This dissertation describes a research study that investigated cooperative inquiry as a strategy for professional learning of inner-city school principals in a large urban centre in Western Canada. The study attempted to identify the central issues of concern and means of redress for school leaders in high-poverty communities, many of which focused on educational leadership, school management, the context of their schools within impoverished communities, and the challenges of personal well-being. The findings suggest that cooperative inquiry was an effective strategy in that the approach was participatory, democratic, empowering, life-enhancing, and fostered community-building among participants. The findings also suggest that the approach was effective in that it was grounded in the action research cycle of planning, action, observation, and reflection. The study further examined the use of dialogue as a means of constructing knowledge regarding these issues, and identified the ways in which such knowledge impacts upon the professional practice of these principals. Findings suggest that participants gained knowledge from each other, offered knowledge from others, constructed knowledge together as a group, and developed deeper understandings of their own perspectives. Findings also suggest that meaning is lost when dialogic interactions are transcribed into print. Thus, dialogue is a form of communication in and of itself, one that cannot simply be transformed into the written word without losing part of that dialogic essence. Further, this study posits that dialogue has unique power to be both a process for meaning making, as well as an ontological means of clarifying one’s own sense of reality. / October 2008

This dissertation investigates the impact of metropolitan growth patterns and policies on both intra-regional spatial differentiation and the decline of inner-ring suburbs by identifying a multi-ring metropolitan structure in four metropolitan areas of Atlanta, Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Portland, using longitudinal Census data from 1970 to 2000. The findings of this research confirmed that intra-regional spatial differentiation increased over time and showed that the inner-ring suburbs in the four metropolitan areas were increasingly vulnerable to socioeconomic decline regardless of their growth patterns and policies. In contrast, the downtowns and some parts of the inner city showed gradual recovery from the deterioration patterns of the last several decades. The outer-ring suburbs continued to thrive, drawing most of the new population and housing development. This dissertation also explored the association between metropolitan growth patterns and policies and the extent of spatial differentiation and socioeconomic disparity in the subareas. Analyses found that strong decentralization trends are associated with increases in intra-regional spatial differentiation and socioeconomic disparity, while urban containment policies are associated with their reduction. However, despite its strong urban containment policies, the Portland region exhibited a clear pattern of inner-ring suburban decline, which suggests that the inner-ring suburbs require local initiatives directed toward revitalization. In conclusion, this research has shown that excessive development at the urban fringe is associated with the abandonment of the blighted inner city and more importantly, in the decline of the inner-ring suburbs. The inner-ring suburbs, with their existing valuable assets, should be fertile grounds for smart growth strategies. Moreover, the central city and outer-ring suburbs have a vital mission to save and invigorate the inner-ring suburbs, as they represent the primary link and conduit to all the surrounding areas of a metropolitan region. Only by recognizing the interdependence of all the areas and by applying sound, holistic policies can the decision-making entities of the government ensure the survival and future stability of the metropolitan areas.

In this dissertation we consider several problems in classical complex analysis and operator theory. In the first part we study basis properties of a system of complex exponentials with a given frequency sequence. We show that most of these basis properties can be characterized in terms of the invertibility properties of certain Toeplitz operators. We use this reformulation to give a metric description of the radius of l2-dependence. Using similar methods we solve the classical Beurling gap problem in the case of separated real sequences. In the second part we consider the classical Polýa-Levinson problem asking for a description of all real sequences with the property that every zero type entire function which is bounded on such a sequence must be a constant function. We first give a description in terms of injectivity of certain Toeplitz operators and then use this to give a metric description of all such sequences. In the last part we study the spectral changes of a partial isometry under unitary perturbations. We show that all the spectra can be described in terms of the characteristic function of the partial isometry that is being perturbed. Our main tool in the proofs is a Herglotz-type representation for generalized spectral measures. We furthermore use this representation to give a new proof of the classical Naimark's dilation theorem and to generalize Aleksandrov's disintegration theorem.

