cette thèse est de faire avancer le calcul des corrections radiatives aux masses des scalaires dans les modèles au-delà du Modèle Standard, ainsi que l’automatisation de ces calculs, afin d’établir ou d’améliorer les limites sur les couplages entre la Nouvelle Physique et le boson de Higgs. Nous calculons d’abord les corrections dominantes à deux boucles, de la forme O(alpha_s alpha_t), aux masses des scalaires neutres dans les modèles supersymétriques à jauginos de Dirac. Ensuite, nous montrons comment surmonter la Catastrophe des Bosons de Goldstone, un cas de divergences infrarouges dues aux bosons de Goldstones de masses nulles qui affecte les calculs de potentiels effectifs, d’équations « tadpoles » et d’énergies propres, en adoptant un schéma de renormalisation « on-shell » pour les masses des bosons de Goldstone. Nous illustrons la mise en œuvre numérique de notre solution dans le programme SARAH, et finalement, nous considérons le comportement aux hautes énergies de modèles non-supersymétriques avec des secteurs scalaires étendus. / The Standard Model-like Higgs boson provides an excellent setting for the indirect search of New Physics, through the study of its properties. In particular its mass is now measured with an astonishing precision, of the order of 0.1%, while being predicted in some models of Beyond the Standard Model (BSM) Physics, such as supersymmetric (SUSY) models. The main purpose of this thesis is to push further the calculation of radiative corrections to Higgs boson masses in BSM models, as well as the automation of these calculations, in order to set or improve constraints on New Physics coupling to the Higgs boson. A first chapter is devoted to the computation of the leading two-loop O (alpha_s alpha_t) corrections to neutral scalar masses in SUSY models with Dirac gauginos. Then, we show to address the Goldstone Boson Catastrophe -- a case of infra-red divergences due to massless Goldstone bosons that plague the calculation of effective potentials, tadpole equations, and self-energies -- in the context of general renormalisable field theories, by adopting an on-shell renormalisation scheme for the Goldstone masses. Afterwards, we illustrate the numerical implementation of our solution to the Goldstone Boson Catastrophe in the public tool SARAH. Finally, in a last chapter, we consider the high-scale behaviour of non-supersymmetric models with extended Higgs sectors.

Because rejoining the workforce may prevent against ex-offender recidivism, securing gainful employment is one of the best indicators of successful societal reintegration for released prisoners. However, the stigma attached to a criminal history, combined with ex-prisoners’ lack of human capital, may threaten their ability to obtain a job. The present study examines hiring managers’ attitudes towards previously imprisoned offenders applying for positions in their workplace. Using a combination of brief, fictional applicant biographies and surveys, this mixed-groups factorial study explores how hiring managers (N= 28) consider gender, type of offense, and race when an ex-offender is assessed during the application process. Results indicated that, regardless of their offense, gender, and race, ex-prisoners were generally perceived to be less employable and less likely to have work-related characteristics such as honesty and the ability to communicate effectively.

Dans le contexte d'un intérêt grandissant pour les systèmes stéréoscopiques, mais sans méthodes reproductible pour estimer leur qualité, notre travail propose une contribution à la meilleure compréhension des mécanismes de perception et de jugement humains relatifs au concept multi-dimensionnel de qualité d'image stéréoscopique. Dans cette optique, notre démarche s'est basée sur un certain nombre d'outils : nous avons proposé un cadre adapté afin de structurer le processus d'analyse de la qualité des images stéréoscopiques, nous avons implémenté dans notre laboratoire un système expérimental afin de conduire plusieurs tests, nous avons crée trois bases de données d'images stéréoscopiques contenant des configurations précises et enfin nous avons conduit plusieurs expériences basées sur ces collections d'images. La grande quantité d'information obtenue par l'intermédiaire de ces expérimentations a été utilisée afin de construire un premier modèle mathématique permettant d'expliquer la perception globale de la qualité de la stéréoscopie en fonction des paramètres physiques des images étudiée. / In a context of ever-growing interest in stereoscopic systems, but where no standardized algorithmic methods of stereoscopic quality assessment exist, our work stands as a step forward in the understanding of the human perception and judgment mechanisms related to the multidimensional concept of stereoscopic image quality. We used a series of tools in order to perform in-depth investigations in this direction: we proposed an adapted framework to structure the process of stereoscopic quality assessment, we implemented a stereoscopic system in our laboratory for performing various tests, we created three stereoscopic datasets with precise structures, and we performed several experimental studies using these datasets. The numerous experimental data obtained were used in order to propose a first mathematical framework for explaining the overall percept of stereoscopic quality in function of the physical parameters of the stereoscopic images under study.

Je propose la première étude quantitative des corrections radiatives du modèle EPRL en gravité quantique à mousse de spins. Ce modèle est la proposition la plus élaborée de gravité quantique Lorentzienne 4D dite 'indépendante du fond' ('background independent'). C'est une réalisation, par intégrale de chemin, de la quantification de la Relativité Générale comme somme sur les géométries. L'étude se focalise sur les propriétés et les aspects géométriques de l'analogue du graphe de self-énergie du modèle, connu comme le graphe 'melonique'. Je montre que les contributions dominantes à un tel graphe divergent beaucoup moins que celles de modèles similaires en théorie topologique des champs. De plus, je dérive en détails la dépendance des amplitudes aux données de bords, et montre que ce graphe n'induit pas une renormalisation de la fonction d'onde. Ceci est dû à des raisons reliées aux fondements du modèle. Cependant, il se trouve que l'amplitude se réduit à une telle renormalisation dans la limite de nombres quantiques élevés. Ensuite, je montre les conséquences de ces calculs sur une observable physique : la fonction à deux points de la métrique quantique. Ainsi, je montre comment l'insertion du graphe de self-énergie dans l'intérieur de la mousse de spins utilisée a des effets non-triviaux sur la fonction à deux points, modifiant ses contributions à l'ordre dominant. De façon intéressante, ces effets ne disparaissent pas dans la limite des nombres quantiques élevés. Enfin, je discute les conséquences de ces calculs pour le modèle lui-même, et je souligne et commente les traits généraux qui semblent commun à tout modèle de mousse de spins basé sur le schéma présenté ici. / I present the first quantitative study of radiative corrections within the EPRL model of quantum gravity. This model is the most advanced proposal of Lorentzian 4-dimensional background-independent quantum gravity. It is a realization of the path-integral quantization of general relativity as a sum over geometries. The present study focuses on the properties and geometrical features of the analogue of the self-energy graph within the model, often referred to as the "melon"-graph. Here, I show that the dominating contribution to such a graph is characterized by a degree of divergence much smaller than that of closely related topological quantum field theories. Moreover, I work out in detail the dependence of the amplitude from the boundary data, and find that the self-energy graph does not simply induce a wave function renormaliziation. This happens for reasons deeply related to the model foundations. However, it turns out that the amplitude reduces to a wave function renormalzation in the limit of large quantum numbers. Then, I show the consequences of this calculations on a concrete spinfoam observable: the quantum-metric two-point function. In doing this, I show how the insertion of the self-energy graph in the bulk of the (first-order) spinfoam used in the calculation, has non-trivial effects on the correlation function, modifying its leading order contributions. Most interestingly, this effects do not disappear in the limit of large quantum number. Finally, I discuss the consequences of these calculations for the model itself, and I point out and comment those general features which seem to be common to any spinfoam model based on the present model-building schemes.