When do stereotypes and biases affect judgments of alibis and crime suspects? Two studies addressed this question. Undergraduates (N- 192 in Study 1, N= 339 in Study 2) listened to an audio-taped police interview with a suspect concerning his/her alibi. Participants then rated the believability of the alibi and the likelihood that the suspect was guilty. The impact of: (1) the strength of the evidence that supported the alibi; (2) characteristics of the suspect (e.g., gender, attractiveness, and prior convictions); (3) judge's instructions on prior conviction evidence; and (4) perceivers' motivation to process the alibi (using scores on the Need for Cognition Scale) on alibi believability and likelihood of suspect guilt ratings was studied. Other dependent measures were assessments of the suspect's character and participant-jurors' understanding of judicial instructions. It was found that the suspect's gender and level of physical attractiveness did not affect alibi believability and guilt ratings, but were important when it came to assessing the suspect's character. Participants took the defendant's prior record into consideration when assessing guilt: Defendants previously convicted of the same crime as the current charge were seen as more likely to be guilty than defendants previously convicted of a different crime. Judge's instructions did not affect guilt ratings, which suggests that participants did not use the prior conviction evidence as they had been instructed. In contrast to predictions, need for cognition played less of a role in terms of alibi believability ratings and guilt judgments. However, NFC did affect participants' understanding of judicial instructions and their recall of those instructions. The two studies suggest that alibi strength consistently influences believability and guilt ratings. Strong alibis were seen as more believable and led to lower guilt ratings than weak alibis. Limitations of this dissertation, legal implications, and future directions are discussed.

Toxoplasma gondii is a eukaryotic, intracellular parasite capable of infecting any vertebrate animal and establishing a life-long latent infection. Despite the prevalence of T. gondii infections, the molecular mechanisms by which these parasites gain access to the host cell remain largely unknown. Recent knockout studies have implicated a select group of T. gondii surface proteins, termed SRSs (Surface Antigen Glycoprotein Related Sequences), in directing parasite attachment and persistence. Follow-up structural studies with the prototypical SRS antigen, SAG1, revealed a novel fold, termed the SRS fold, and a dimeric structure with a topologically defined basic groove predicted to play a role in ligand binding. While these initial results were very exciting, follow-up work has failed to identify a host cell ligand for SAG1, and no other members out of more than 160 members of the SRS superfamily have been structurally characterized. As a result, conservation of the SRS fold and, more specifically, structural determinants of molecular recognition remain elusive. While sequence alignments of the SRS superfamily suggested conservation of the SRS fold, several insertions and deletions presented the possibility of localized structural elements that may be essential in molecular recognition. To characterize how these insertions/deletions are represented at the structural level, the X-ray crystal structures of two members of the SRS superfamily, BSR4 and SRS2, were solved. Structural analysis revealed an unexpected degree of diversity in the SRS fold. Divergent connectivity of the beta-strands in studied proteins indicates that the SRS superfamily may be more structurally diverse than previously thought, while structural variations in the beta-strands and the loops of D1 domain suggests a possible mechanism to recognize diverse host cell ligands, such as heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs). To probe HSPGs binding and determine the role of homodimerization, the dimer constructs of SRS2 and BSR4 were engineered, produced and tested in a carbohydrate binding macro-array. Selective binding of the SRS2 dimer to heparin was detected during screening and validated using heparin-agarose pull-down and native gel shift assays. Possible molecular mechanism for SRS-HPGS interaction and the implications in T. gondii virulence are also discussed.