The inner ear is a complex sensory organ of interconnected chambers, each with a sensory epithelium comprised of hair cells and support cells for detection of sound and motion. This dissertation focuses on the development and regulation of sensory epithelia in zebrafish and utilizes loss of function, gain of function and laser ablation techniques. Hair cells and support cells develop from an equivalence group specified by proneural genes encoding bHLH transcription factors. The vertebrate Atoh1 bHLH transciption factor is a potential candidate for this role. However, data in mouse has led some researchers to conclude it does not have a proneural activity, but, rather, is involved in later stages of hair cell differentiation. In addition, the factors regulating Atoh1 are mostly unknown. We address these issues in zebrafish and show that the zebrafish homologs atoh1a and atoh1b are required during two developmental phases, first in the preotic placode and later in the otic vesicle. They interact with the Notch pathway and are necessary and sufficient for specification of sensory epithelia. Our data confirm atoh1 genes have proneural function. We also go on to show Atoh1 works in a complex network of factors, Pax2/5/8, Sox2, Fgf and Notch. Misexpression of atoh1 alters axial patterning and leads to expanded sensory epithelia, which is enhanced by misexpression of either fgf8 or sox2. Lastly, we examine the role of sox2 in sensory epithelia development and regeneration. Sox2 has been implicated in maintainence of pluripotent stem cells as well as cell differentiation. In the inner ear, Sox2 is initially expressed in the prosensory domain and is required for its formation. Eventually, Sox2 is downregulated in hair cells and maintained in support cells; however, its later role has not been determined. We show that in the zebrafish inner ear, sox2 is expressed after sensory epithelium development has begun and, like in mouse, expression is down regulated in hair cells and maintained in support cells. Our data demonstrate a role for sox2 in maintenance of hair cells and in transdifferentation of support cells into hair cells after laser ablation. Additionally, sox2 is regulated by Aoth1a/1b, Fgf, and Notch.

In this thesis, we firstly present a low-cost plasma display panel (PDP) data dispatcher for image enhancement. By taking advantage of the proposed ADS method with 10 subfields and data reordering, our design can reduce 20% of the PDP dispatcher cost and resolve the ¡§dynamic false contour¡¨ problem. Secondly, a bipolar-valued inner product processor for associative memory neural networks is proposed to compute the inner product of two bipolar-valued vectors. Our analysis shows that the delay of inner product is reduced significantly from O(2n) to O(n). We also propose a 3-dimensional address decoding structure associated with a corresponding data cell encoding arrangement for P+implant ROMs such that the data words are encoded and stored in the ROMs in a natural pattern. Not only is the size of the entire decoder shrunk, the access time and power dissipation is also greatly reduced, which is very suitable to be utilized in implantable devices. Finally, we introduce a multi-parameter implantable neural interface micro-stimulator system, including the external control module, the protocol, and the SOC (system-on-chip) chip. The proposed system is expected to carry out the externally given commands to stimulate the corresponding neural trunks. On the other way around, it can sense and deliver the response of the neural trunks to an external monitoring device in the future.

Abstract The tremendous progress in all aspects of signal processing technology has naturally been accompanied by a corresponding development of arithmetic techniques to provide high-speed operations at reasonable complexity. In the past, many architectural design efforts have focused on maximizing performance for frequently executed simple arithmetic operations such as addition and multiplication while left other rarely used operations ignored. In this dissertation, we firstly propose two design approaches for 64-b carry-lookahead adders (CLA) using a two-phase clocking dynamic CMOS logic since fast adders are the key elements in many digital circuits. Secondly, we place emphasis on the inner product operation since it is one of the most frequently used mathematical operations in the computation of digital neural networks. A ratioed 3-2 compressor is also presented to resolve several physical design problems that are not fully considered or implemented in previous research works. Finally we propose several fast 64b/32b integer dividers because the integer division is unavoidable in many important signal-processing applications.

