In this qualitative research study, I examine eight elementary educators perspectives on teaching science to diverse students in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). A critical pedagogy and antiracism conceptual framework is used to examine elementary educators perspectives on the interrelationship between student sociocultural background and science education. Ontario Ministry of Education policies and curriculum documents and science educational research are used to interpret themes/codes from the official literature on student diversity and science education. Key findings of my research study show that: (1) elementary educators’ are ‘socio-culturally conscious’ of diverse students in the science classroom; (2) elementary educators require a more complex and broader understanding of official discourses on the sociocultural contexts of science education and implications for scientific literacy development; and (3) professional development (i.e., workshops and training) and teacher collaboration opportunities are identified as effective strategies for supporting elementary educator in diverse science classroom spaces.

This dissertation argues that we ought to promote the integration of groups as groups. Group integration is characterised by the process through which a group develops its own institutions and becomes a participatory member of its host society. This dissertation is neither a refutation of previous literature on individual integration, nor is it a rejection of the idea that immigrant groups are owed different rights than are national minorities and aboriginal groups. Instead, the goal is to fortify our understanding of what treatment is owed to immigrant groups. This dissertation argues that it is normatively desirable to promote group integration both for instrumental benefits in terms of expediting individual integration, and due to reasons of justice and democratic equality between groups. Chapters Two, Three, and Four are predominantly theoretical. They involve a discussion of the importance of group rights and group deliberation, why group integration is normatively desirable, and a response to theoretical critiques of my proposal that group integration ought to be promoted. Chapters Five and Six are based on an application of the theory developed in the preceding chapters, and explore cases where we can see evidence of group integration. It is argued that group integration can justify differentiated rights for immigrant groups that may have integrated, as individuals and groups, under different historical circumstances. The Sixth chapter explores some implications that group integration may have for a group that is not easily characterised by the traditional liberal multiculturalist categories of aboriginal, immigrant group, and national minority. Finally, in Chapter Seven I provide an overview of the three main rubrics of argumentation used in this dissertation. / Thesis (Ph.D, Political Studies) -- Queen's University, 2014-01-28 18:13:12.34

In this qualitative research study, I examine eight elementary educators perspectives on teaching science to diverse students in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). A critical pedagogy and antiracism conceptual framework is used to examine elementary educators perspectives on the interrelationship between student sociocultural background and science education. Ontario Ministry of Education policies and curriculum documents and science educational research are used to interpret themes/codes from the official literature on student diversity and science education. Key findings of my research study show that: (1) elementary educators’ are ‘socio-culturally conscious’ of diverse students in the science classroom; (2) elementary educators require a more complex and broader understanding of official discourses on the sociocultural contexts of science education and implications for scientific literacy development; and (3) professional development (i.e., workshops and training) and teacher collaboration opportunities are identified as effective strategies for supporting elementary educator in diverse science classroom spaces.

A national inventory of UK plant genetic resources carried out in 2003-4 covered surveys and documentation of landrace types, occurrences and threats. Among the local varieties found, those with longest histories of local cultivation occurred on the most remote Scottish islands: the Outer Hebrides and Tiree had bere (Hordeum vulgare L.), Small oat (Avena strigosa Schreb.) and rye (Secale cereale L.); bere and Small oat on Orkney and Shetland; and Shetland cabbage (B. olearacea L.) on Shetland. These landraces are not only geographically but also agriculturally marginal; they are confined to crofting agriculture and used in low-intensity pastoralism. Two of these, the oat and the cabbage, were chosen for a characterization study which formed the major part of this PhD thesis. The broad aims of the characterization study were first, to describe the existing diversity within Scotland; to document the ex situ collection of Scottish landraces; to better understand genetic structure and dynamics of the landraces; but also to explore the use of a characterization study to raise awareness about landraces. Morphological and microsatellite results showed distinct identities for both landraces in relation to the respective outgroups; in the oat distinct regional identities were found. High diversity was found, most of the genetic variation however, was within populations, for both inbreeder (oat) and outbreeder (cabbage). This can be attributed to frequent and widespread seed exchange and seed swapping within island groups, while the small but significant regional distinctness is maintained through isolation between the three islands groups. The morphological characterization of Small oats was carried out in situ, on a croft in the Southern Outer Hebrides, aiming at education and raising awareness about landraces among secondary school students, maintainers and the local public in general. The extension and education element of the study seemed useful in raising the issue of landraces locally. Carrying out the trial in the area of origin and amidst maintainers had the additional advantage of identifying and communicating with stakeholders groups. Integrated conservation of ex situ collection and maintainers has been achieved through the Scottish Landrace Protection Scheme. By retaining the link between landraces and maintainers during the characterization, a springboard may have been created for feedback of the genetic results into the local seed system and to discuss further support options for landraces and maintainers.

