Search

What is sociology? For centuries sociologists have struggled to answer this question and repeatably proclaimed that their discipline is in crisis. The problem has generated a field of its own, the sociology of sociology, where sociologists of knowledge offer concepts for how the paradigmatic status of discipline and its crisis ought to be understood. Yet, the foundation of these understandings has often been limited to conceptual reasonings, historical exposes, and anecdotes from prominent scholars. Following the increasing availability of digitized texts and the development of computational techniques, new venues have been opened for investigating the empirical bearing of what sociology is. This dissertation offers a synthesis of, and a contribution to, this growing literature at the intersection of the sociology of knowledge and computational social science. The starting point is a review of literature in the sociology of sociology that has found that our discipline is believed to exist in a state of fragmentation, lacks a paradigm, and is conditioned by the context of its production. Akin to the supposed crisis, these conceptualizations are often taken for granted rather than being empirically put to test. This is why this dissertation aims to shed new light on the crisis of sociology by empirically scrutinizing prevailing disciplinary understandings with an interpretative and theory-driven methodological approach to computational text analysis (i.e., word correlation networks, topic modeling, stylometry, and shallow neural networks). To account for textual representations of sociological knowledge that are firmly institutionalized and exist across different local contexts, hundreds of dissertations in this discipline published in Sweden between 1980 and 2019 by five main universities have been digitized to form two corpora – 380 full-texts and 850 abstracts. Using these corpora, the conceptualizations are operationalized to be able to scrutinize, and trace, reo

What is sociology? For centuries sociologists have struggled to answer this question and repeatably proclaimed that their discipline is in crisis. The problem has generated a field of its own, the sociology of sociology, where sociologists of knowledge offer concepts for how the paradigmatic status of discipline and its crisis ought to be understood. Yet, the foundation of these understandings has often been limited to conceptual reasonings, historical exposes, and anecdotes from prominent scholars. Following the increasing availability of digitized texts and the development of computational techniques, new venues have been opened for investigating the empirical bearing of what sociology is. This dissertation offers a synthesis of, and a contribution to, this growing literature at the intersection of the sociology of knowledge and computational social science. The starting point is a review of literature in the sociology of sociology that has found that our discipline is believed to exist in a state of fragmentation, lacks a paradigm, and is conditioned by the context of its production. Akin to the supposed crisis, these conceptualizations are often taken for granted rather than being empirically put to test. This is why this dissertation aims to shed new light on the crisis of sociology by empirically scrutinizing prevailing disciplinary understandings with an interpretative and theory-driven methodological approach to computational text analysis (i.e., word correlation networks, topic modeling, stylometry, and shallow neural networks). To account for textual representations of sociological knowledge that are firmly institutionalized and exist across different local contexts, hundreds of dissertations in this discipline published in Sweden between 1980 and 2019 by five main universities have been digitized to form two corpora – 380 full-texts and 850 abstracts. Using these corpora, the conceptualizations are operationalized to be able to scrutinize, and trace, reo

What is sociology? For centuries sociologists have struggled to answer this question and repeatably proclaimed that their discipline is in crisis. The problem has generated a field of its own, the sociology of sociology, where sociologists of knowledge offer concepts for how the paradigmatic status of discipline and its crisis ought to be understood. Yet, the foundation of these understandings has often been limited to conceptual reasonings, historical exposes, and anecdotes from prominent scholars. Following the increasing availability of digitized texts and the development of computational techniques, new venues have been opened for investigating the empirical bearing of what sociology is. This dissertation offers a synthesis of, and a contribution to, this growing literature at the intersection of the sociology of knowledge and computational social science. The starting point is a review of literature in the sociology of sociology that has found that our discipline is believed to exist in a state of fragmentation, lacks a paradigm, and is conditioned by the context of its production. Akin to the supposed crisis, these conceptualizations are often taken for granted rather than being empirically put to test. This is why this dissertation aims to shed new light on the crisis of sociology by empirically scrutinizing prevailing disciplinary understandings with an interpretative and theory-driven methodological approach to computational text analysis (i.e., word correlation networks, topic modeling, stylometry, and shallow neural networks). To account for textual representations of sociological knowledge that are firmly institutionalized and exist across different local contexts, hundreds of dissertations in this discipline published in Sweden between 1980 and 2019 by five main universities have been digitized to form two corpora – 380 full-texts and 850 abstracts. Using these corpora, the conceptualizations are operationalized to be able to scrutinize, and trace, reo

