The purpose of this study is to investigate the technical adequacy of two reading Curriculum—Based Measures (CBM5), to examine the relationships of the CBM5 to normreferenced tests, and to compare the strength of relationship of both kinds of measures to school—based indices of reading performance. The two CBMs (a word list sampled from several reading series and a passage reading test composed of ten Ginn 720 passages) were taken from the literature; comprehensive information about their technical adequacy had not been previously available. A review of the literature indicates that CBM, particularly reading CBM, is gaining increased attention in education because of claims regarding its utility in monitoring pupil progress, its ease of administration, and its relationship to local curricula as well as to learning gains. This study examined how reading CBMs and two subtests from the Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement (Kaufman & Kaufman, 1985) relate to each other and to three school—based indices of reading performance: a school district reading test, program placement status (learning disabled or regular education), and a teacher rating scale of reading skill. Grade four students from one metropolitan Vancouver school district served as subjects (n=105). Of these, 35 were classified as learning disabled and 70 were classified as regular education. Learning disabled status was determined by judgments of a school district screening committee and by examining previous psychoeducational assessments. Reliability indices calculated on the CBMs supported claims for technical adequacy. These estimates were as follows: internal consistency of the word list was .97, internal consistency of the reading passages was .98 and .94 for reading speed and accuracy, test—retest reliability of the reading passages was .89 and .79 for reading speed and accuracy, and inter—rater reliability of the reading passages was .99 and .96 for reading speed and accuracy. Results indicated that the CBMs used in this study have high reliabilities. CBM5, especially the speed score from the- reading passages, demonstrated strong relationships to the two norm—referenced subtests. The pattern of correlations between the measures differed between the learning disabled and normal sample; analyses of variance demonstrated that all measures used in the study discriminated between the learning disabled and the regular education groups. Stepwise multiple regression and canonical analysis indicated that the two norm—referenced subtests, the speed score from the Curriculum—Based Reading Passages, and the accuracy score from the Curriculum—Based Word List were most efficient in “predicting” the three school-based indices of reading performance. Evidence for concurrent validity of curriculum—based and norm—referenced measures was found in this study. When administration time, instructional utility, and technical properties are considered, results indicated that the Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement Reading Decoding subtest and the Curriculum—Based Reading Passages speed score are the most efficient of the predictor measures investigated in identifying and programming for Year Four children with significant reading difficulty. Implications for further research and the potential of CBM to accommodate instructional and measurement needs is discussed.

Outlined is a new approach to the problem of surfacing particle-based fluid simulations. The key idea is to construct a surface that is as smooth as possible while remaining faithful to the particle locations. We describe a mesh-based algorithm that expresses the surface in terms of a constrained optimization problem. Our algorithm incorporates a secondary contribution in Marching Tiles, a generalization of the Marching Cubes isosurfacing algorithm. Marching Tiles provides guarantees on the minimum vertex valence, making the surface mesh more amenable to numerical operators such as the Bilaplacian.

Es tracta d'un estudi epidemiològic de les neoplàsies limfoides a Tarragona. Es donen dades d'incidència, mortalitat, supervivència i prevalença en base poblacional de les 3.258 neoplàsies limfoides del Registre de Càncer de Tarragona durant el període 1980-2004 ( 354 limfomes de Hodgkin, 1605 limfomes no-Hodgkin (LNH), 676 mielomes múltiples, 188 leucèmies limfàtiques agudes i 435 leucèmies limfàtiques cròniques). S'ha estudiat la tendència temporal de la incidència i la seva projecció a 2010 i 2015 per a cada grup de malalties. Els LNH s'han classificat histològicament d'acord amb la classificació de l'OMS de les neoplàsies hematològiques, i s'han establert comparacions internacionals. Les principals conclusions han estat que les neoplàsies limfoides a Tarragona mostren un patró epidemiològic occidentalitzat, amb una progressiva millora en la seva supervivència relativa, i que existeix, almenys parcialment, una relació temporal entre la epidèmia de la SIDA i la dels LNH. / This is an epidemiological study of lymphoid neoplasms in Tarragona, a southern region of Catalonia with a population over 800.000. It gives details of incidence, mortality, survival and prevalence in a population basis of 3,258 lymphoid malignancies recorded in the Tarragona Cancer Registry during the period 1980 to 2004 (354 Hodgkin's lymphoma, 1605 non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), 676 multiple myeloma, 188 acute lymphocytic leukemia and 435 chronic lymphocytic leukemia). We have studied the incidence time trend and its projection to 2010 and 2015 for each disease group. The NHL were classified histologically according to WHO classification of hematologic malignancies, and their relative frequency were compared internationally. The main conclusions were that the lymphoid malignancies in Tarragona show a westernized epidemiological pattern, with a progressive improvement in their relative survival and that there is at least partially, a temporal relationship between the AIDS and the NHL epidemics.