This thesis is a study of harmonized continuous phase modulation (H-CPM) coupled with receive diversity as applied to mobile radio communication applications. H-CPM is the modulation technique specified by the American Public Safety Communication Official Project 25 (APCO P25) Phase 2 standards, which is focused on public safety applications. Practical implementation of an H-CPM maximum likelihood sequence estimator (MLSE) receiver requires complex reduction techniques to ensure a cost effective form. In addition, it must be able to handle a fast fading environment, which is often encountered in public safety applications. Here, the reduction of receiver complexity and the combating of fast fading situations are investigated via MATLAB simulation. By using tilted phase and frequency pulse truncation techniques, the complexity of an H-CPM MLSE receiver is successfully reduced. In particular, the original 384-state receiver is first reduced to a 192-state receiver through the use of tilted phase. Then it is further reduced to 48-states and finally to 12-states by applying frequency pulse truncation. Simulation, assuming static channels, shows that the bit error rate (BER) performance of a 12-state receiver is essentially identical to that of a 384-state receiver, despite a 97% reduction in computational complexity. To take into account the effects of fading, channel gain estimation via persurvivor processing (PSP) is incorporated into the reduced complexity MLSE receiver. Using a weighted-sum approach to the PSP gain estimates, it was found that at Doppler shifts of 5 Hz, 40 Hz and 80 Hz, the receiver performance was comparable to that obtainable by rival techniques. To further reduce the effect of fading, receive diversity combining was investigated, where a three-antenna diversity scheme is applied to the reduced state PSP-based MLSE receiver. Three different combining techniques, namely selective combining (SC), equal gain combining (EGC) and maximum ratio combining (MRC) were compared. It was found via simulation that the best performance is achieved using MRC, with as much as 14dB improvement achieved by applying triple diversity MRC.

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The application of animal manure as a fertilizer source is a common practice in Western Canada. Manure acts as an organic amendment, while providing an economic means of restoring soil nutrients imperative to plant growth. This being said, manure is also microbiologically active, capable of introducing new bacteria into the soil and groundwater environments. The development of high-throughput molecular techniques has provided a means of characterizing the bacterial communities of animal manures, and ecosystems affected by their presence. This study examined the impact of pig slurry amendments on the bacterial communities of soil, groundwater, and the hindgut of grazing cattle over the growing season using three common molecular methods (Terminal-restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP), Sanger sequencing, and pyrosequencing). T-RFLP results show that sample occasion had more of an impact on the bacterial communities in cattle, soil and groundwater than slurry application. T-RFLP, Sanger sequencing and pyrosequencing characterized the pig slurry as being dominated by Firmicutes, specifically Clostridium spp. Sanger sequencing confirmed that very few classified genera present in the pig slurry were common to the three other environments. Pyrosequencing provided a more in-depth characterization of soil and groundwater over the growing season following the application of slurry. Firmicutes were again dominant in the pig slurry, and were comprised mainly of Clostridium spp. Slurry treated soils had greater relative abundance of Firmicutes, specifically Clostridium spp., compared to unamended soil. Pyrosequencing identified only one groundwater sequence out of 13,578 sequences that was common to the pig slurry, which indicates very little transfer from slurry to groundwater. Pyrosequencing was then performed on an annual cropping system to compare the impact of manures (solid dairy, and solid pig), and synthetic N on the bacterial community of soil in the short- (within a growing season) and medium-term (after three successive years). Solid pig manure treatments revealed greater diversity compared to synthetic and control treatments and diversity was also higher at post-harvest than post-planting. Bacterial communities between treatments were distinct in the short-term but returned to their original structure by the end of the growing season indicating a resilient soil bacterial community.