During spermatogenesis, one of the most drastic examples of chromatin remodelling takes place. In many organisms this coincides with drastic changes in chromatin composition, as histones are replaced by sperm nuclear basic proteins (SNBPs) of the protamine type (P-type). Due to their smaller size and higher charge, protamines compact sperm chromatin more efficiently. However, many organisms do not undergo this composition change and instead either retain histones similar to those in somatic cells in their sperm (H-type) or gain protamine-like proteins (PL-type), often in addition to histone. Fish and amphibian models are used in this thesis because they include genera with SNBPs representative of each of the three main types and provide a unique opportunity to study chromatin compaction. I focused on species that contain a partial or complete complement of histones in the sperm. Chapter 1 of this thesis is a review of the SNBP evolution, distribution and roles in chromatin compaction. In Chapter 2, the complete cDNA sequence of Xenopus laevis sperm specific proteins SP1 and SP2 is determined. Structural and functional analyses show that SP1/SP2 proteins are related to proteins of the histone H1 family, particularly to vertebrate histone H1x and are members of the protamine-like- I (PL-I) group of SNBPs. In H-type organisms that retain histones in their sperm, a remodelling of chromatin and a reduction in nuclear volume still occur during spermiogenesis. However, the factors that lead to the condensation of chromatin in these organisms are unknown and are addressed in Chapter 3. Ictalurus punctatus is determined to have sperm chromatin of the H-type, which is maximally compacted and organized into a highly repetitive structure indicative of uniformly condensed chromatin. Several histone variants and post-translational modifications (PTMs) are examined as a preliminary survey of factors potentially responsible for this compaction. Of the PTMs present in catfish testes, the most significant were histone H3 trimethylated at lysine 27, which is a well known marker of facultative heterochromatin, and histone H4 phosphorylated at serine 1, which has been documented to affect nuclear size and may help stabilize chromatin compaction in mice and yeast. A second extreme remodelling of the paternal pronucleus occurs following fertilization in order to convert the highly compacted, transcriptionally inert chromatin of the sperm into a substrate that is recognizable by the transcription and replication machinery of the zygote. Nucleoplasmin, a nuclear chaperone, participates in this remodelling in amphibians by displacing the specialized P-type and PL-type proteins from the sperm chromatin and by the transfer of H2A/H2B dimers. Nucleoplasmin was originally isolated from Xenopus (PL-type) and belongs to the nucleophosmin/nucleoplasmin (NPM) family of proteins, which have diverse functions in the cell (Reviewed in Chapter 4). The existence of H-type sperm raises uncertainty about the need for a nucleoplasmin-mediated removal process in these organisms. In Chapter 5, the presence of nucleoplasmin in Rana catesbeiana (H-type) and Bufo marinus (P-type) is assessed. The amphibian nucleoplasmins are shown to phylogenetically group with mammalian NPM2 proteins and the implications suggested by the presence of nucleoplasmin in organisms of all three SNBP-types are discussed.

While studies in masculinities and globalization are a rapidly growing field, few studies address the role of marriage in shaping masculinities. This project explores the emerging pattern of young, urban Fijian men who marry non-Fijian women and in doing so, challenge neo-traditional marriage formations and gender roles. In this particular project, I investigate how Fijian men experience these types of marriages with non-Fijian women and how they negotiate their masculinity within their marriages. I also explore how the confluence of colonial experiences, current globalization trends, and culture affect how these men understand their masculinity. I employ several methodologies including multiple interviews, participant observations, and visual anthropology methods. Through these methods, I explore how the relationship between Fijian men and non-Fijian women alters men’s experiences of masculinity and identity at the individual level. Results illustrate the importance of work in defining manhood, according to these men. As well, results suggest that the wives play a powerful role in influencing their husbands’ values with regards to work ethics and the general acceptance of global values. These relationships show the intersection and complexities that emerge between evolving ideas regarding masculinities and marriage, Fiji’s colonial experience and current global values.

This thesis studies the linear model, estimators of the treatment means, and opti¬mality criteria for designs and analysis of spatially arranged experiments. Four types of commonly used spatial correlation structures are discussed, and a neighbourhood of covariance matrices is investigated. Various properties about the neighbourhood are explored. When the covariance matrix of the error process is unknown, but be-longs to a neighbourhood of a covariance matrix, a modified generalized least squares estimator (GLSE) is proposed. This estimator seems more efficient than the ordinary least squares estimator in many practical applications. We also propose a criterion to find minimax designs that are efficient for a neighbourhood of correlations. When the number of plots is small, minimax designs can be computed exactly. When the number of plots is large, a simulated annealing algorithm is applied to find minimax or near minimax designs. Minimax designs for the least squares and generalized least squares estimators are compared in details. In general, we recommend using GLSE and the minimax design based on GLSE.

