Why do seventy percent of Canadian Aboriginal students drop out of school? Although the literature focuses on reform to schools, school systems, and to the formal relationships that govern Aboriginal education, there is, as yet, a lack of empirically-based evidence from the perspectives of the people who have dropped out. The research was conducted in an adult education centre located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, and combines semi-structured interviews with an innovative Bead Workshop field-tested in other areas of identity conflict. The study asked 22 Aboriginal people how they make sense of their education experiences, inquired about why they dropped out of school, and invited them to share their hopes for the future. The trans-disciplinary nature of peace and conflict studies offers a new analysis when data were applied to Lederach’s (2003) conflict transformation framework. The findings showed that the participants quit school in the midst of very difficult and strikingly similar life circumstances, and they did not attribute dropping out to inadequacies in education or schooling, or to the effects of colonialism. The study expands the peace and conflict literature into the Canadian Aboriginal context while establishing a new research design and methodology. The study respects Indigenous research principles and combines them with conflict transformation principles to provide empirical evidence about why Aboriginal students drop out of school, and then extends the theoretical literature with a framework for exploring the role of deeper beliefs like love, courage, and hope in personal conflict transformation. Future research can be undertaken with larger groups of Aboriginal people to better understand their experiences in education and in other important areas of life, and to inform and advise Aboriginal policy and practice.

Even a brief Internet search reveals the huge variety of ways in which the terms transformation, diversity, employment equity and affirmative action are used, as well as the vast range of interventions offered. For example, the term diversity can be used in its most narrow sense focusing on one identifier such as race, or broadening along a continuum towards including all identifiers such as skills, ideology or even personality. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2007.

ABSTRACT Paths Towards Reconciliation in the Workplace: Exploring the Aboriginal Cultures Awareness Workshop Educational workplace initiatives to address social inequality are widely used within organizations. In the past, these workplace workshops have varied in their underlying philosophical perspectives - with goals ranging from maintaining the status quo to promoting social change. Workshop curriculum grounded in the contact hypothesis have drawn from such diverse fields as social psychology, organizational theory, feminist viewpoints, critical theory, liberatory educational philosophy, conflict resolution and Indigenous approaches. The research to date on the efficacy of these various types of workplace educational programs have been mixed. For the past ten years, the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority has offered the Aboriginal Cultures Awareness Workshop to its health care employees in hopes of addressing the differential medical care received by their Aboriginal patients. This mixed methods research project focused on the perceptions of key stakeholders and workshop participants on the most helpful, and least helpful aspects of the Aboriginal Cultures Awareness Workshop. The findings point towards a conceptual framework on the conditions needed within educational workplace initiatives that can create paths toward reconciliation between different identity groups. Addressing the need for accurate information and developing empathy within an atmosphere of joyful humour that is supported by the circle were the key findings in this research project. Specifically, the findings that informed this conceptual framework included the importance of learning about Aboriginal history from an Aboriginal perspective, the power of storytelling to bridge the divide between different identity groups, how the appropriate use of humour can both ease tension, but also be used to challenge intolerant ideas and finally, the power of sharing circles to create safety and allow for dialogue. Drawing on the contributions of the diverse fields that have historically informed these types of workplace educational programs, this research project integrated the field of peace and conflict studies, and Indigenous perspectives to make a number of recommendations for future workplace educational programs.

Although there has been over a century of research on memory and consolidation, there remains no consensus with respect to the nature of episodic memories over time. This study tests two prominent theories (Standard Consolidation Theory and Trace Transformation Hypothesis), which make opposing predictions as to the quality of remote episodic memory, by investigating memories for film clips. Using true/false questions to test recall immediately, 3 days, and 7 days after encoding, these experiments demonstrate that details (both perceptual and story-line details) are lost, while the gist of memories is maintained over time. These data also suggest that gist and detail may be maintained independently in the brain. These results broaden our understanding of recent and remote memory, and provide support for the transformation view of consolidation. In the future, the transfer of this paradigm to neuroimaging will allow us to investigate the neural basis of episodic memory over time.