Tidigare forskning menar att förmågan att vara empatisk mot andra ökar om man är lika i termer av etnicitet, kön, ålder och bakgrund. Huvudsyftet med studien var att studera skillnader i etnokulturell empati, det vill säga empati som riktar sig mot individer av annat etnicitet och kultur. Två separata studier gjordes, Studie 1 i USA (N=75), och Studie 2 i Sverige (N=92). Effekter av kön och ålder testades. Deltagarna var av blandade åldrar, kön och etniciteter. Mätinstrumentet som användes var The Scale of Ethnocultural Empathy (SEE). Resultatet från Studie 1 visar att en del av den etnokulturella empatin antas skilja sig åt beoende på kön då männen visade högre etnokulturella empativärden än kvinnorna. I båda studierna antas yngre påvisa delvis högre etnokulturella empativärden än äldre. Resultatet kan leda till nya diskussioner angående generaliseringen och stereotypiseringen huruvida kvinnor och äldre besitter högst empati i dagens samhälle.

På arbetsmarknaden finns det åtminstone tre olika generationer. Då alla generationer fostras på olika sätt beroende på när de är uppväxta kan det skapas svårigheter kring samarbete, ledarskap och lojalitet i arbetslivet. Vissa menar att dessa generationer är väldigt olika och att de behöver olika typer av ledarskap. Denna studie behandlar skillnader och likheter mellan generation X och Y och hur de ser på hur deras närmsta chef och hur organisationen bör vara. Resultaten av denna kvalitativa intervjustudie med totalt åtta respondenter visar att det finns indikationer på en skillnad mellan generation X och Y då de beskrivit att de har olika behov och uppskattar olika typer av ledare. När så pass många och olika generationer finns på arbetsmarknaden samtidigt kan det vara svårt för cheferna att möta varje enskild generation med en anpassad ledarskapsstil. Det vore istället att föredra om cheferna skapade en ledarskapsstil som fungerade oberoende av generation.

The extent and nature of institutional differentiation is a design choice among many that must be considered by policymakers not only when developing a higher education system but also when introducing policy changes to an existing system. Modifications to the design of Ontario’s higher education system have been suggested over the years in an effort to increase its quality (instruction and research) and accessibility in a cost effective manner. The fiscal climate of restraint has recently intensified the debate for structural changes through increased institutional differentiation in Ontario’s higher education system. Institutional diversity was examined using a mixed research method in two phases. This study first used hierarchical cluster analysis which suggested that there has been very little change in diversity between 1994 and 2010 as universities were clustered in three groups for both 1994 and 2010.However, by adapting Birnbaum’s (1983) diversity matrix methodology to Ontario’s university sector, there appears to have been a decrease in systemic diversity (differences in the type of institution and size of institution) and climate diversity (differences in campus environment and culture) between 1994 and 2010 and a projected further decrease to 2018. The second phase of this study used policy analysis and drew on mutually related theoretical perspectives from organizational theory as its primary conceptual framework to interpret and corroborate the decrease in diversity between 1994 and 2010. Interviews were also conducted with university presidents to gain a greater understanding of the key factors or barriers in Ontario’s reticence in proposing design changes in its higher education system. Having been informed by the policy analysis, interviews and projections of the extent of diversity to 2018, the study proposed a diversity policy for Ontario’s university sector. Diversity can be increased in Ontario’s university sector by providing institutions with competitive incremental funding allocations within each of three clusters that would specifically address government diversity objectives through a revised strategic mandate agreement process. Additional research funding should also be provided by the federal government to a limited number of research-intensive universities to ensure that Canadian institutions remain competitive on the world stage.