This thesis was written to explore the structural case patterns of the Burushaski sentence and to examine the different participant coding systems which appear between noun marking and verb agreement. Verb suffixes follow nominative alignment patterns of agreement, while the verb prefix agrees with the affected argument as determined by semantic relations, as opposed to syntactic ones. The agent noun phrase is directly marked when highly active or volitional, suggesting a system of agent marking on the noun phrase and nominative alignment on the verb suffix. Nominative alignment also allows for a less marked presence of passive voice. Burushaski's agent marking is not entirely consistent; however, its nominative alignment is consistent. The conclusion is that Burushaski is not an ergative language at all.

Free Trade Agreements and particularly Asymmetric ones have been discussed controversially for several decades now. The Latin American region has increased their efforts to integrate their economies in the international arena. The Andean Community being a customs union in Latin America signed a Free Trade Agreement with the European Union in 2013. Being an asymmetric trade deal, this thesis examined whether it has resulted in trade creation and trade diversion effects already. Looking at the results, I can clearly reject the notion of negative effects as a consequence of the trade agreement. Considering the entire, but also the agricultural and manufactured economic sectors, I found statistically significant trade creation effects. Concerning trade diversion effects, the results were not statistically significant and additional research in the future seems required. Keywords Gravity Model, Asymmetric Free Trade Agreement, Trade creation, Trade diversion, Andean Community, EU, Panel Econometrics Title Comprehensive Trade Agreement between Asymmetric Partners

This dissertation explored the ways faculty at two- and four-year institutions with articulation agreements collaborate to improve the retention rates of transfer students, using the Wilder Collaboration Factors (WCF) as a theoretical lens. This research was conducted to analyze the level of collaboration, and differentiate among the perceptions of collaboration among university and community college faculty. The purpose of the study was to build upon the limited amount of research on postsecondary collaboration. Nonparametric statistical analyses were performed to provide answers to the research questions. Analysis of the data revealed that the participants demonstrated strength in 18 of the 20 WCF. The analysis also indicated that there was no statistically significant difference between the perceptions of collaboration among university and community college faculty. A principal components analysis led to the development of a modified conceptual framework joining the WCF and stages of collaboration that may be used to inform practice and policy. Recommendations include allocating faculty release time or incentives for collaboration, expanding articulation agreements to include K-12 alignment and policies on faculty collaboration, and using the Wilder Collaboration Factors Inventory (WCFI) as a tool to continue to assess the strengths, weaknesses, and differences in perception among university and community college faculty as they advance in collaborative stages.

Technological innovations have lead to the development of Wearable Physiological Monitoring devices, that have enabled researchers and clinicians in real-time monitoring of physiologic function within a field setting. However, it is important to establish the psychometric properties of a device prior to its utilization. A systematic review was conducted to provide a summary and appraise the quality of the literature on psychometric parameters of Zephyr Bioharness and Fitbit devices. Based on this review, we addressed the current gaps in the literature regarding the reliability parameters of Zephyr Bioharness and Fitbit Charge devices, and established the validity and agreement properties of Fitbit Charge device. For our systematic review, we searched the Google Scholar and PubMed databases to identify articles. To establish the reliability, validity and agreement parameters of Zephyr Bioharness and Fitbit Charge devices, a convenience and snowball sampling approaches were used to recruit sixty participants (30 females) from university student, staff, faculty population, and MacSeniors Community Program at McMaster University. The performance of Zephyr and Fitbit devices were assessed throughout three phases; rest, Modified Canadian Aerobic Fitness Test and recovery. In our study, at rest, inter-session average heart rate (beats/min.) ICCs (SEM) for Zephyr and Fitbit ranged from 0.90 – 0.94 (1.73 – 2.37) and 0.88 – 0.94 (1.83 – 2.67) respectively. At mCAFT, the Zephyr ICCs (SEM) ranged from 0.91 – 0.97 (3.12 – 4.64) and 0.85 – 0.98 (3.28 – 4.88) for the Fitbit. Throughout the recovery, the ICCs (SEM) ranged from 0.93 – 0.97 (2.65 – 4.66) and 0.76 – 0.91 (3.17 – 4.67) for Zephyr and Fitbit devices respectively. Pearson’s correlation coefficients and (Mean differences) for heart rate variable were 0.97 – 0.99 (-0.60 – 0.02) at Rest, 0.89 – 0.99 (13.51 – 0.62) at submaximal testing and 0.70 – 0.84 (-0.54 – 2.52) throughout recovery. The average agreement bias of heart rate in pair-wise device comparison indicated mean differences of -0.20, 4.00 and 1.00 at rest, sub-maximal testing and recovery respectively. We identified fair to very good quality evidence from 14 studies. The Zephyr Bioharness and Fitbit Charge devices demonstrated excellent reliability measures, and the Fitbit Charge device heart rate variable demonstrated strong to very strong correlations when concurrently compared with Zephyr, and provided valuable information regarding its interchangeable use in a sample of sixty healthy male and female participants of various age groups during a resting, standardized submaximal fitness and recovery phases. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