Although there has been over a century of research on memory and consolidation, there remains no consensus with respect to the nature of episodic memories over time. This study tests two prominent theories (Standard Consolidation Theory and Trace Transformation Hypothesis), which make opposing predictions as to the quality of remote episodic memory, by investigating memories for film clips. Using true/false questions to test recall immediately, 3 days, and 7 days after encoding, these experiments demonstrate that details (both perceptual and story-line details) are lost, while the gist of memories is maintained over time. These data also suggest that gist and detail may be maintained independently in the brain. These results broaden our understanding of recent and remote memory, and provide support for the transformation view of consolidation. In the future, the transfer of this paradigm to neuroimaging will allow us to investigate the neural basis of episodic memory over time.

No description available.

Genetic transformation is a useful tool to incorporate novel genes, potentially allowing sexual incompatibility and interspecific barriers to be circumvented. The purpose of this study was to improve beta-carotene levels in melon fruits by transferring a phytoene synthase (PSY) gene. At present, there are not sufficient regeneration and transformation studies reported on two commercially important melon types - western shipper cantaloupe and honeydew. To establish a high efficiency shoot regeneration system, we evaluated three types of explants in our elite breeding lines. A shoot tip with a hypocotyl and cotyledon fragments, regenerated shoots whereas a shoot tip with a hypocotyl without cotyledon, did not produce regenerants. Murashige & Skoog (MS) basal medium with 1 mg 1⁻¹ benzyladenine (BA), 0.26 mg 1⁻¹ abscisic acid (ABA) and 0.8 mg 1⁻¹ indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) was the best for regeneration from cotyledon explants in cantaloupe 'F39'. MS basal medium with 1 mg 1⁻¹ BA and 0.26 mg 1⁻¹ ABA was chosen for honeydew '150' to solve a curving-up problem of explants. Fifty to sixty percent of regenerants were found to be polyploids. To establish a reliable Agrobacterium-mediated transformation protocol, kanamycin sensitivity as well as Timentin[trademark] and Clavamox® were evaluated. Kanamycin 200 and 150 mg 1⁻¹ were chosen as the threshold levels for 'F39' and '150' respectively. No significant differences were found between Timentin[trademark] and Clavamox® in 'F39'; however, Clavamox® reduced the incidence of vitrification and increased the frequency of shoot elongation in '150'. A. tumefaciens strain EHA105, harboring pCNL56 carrying nptII and gusA genes, was used to establish a transformation protocol. The transformation efficiency was 0.3% from 'F39' and 0.5% from '150'. We introduced a watermelon PSY-C gene under the control of a fruit-specific promoter of a polygalacturonase gene into '150'. All the transgenic plants were tetraploids based on flow cytometry assays. Up to 32-fold of beta-carotene was elevated in the rind tissue of transgenic honeydew including phytoene increase. This is a very promising result for a further investigation to increase beta-carotene level in flesh tissue using the PSY-C gene with an appropriate promoter.

Baseband processing is an important and computationally heavy part of modern mobile cellular systems. These systems use specialized hardware that has many digital signal processing cores and hardware accelerators. The algorithms that run on these systems are complexand needs to take advantage of this hardware. Developing software for these systems requires domain knowledge about baseband processing and low level programming on parallel real time systems. This thesis investigates if the programming language Julia can be used to implement algorithms for baseband processing in mobile telephony base stations. If it is possible to use a scientific language like Julia to directly implement programs for the special hardware in the base stations it can reduce lead times and costs. In this thesis a uplink receiver is implemented in Julia. This implementation is written usinga domain specific language. This makes it possible to specify a number of transformations that use the metaprogramming capabilities in Julia to transform the uplink receiver such that it is better suited to execute on the hardware described above. This is achieved by transforming the program such that it consists of functions that either can be executed on single digital signal processing cores or hardware accelerators. It is concluded that Julia seems suited for prototyping baseband processing algorithms. Using metaprogramming to transform a baseband processing algorithm to be better suited for baseband processing hardware is also a feasible approach.

No description available.

The concept of an emerging Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) came to light in American military thinking in the late 1980s, and largely dealt with a new generation of military technologies which promised to alter the nature of modern warfare. In order to exploit these new technologies to their fullest, U.S. military planners set in motion the process of transformation. Significant questions, however, have emerged regarding the utility of RMA technologies and the transformation of the U.S. military and its ability to meet the challenges of insurgency and counter-insurgency (COIN). A central question then emerges as to whether or not the RMA is relevant to COIN? Although the impact of the RMA has failed to give the U.S. an unchallengeable advantage while waging COIN campaigns, it has certainly assisted in developing specific and vital capabilities in such operations.