What is sociology? For centuries sociologists have struggled to answer this question and repeatably proclaimed that their discipline is in crisis. The problem has generated a field of its own, the sociology of sociology, where sociologists of knowledge offer concepts for how the paradigmatic status of discipline and its crisis ought to be understood. Yet, the foundation of these understandings has often been limited to conceptual reasonings, historical exposes, and anecdotes from prominent scholars. Following the increasing availability of digitized texts and the development of computational techniques, new venues have been opened for investigating the empirical bearing of what sociology is. This dissertation offers a synthesis of, and a contribution to, this growing literature at the intersection of the sociology of knowledge and computational social science. The starting point is a review of literature in the sociology of sociology that has found that our discipline is believed to exist in a state of fragmentation, lacks a paradigm, and is conditioned by the context of its production. Akin to the supposed crisis, these conceptualizations are often taken for granted rather than being empirically put to test. This is why this dissertation aims to shed new light on the crisis of sociology by empirically scrutinizing prevailing disciplinary understandings with an interpretative and theory-driven methodological approach to computational text analysis (i.e., word correlation networks, topic modeling, stylometry, and shallow neural networks). To account for textual representations of sociological knowledge that are firmly institutionalized and exist across different local contexts, hundreds of dissertations in this discipline published in Sweden between 1980 and 2019 by five main universities have been digitized to form two corpora – 380 full-texts and 850 abstracts. Using these corpora, the conceptualizations are operationalized to be able to scrutinize, and trace, reo

The US corpus of Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs), partly captured in our research collection numbering over 500,000, is a valuable resource for education and research. Unfortunately, as the average length of these documents is around 100 pages, finding specific research information is not a simple task. Our project aims to tackle this issue by segmenting our sample of 500,000 ETDs, and providing a web interface that provides users with an application that summarizes individual chapters from the previously segmented sample. The first step of the project was to verify that the automatic segmentation process, performed in advance by our client, could be relied upon. This required each team member to analyze 50 segmented documents and verify their integrity by confirming that each chapter was correctly identified and separated into a PDF. During this process, we noted any peculiarities, to identify recurring issues and improve the segmentation process. The rest of our time and effort went into creating an efficient web interface that would allow users to upload ETD chapters and display said chapter’s summary and classification results. We were able to complete a web interface that allows a user to upload an ETD chapter PDF from the sampled ETD database and view the summary of the PDF along with all of the metadata (author, title, publication date, etc.) of the associated ETD. Additionally, the group verified approximately 60 of the automatically segmented documents and detailed any errors or peculiarities thoroughly. Our group delivered both the web interface as a GitHub repository and an Excel spreadsheet detailing the complete results of our segmentation verification process. The interface was designed to be used in aiding research on ETDs. Although this application won’t be available publicly, researchers may use it privately to assist with any ETD research projects they participate in. The web interface uses Streamlit, which is a Python framework for web

The main objective of this study is to draw an overall picture of the importance of migration studies in the field of international relations in Turkish academia, based on the IR dissertations. In doing so, it attempts to determine how the increased academic interest in the migration studies affects the content of these dissertations. Second, it examines which topics has domanited the IR dissertations. Starting from this point of view, this study looks at dissertations written between 2000 and 2021 and submitted to the National Theses Center in IR. Dissertations dealing with migration, diaspora, asylum seekers, refugees, foreign workers, and migrants are selected as the sample for this research. First, the dissertations are statistically evaluated by topic and year, using bibliometric analysis method; second, they are analyzed thematically by using the content analysis method., Bu çalışmanın temel amacı, Türkiye’de uluslararası ilişkiler alanında yazılmış doktora tezlerini baz alarak göç çalışmalarının Türkiye akademisindeki yerinin genel bir fotoğrafını çekebilmektir. Bu çerçevede, ilk olarak, göç çalışmalarına ilişkin akademik ilgi artışının Türkiye’de kaleme alınmış uluslararası ilişkiler doktora tezlerinde kendisine ne denli yer bulduğu ortaya konmaya çalışılmıştır. İkinci olarak, söz konusu ilginin hangi temalar etrafında kümelendiği yine uluslararası ilişkiler alanında göçü temel alan tezler bağlamında değerlendirilmiştir. Buradan hareketle, Türkiye’deki Ulusal Tez Merkezi’nde yer alan ve 2000-2021 yılları içerisinde uluslararası ilişkiler alanında yazılmış doktora tezleri ele alınmış ve göç, diaspora, sığınmacı, mülteci, yabancı işçi, göçmen vb. konularda kaleme alınmış doktora tezleri araştırmanın örneklemini oluşturmuştur. Söz konusu tezler öncelikle yıllara göre ve konu bazında istatistiki olarak değerlendirilerek bibliyometrik analiz yöntemine tabi tutulmuş, sonrasında ise niteliksel içerik analizi yöntemi ile tematik olarak çözümlenmiştir.