Vertebrates have evolved a unique way to sense their environment: placodallyderived sense organs. These sensory structures emerge from a crescent-shaped domain, the preplacodal domain, which surrounds the anterior neural plate and generates the paired sense organs as well as the cranial ganglia. For decades, embryologists have attempted to determine the tissue interactions required for induction of various placodal tissues. More recently, technological advances have allowed investigators to ask probing questions about the molecular nature of placodal development. In this dissertation I largely focus on development of the otic placode. I utilize loss-of-function techniques available in the zebrafish model system to demonstrate that two members of the fibroblast growth factors family of secreted ligands, Fgf3 and Fgf8, are redundantly required for otic placode induction. I go on to show that these factors are expressed in periotic tissues from the beginning of gastrulation. These findings are consistent with a model where Fgf3 and Fgf8 signal to preotic tissue to induce otic-specific gene expression. This model does not address other potential inducers in otic induction. A study using chick explant cultures suggests that a member of the Wnt family of secreted ligands also has a role in otic induction. I therefore test the relative roles of Wnt and Fgf in otic placode induction. The results demonstrate that Wnt functions primarily to correctly position the Fgf expression domain and that it is these Fgf factors which are directly received by future otic cells. Lastly, I examine the function of the muscle segment homeobox (msx) gene family expressed in the preplacodal domain. This study demonstrates that Msx proteins refine the boundary between the preplacodal domain and the neural plate. Further, msx genes function in the differentiation and survival of posterior placodal tissues (including the otic field), neural crest and dorsal neural cell types. Loss of Msx function results in precocious cell death and morphogenesis defects which may reflect perturbed BMP signaling.

The Democratic centralism, Chinese communist traced up the soviet regime, is not only the main principle of communist party organizing in china but written on the Chinese constitution for directing the public behavior. Since china communist becoming the national ruler, comrades had devoted their efforts to make sure of the c Chinese communist party could be the only one political party ruler for eternity. The highest political organization is the people representative convention what adapts the way of one that combines the congress and executive department. No matter what the communist party¡¦ s political power or government¡¦ s executive power all have to obey the principle of the democratic centralism converging the political power from basic comrades and local parity organizations to top leadership. So the democratic centralism is not like western democratic, the minor obeys the mass, but the political powers are together upon the leadership. Even though the democratic centralism is helpful to maintain the party¡¦s assertion for the china communist party, the only one political ruler party. Because of political power of leadership has not been restricted resulting in what the regime legitimately has not been convicted. Mao was dead after the china culture revolution had ceased has left the china disarrangement and disable Chinese communist party. All things seemed went to bright side after the new successor, Den, held the leadership and drove whole Chinese economy and political more openness. Since 1978, China goes evolution and keeps the openness policy with two ways, economy and political. The time of planning economy was committed to replace the function of socialization, national distribution, curbing the production resources, all factors depended the Chinese communist party regime no matter what is labors in the city or the farmers in the country. Since openness policy, the marketing economy had replaced the panning economy becoming the main policy and the regime ceased to play the role in distribution of the national resources. People have to make life not depend the regime but maintain the right of political and fight for the political participation. Chinese communist party is afraid of losing her regime, therefore not dare to react the provoking of civilian political demand and consciousness. The dilemma situation turns the discrimination of content and process time table in political and economy comes up. People discontent force the Jiang secretary general to announce¡§ the inner party democracy is the spirit of communist party, demonstrating the public democracy ¡§ for response the requiring of people. Because of the regime losing the ability of introspecting and reacting the political power centralization make a tough problem Chinese communist have to face and try to solute. Through the remedy way of conciliation the relationship between nation and society intent to maintain the one political party authority and relieve regime¡¦s political crisis. Even though, the regime does suffer the turbulence of fighting between the conservative school and evolution school and could not conglomerate whole schools advance forward peaceful. So the regime uses the tiny political evolution in executive department as a buffer of comprising democracy evolution and defensive one party authority. This dissertation try to find out public democracy by the performance of Chinese communist inner democracy through the party¡¦s leader system, decisive, supervising, election, talent selection and political power inherit. The study find out Chinese communist party inner democracy spot on the perfect of executive system for up grade the executive ability and maintain the legitimately. As we knew there are no any relation between the party inner democracy and public democracy.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Open University. BLDSC no. DX208465.

Master's thesis. / Format: PDF. Bibl.