This work attempts to achieve two overarching objectives: firstly to trace the historical growth of Islamic schools in North America and secondly, to explore the ideological and philosophical values that have shaped the vision of these schools. The historical growth of Islamic schools in North America has been led by two distinct communities among Sunni Muslims: the indigenous and the immigrant. Specific to the North American Muslim diaspora “indigenous” represents the African American Muslim community of Imam Warith Deen Mohammed (1933-2008), and “immigrant” refers to the generation of Sunni Muslims who settled in North America in the 1960s and 1970s. Through oral history, this study attempts to capture the voices, sentiments, and aspirations of those that struggled to establish the earliest full-time Islamic schools. The study examines these voices for the ways Islamic education is defined differently based on generational, contextual, and ideological perspectives. Recognizing the diverse lived experiences of Muslim communities in North America, the findings are organized in four distinct, yet often overlapping historical phases that map the growth and development of Islamic schooling. The four phases of Protest, Preservation, Pedagogy, and Praxis also represent how the aims of Islamic education have evolved over time. From the Nation of Islam and their inherent vision of equality through resistance, the earliest attempt at establishing schools for Muslim children began in the 1930s. The transition of the Nation of Islam into a community redefined by the teachings of mainstream Islam coupled with the settlement of substantial immigrant Muslim communities altered the discourse from protest to identity preservation in the 1980s. Collaboration between the “indigenous” and “immigrant” communities defined a concerted effort to improve the quality of Islamic schools in the 1990s. And post 9/11, the discourse of inward-looking school improvement shifted once again to outward praxis. The historical mapping of the vision of Islamic schooling between communities also allows for the exploration of how interpretations of the Islamic tradition inform the pedagogy of schools. Through separate histories and religious perspectives, this study seeks to explore the complexities of the aims of Islamic schools, both between communities and within them.

We live in a visually rich environment yet our brains are only equipped to process a small fraction of all available information at any point in time. For successful and efficient perception, the brain relies on attention to differentiate and select specific stimuli for further analysis. Attention can be directed to features – feature based attention – which enhances the processing of other similar features independent of spatial location. I have recently shown that the benefits of feature-based attention not only apply to lower-level features, but also to processes of object perception. The aim of the thesis was to examine the behavioural and electrophysiological correlates underlying the influence of feature-based attention on object perception. Chapter 1 measured the electric field activity associated with attending to higher-level features (object contours) and comparing it with the neural activity while attending to motion stimuli. We found temporally later effects for contours relative to motion, suggesting that feature-based attention to objects might be mediated by higher-tier visual areas, such as the lateral occipital cortex. In Chapter 2, I describe a study designed to investigate the time course of neural activity while cueing attention within the feature dimension of shape that more directly targets higher-tier visual areas. Consistent with Chapter 1, I iii found temporally late modulation, but behavioural effects that were weaker than expected. To account for these findings, I proposed a “wrong-turn” model which explains the perceptual benefits and costs coupled to expecting the correct or incorrect feature by taking into consideration the hierarchical structure of the visual system. Moreover, the model also makes specific predictions about the pattern of behavioural and electrophysiological activity while attending to features of varying complexity during object perception. The aim of Chapter 3 was to test the predictions of the model; I cued attention to colour, a lower-level feature essential to perceiving the object. I found much stronger behavioural cueing effects, and a biphasic pattern (early and late) electric brain activity that confirmed the predictions of the model. Together the results indicate that feature-based attention plays an important role in object perception that is mediated by a flexible perceptual system.

Introduction: This study evaluated long-term outcomes of young survivors of colorectal cancer including survival, development of acute illnesses, and childbirth. Methods: Persons aged 20-44 diagnosed with colorectal cancer and surviving at least five years were identified using the Ontario Cancer Registry and compared to randomly selected controls. Outcomes included death, admission to hospital for acute illness, and childbirth in women, determined by linkage to provincial administrative data. Results: There were 917 cancer survivors in this study. Survivors were more likely to die (HR 8.2, 95%CI [5.8, 11.6]), and require admission to hospital for acute illness (rate ratio 3.4, 95%CI [2.9, 4.1]) than controls. There was no difference in admissions for childbirth in women (HR 0.6, 95%CI [0.3, 1.4]). Conclusions: Five-year survivors of colorectal cancer remain at high risk of long-term death and illness. Aggressive surveillance for recurrent malignant disease is necessary to mitigate risk of death.