The invariant subspace problem is the long-standing question whether every operator on a Hilbert space of dimension greater than one has a non-trivial invariant subspace. Although the problem is unsolved in the Hilbert space case, there are counter-examples for operators acting on certain well-known non-reflexive Banach spaces. These counter-examples are constructed by considering a single orbit and then extending continuously to a hounded linear map on the entire space. Based on this process, we introduce an operator which has properties closely linked with an orbit. We call this operator the orbit operator. In the first part of the thesis, examples and basic properties of the orbit operator are discussed. Next, properties linking invariant subspaces to properties of the orbit operator are presented. Topics include the kernel and range of the orbit operator, compact operators, dilation theory, and Rotas theorem. Finally, we extend results obtained for strict contractions to contractions.

We present a class of multi-lane traffic models of Vlasov-Fokker-Planck type incorporating non-local and time-delayed braking/acceleration, diffu¬sion and lane changing terms whose dependencies are based on empirical guidelines. By investigating the spatially homogeneous case with non-zero passing probability incorporated in the braking term. we are left with the drift diffusion equation. which leads to a multi-valued fundamental diagram. As a novelty of this thesis. we find out that the monotonicity of the quotient between the braking/acceleration and the diffusion term in average speed guarantees the single-valued fundamental diagram. We study the large time behavior of the time-dependent kinetic density by convex entropy methods based on [3]. With a positive "residual" diffusion, convergence results remain with fewer assumptions. Two simplified examples are studied to illustrate the application of entropy methods.

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent (MMPI-A) Structural Summary was developed to aid in parsimonious interpretation of the instrument s 69 scales and subscales. The current study of 130 male and female young offenders had two goals: (1) evaluate the criterion validity of the Structural Summary as a function of ethnicity (First Nation versus Caucasian), gender, and age (16 years and under versus 17 years and older); (2) examine ethnic, gender, and age differences in the elevation of Structural Summary scores. The MMPI-A Structural Summary showed strong evidence of criterion validity and few ethnic, gender, or age differences were noted. However, compared to Caucasian youth, statistically significant and clinically meaningful elevations were found for First Nations youth on four of eight Structural Summary dimensions. As well, older adolescents were more elevated than younger adolescents on a dimension measuring general maladjustment. Results reflect substantive differences in psychopathology rather than an artefact of test bias.

This thesis will critically examine some of the central issues that revolve around the understanding and defense of negative liberty that Isaiah Berlin presented in his famous lecture Two Concepts of Liberty. By taking into consideration a variety of positions we shall observe that theories of negative liberty are not only based on a set of institutional preconditions but also necessitate some idea concerning our ends and our identities in order for us to discriminate between alternative spaces of non-interference. Such a position seems to infer that any concept of liberty must contain both positive and negative dimensions - it must be both an opportunity concept and an exercise concept. In this sense, this thesis presents an attempt to overcome the impasse between positive and negative liberty. Voiced in another fashion, the thesis presents an effort to resolve the dilemma articulated close to two hundred years ago by Benjamin Constant: how do we bring the liberty of the ancients and that of the moderns together?

Understanding the formation and evolution of disk galaxies remains one of the most intriguing and unsolved problems in cosmology. Despite the steady improvement in the number and quality of observations over the last decade, a clear consensus about the evolution of disks has not been reached. Using wide field data from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey, we examine the size and surface brightness evolution of approximately 20,000 disk galaxies from z = 0.2 to z = 1. This is the largest. sample size of high-redshift disk measurements to date. We perform two dimensional bulge+disk decompositions on all objects in the fields and select only those that are highly disk dominated. The size function of these disks shows that the distribution of sizes is unchanged over this redshift interval. Examination of various models of pure luminosity evolution show that there has been 0.5 +0.1 magnitudes of evolution over the redshift range 0.4 < z < 1.0 and 1.5 ± 0.3 magnitudes of evolution over 0.2 < z < 1.0. This is mostly consistent with passive evolution and suggests that disks were assembled prior to z = 1.