Background Guidelines recommend the use of perfusion computed tomography (CT) to identify emergent large vessel ischemic stroke (ELVIS) patients who are likely to benefit from endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) if they present within 6-24 hour (late window) of stroke onset. We aim to determine if the interrater and intrarater reliability among physicians when recommending EVT is significantly different when perfusion CT or non-perfusion CT is reviewed. Methods A total of 30 non-consecutive patients were selected from our institutional database comprising 3144 cranial CT scans (January 2018-August 2022) performed for acute stroke symptoms. The clinical and radiologic data of the 30 patients were presented in random order to a group of 29 physicians in two separate sessions at least three weeks apart. In each session, the physicians evaluated each patient once with automated perfusion images and once without. We used non-overlapping 95% confidence intervals and difference in agreement classification as criteria to suggest a difference between the Gwet AC1 statistics (κG). Results Twenty-nine raters successfully completed the first round of surveys, with all but one of them also completing the second. The interrater (κG) agreement amonth 29 raters is similar with non-perfusion CT neuroimaging compared to perfusion CT neuroimaging (κG = 0.487; 95% CI 0.327,0.647 and κG =0.552; 95% CI 0.430,0.675). The 95% confidence intervals overlapped and both κG signify moderate agreement. The intrarater agreement κG had overlapping 95% confidence intervals for all 28 raters. κG was either substantial or excellent (0.81-1) for 71.4% (20/28) of patients in both groups. Conclusions Our findings suggest that automated perfusion images and quantitative values that are present in the perfusion CT neuroimaging but not in non-perfusion CT neuroimaging do not significantly affect the reliability of the decisions made by physicians on EVT for late window ELVIS patients. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / Background and Methods Strokes that are associated with a blood clot in the brain may be treated by endovascular thrombectomy (EVT), a procedure that involves pulling the occlusion out. In this study we wanted to know whether a particular type of way to image the brain, perfusion computed tomography (CT) compared to plain CT makes a difference in how doctors decide on whether to treat these patients or not. Perfusion imaging comes at a cost and may not be available in all centers. Both imaging techniques are used to determine which patients would benefit from EVT (Endovascular Treatment). The goal of imaging is to confirm a stroke and assess whether a significant portion of the brain is still salvageable, as performing the procedure may not be beneficial otherwise. Results and Conclusions Our study suggests that the decisions made by physicians when reviewing patients with either imaging are comparable.

Proponents of resource development often cite wage employment as a key benefit that Indigenous communities receive from resource development. This is based on the assumption that there is a sufficient supply of desirable employment and that job quality is high. Accordingly, provisions in Impact Benefit Agreements often focus on hiring and promotion and neglect job quality even when the latter arguably affects the desirability of mining employment. At the same time, labour unions, pivotal to improving work conditions, wages and benefits in mining, have been losing ground as global firms expand their use of subcontractors and shift to smaller, more skilled and mobile workforces. In this paper we investigate the complexity of the shifting industrial relations in Northern Canada, drawing on case studies of two mines with Impact Benefit Agreements in Nunavik: Raglan mine owned by Glencore, and Nunavik Nickel mine owned by Canadian Royalties. Drawing on document analysis and interviews with representatives from mining companies, unions and Inuit governments and organizations, this paper highlights how the complex relations among unions, companies and Inuit governments, as mediated by Impact Benefit Agreements, influence employment and job quality for Inuit workers. We propose that greater alliances between unions and Inuit governments are critical to Indigenous employment initiatives. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

The need to maintain business confidential information within the company are increasing in today’s knowledge-based society. Today, trade secrets are an asset for entrepreneurs and important for competitiveness. These secrets are sometimes provided to the employees and the more secrets spread, the more vulnerable the employer becomes. To prevent trade secrets from being disclosed there is a law about confidential information and competition clauses could be entered in the employment contracts. Nevertheless, the need to protect confidential information must be compared to the right of workers to freely use their skills. This paper aims to highlight the legal situation and the legal balance between both parts within the law of confidential information and competition clauses on the basis of a legal science method. It also aims to highlight the use of non-compete agreements from a gender perspective. The purpose of the paper has led to the following research questions; How can the legal framework of trade secrets and compete clauses be understood from an employer and employee perspective and what are the consequences of it? From a gender perspective, what consequences does the balance between the employer’s need to protect confidential information and the employees’ need to be competitive on the labor market after an employment have? The paper shows that there are weaknesses in the law of confidential information through the employer’s perspective and the law does not stall the employees’ competitiveness. The non-compete agreements however, may jeopardize the movement of the employees and are often seen as unfair in Swedish court. However, the problem is that the freedom of enter contracts prevails and the agreements are valid until an arbitration or court shows otherwise. The study indicates that it is mostly men that are subject to compete clauses, which can lead to improvement of women’s position in the labor market.