Introduction: This study evaluated long-term outcomes of young survivors of colorectal cancer including survival, development of acute illnesses, and childbirth. Methods: Persons aged 20-44 diagnosed with colorectal cancer and surviving at least five years were identified using the Ontario Cancer Registry and compared to randomly selected controls. Outcomes included death, admission to hospital for acute illness, and childbirth in women, determined by linkage to provincial administrative data. Results: There were 917 cancer survivors in this study. Survivors were more likely to die (HR 8.2, 95%CI [5.8, 11.6]), and require admission to hospital for acute illness (rate ratio 3.4, 95%CI [2.9, 4.1]) than controls. There was no difference in admissions for childbirth in women (HR 0.6, 95%CI [0.3, 1.4]). Conclusions: Five-year survivors of colorectal cancer remain at high risk of long-term death and illness. Aggressive surveillance for recurrent malignant disease is necessary to mitigate risk of death.

We live in a visually rich environment yet our brains are only equipped to process a small fraction of all available information at any point in time. For successful and efficient perception, the brain relies on attention to differentiate and select specific stimuli for further analysis. Attention can be directed to features – feature based attention – which enhances the processing of other similar features independent of spatial location. I have recently shown that the benefits of feature-based attention not only apply to lower-level features, but also to processes of object perception. The aim of the thesis was to examine the behavioural and electrophysiological correlates underlying the influence of feature-based attention on object perception. Chapter 1 measured the electric field activity associated with attending to higher-level features (object contours) and comparing it with the neural activity while attending to motion stimuli. We found temporally later effects for contours relative to motion, suggesting that feature-based attention to objects might be mediated by higher-tier visual areas, such as the lateral occipital cortex. In Chapter 2, I describe a study designed to investigate the time course of neural activity while cueing attention within the feature dimension of shape that more directly targets higher-tier visual areas. Consistent with Chapter 1, I iii found temporally late modulation, but behavioural effects that were weaker than expected. To account for these findings, I proposed a “wrong-turn” model which explains the perceptual benefits and costs coupled to expecting the correct or incorrect feature by taking into consideration the hierarchical structure of the visual system. Moreover, the model also makes specific predictions about the pattern of behavioural and electrophysiological activity while attending to features of varying complexity during object perception. The aim of Chapter 3 was to test the predictions of the model; I cued attention to colour, a lower-level feature essential to perceiving the object. I found much stronger behavioural cueing effects, and a biphasic pattern (early and late) electric brain activity that confirmed the predictions of the model. Together the results indicate that feature-based attention plays an important role in object perception that is mediated by a flexible perceptual system.

Clustering is a technique used to partition unlabelled data into meaningful groups. This thesis will focus on the area of clustering called model-based clustering, where it is assumed that data arise from a finite number of subpopulations, each of which follows a known statistical distribution. The number of groups and shape of each group is unknown in advance, and thus one of the most challenging aspects of clustering is selecting these features. Cross-validation is a model selection technique which is often used in regression and classification, because it tends to choose models that predict well, and are not over-fit to the data. However, it has rarely been applied in a clustering framework. Herein, cross-validation is applied to select the number of groups and covariance structure within a family of Gaussian mixture models. Results are presented for both real and simulated data. / Ontario Graduate Scholarship Program

In this dissertation, I study coordination or collaboration settings that are either within company or at inter-organizational levels in the form of three essays. In the first essay, I study the relationship between a client and a vendor in value co-creation environments such as knowledge intensive services. I consider that the client gets utility from the project throughout the development period. The output is contingent on the effort levels of each party and I allow these effort levels to be dynamic. Hence, the client needs to optimally decide the terms of the payment so as to maximize the project output and minimize its cost. In my second essay, I study another value co-creation environment. In this case, unlike the first essay, I assume that the effort levels are not observable but might be monitored. In both essays, I analyze the performance of different contracts and find the best one for the client in diverse settings. Among several other results, I derive the conditions under which the client chooses not to observe vendor’s effort level and operates in a double moral hazard environment. In addition, I show that the remaining time of the project and the client’s valuation of the project regulate the behavior of the effort levels and some other characteristics in the collaboration. In the third essay, I consider a subscription based rental organization, such as Netflix and Blockbuster. In these environments, the satisfaction of customers de- pends on the availability of requested products. Hence, it is important for these firms to satisfy as much demand as possible. Recommender systems, in a DVD- rental context, are typically used to help customers in finding the right movies for them. However, recommendations can be utilized to shift demand among movies considering the inventory level and future demand to increase the number of satisfied customers or profitability. I address this issue by considering inventory in the optimization of recommender systems. I present several results that could be utilized by managers in order to make important tactical and operational decisions. Results suggest that the proposed approach may improve profitability of the firms substantially.