Canadian federalism has experienced pressure for change in recent years. By the end of the twentieth century, collaboration became the catch word and federations throughout the world, including Canada, witnessed an emergent movement toward collaborative governance, collaborative public service delivery, collaborative management and collaborative approaches to addressing social and economic issues. But even if the number of collaborative arrangements has grown since the 1990s, the understanding of the design, management and performance of collaborative arrangements in the Canadian federation remains weak. Accordingly, this dissertation argues that, in order to understand and open the black box of intergovernmental collaboration, it is necessary to put collaboration in a historical context and explore the roles of elites and political institutions in shaping intergovernmental collaborative practices. The role of the former provides the necessary complement of agency, while that of the latter represents a perspective that gives theoretical importance to political institutions. The integration of the two theoretical schools, elite theory and historical institutionalism, into one approach constitutes an attractive solution and offers the tools necessary to explore the complex processes of intergovernmental collaboration. The theoretical framework constructed in this dissertation is then applied to analyze whether the Agreement on Internal Trade, the Social Union Framework Agreement and the Council of the Federation can be considered in reality as examples of collaborative federalism.

This thesis explores the mental representation of subject-verb agreement, and the factors that can affect the determination of agreement in language production. It reports nine experiments that used a task in which participants produced sentence completions for visually presented complex subjects such as “The greyhound which two lively rabbits were tempting”. Such completions typically agree with the head noun (greyhound) as in “A greyhound which two lively rabbits were tempting is jumping” but sometimes agree with the local noun (rabbits) as in “A greyhound which two lively rabbits were tempting are jumping”. The first experiments examined the value of the concept of markedness in subject verb number agreement to see whether it has explanatory power for languages like Slovene with more than two number values. Results from two experiments employing complex sentence preambles including a head noun post modified by a prepositional phrase or a relative clause (e.g., “The nudist(s) near the sand dune(s)”) show that Slovene number agreement differs from number agreement in languages with no dual, but that it is not possible to simply state that the singular is the least marked and the dual the most. I argue that using languages with more complex number systems allows greater insight into the processes of correct and erroneous subject-verb agreement, and shows that it is necessary to dissociate susceptibility to agreement from error-causing status. To conclude, the concept of markedness seems unable to explain my results. Semantic effects in agreement are then examined using two comparison experiments in English. Experiment 3 shows that although English has only a two value system, speakers are sensitive to semantic differences in number. Experiment 4 explores the possible influence of speakers’ native language three-value number system on their two-value second language system. It shows that native speakers of English are more sensitive to semantic number differences in English than Slovene speakers of English. Experiment 5 explores gender agreement in Slovene (which has three genders) and shows that there is a complex pattern of agreement. As with number, there is not just one number value which is problematic: neuter and masculine are most confusable, but masculine errors are also common when feminine agreement would be expected, thus suggesting that speakers revert to two different defaults, masculine and neuter. Finally, the results of four experiments examining number and gender agreement in coordinated phrases are presented. Agreement in such phrases may be resolved (i.e. the verb agrees with the whole subject) but may instead agree with one conjunct. Agreement with one conjunct is affected byword order (agreement with the nearest conjunct is most common), coordinator (e.g., single-conjunct agreement is more common after “or” than “and”) and the gender or number of the conjuncts (e.g., dual number is associated with single-conjunct agreement). Taken together, my results suggest that agreement is affected by a complex interplay of semantic and syntactic factors, and that the effects of a three-valued system are quite distinct from those of a two-valued system.

Resumé Agreement on the Future Agreement according to the arrangement of Commercial Code The thesis deals with the institute of a contract about a future contract in the sense of a commercially legal adjustment. Although the focus is on the analysis of the legal institute according to its currently valid arrangement, the thesis also contains a brief historical excursus about the development of the pacta de contrahendo institute. The reason for it is the fact that a contract about a future contract is a legal institute with a long history which dates in the Roman law, where there cannot be any doubt that the long historical development of the institute of a contract about a future contract contributed to the forming of its current form and concept. From the point of view of the valid legal adjustment of a contract about a future contract implemented by the code of law the thesis deals with single necessities of this legal institute, as to say with the subjects which can conclude a contract about a future contract with essential necessities which condition its valid negotiation. It is also dealt with the consequences of breaking the obligations following from concluding pacta de contrahendo. Collaterally with the analysis of the valid commercially legal adjustment of the pacta de contrahendo institute there...