The main objective of this study is to draw an overall picture of the importance of migration studies in the field of international relations in Turkish academia, based on the IR dissertations. In doing so, it attempts to determine how the increased academic interest in the migration studies affects the content of these dissertations. Second, it examines which topics has domanited the IR dissertations. Starting from this point of view, this study looks at dissertations written between 2000 and 2021 and submitted to the National Theses Center in IR. Dissertations dealing with migration, diaspora, asylum seekers, refugees, foreign workers, and migrants are selected as the sample for this research. First, the dissertations are statistically evaluated by topic and year, using bibliometric analysis method; second, they are analyzed thematically by using the content analysis method., Bu çalışmanın temel amacı, Türkiye’de uluslararası ilişkiler alanında yazılmış doktora tezlerini baz alarak göç çalışmalarının Türkiye akademisindeki yerinin genel bir fotoğrafını çekebilmektir. Bu çerçevede, ilk olarak, göç çalışmalarına ilişkin akademik ilgi artışının Türkiye’de kaleme alınmış uluslararası ilişkiler doktora tezlerinde kendisine ne denli yer bulduğu ortaya konmaya çalışılmıştır. İkinci olarak, söz konusu ilginin hangi temalar etrafında kümelendiği yine uluslararası ilişkiler alanında göçü temel alan tezler bağlamında değerlendirilmiştir. Buradan hareketle, Türkiye’deki Ulusal Tez Merkezi’nde yer alan ve 2000-2021 yılları içerisinde uluslararası ilişkiler alanında yazılmış doktora tezleri ele alınmış ve göç, diaspora, sığınmacı, mülteci, yabancı işçi, göçmen vb. konularda kaleme alınmış doktora tezleri araştırmanın örneklemini oluşturmuştur. Söz konusu tezler öncelikle yıllara göre ve konu bazında istatistiki olarak değerlendirilerek bibliyometrik analiz yöntemine tabi tutulmuş, sonrasında ise niteliksel içerik analizi yöntemi ile tematik olarak çözümlenmiştir.

This work aims to analyze the orchestration of social voices in the construction of an axiological position in relation to women in argumentative dissertations of graduates of basic education. In view of this, the theoretical foundation is mainly basedon the works of Bakhtin (1997; 2006), Faraco (2009), Fiorin (2011), Guariglia (2012), Polachini (2014) and Rodrigues and Rangel (2015). The research was carried out in a public school in the city of Recife (PE), where 69 productions were collected, of which two were chosen by the criterion of Simple Random Sampling (AAS). In both texts, the appropriation of the voice of others occurred in a planned and articulated way to the purpose of opposing the sexist thought about women. In this context, we found the occurrence of forms of marked speech and bivocal speech, with the predominance of the former., Este trabalho objetiva analisar a orquestração de vozes sociais na construção de um posicionamento axiológico em relação à mulher em dissertações argumentativas de concluintes da educação básica. À vista disso, a fundamentação teórica baseia-se principalmente nos trabalhos de Bakhtin (1997; 2006), Faraco (2009), Fiorin (2011), Guariglia (2012), Polachini (2014) e Rodrigues e Rangel (2015). A pesquisa foi realizada em uma escola pública da cidade de Recife (PE), onde foram coletadas 69 produções, das quais duas foram escolhidas pelo critério de Amostragem Aleatória Simples (AAS). Em ambas, a apropriação da voz alheia se deu de modo planejado e articulado ao propósito de contrapor-se ao pensamento machista sobre a mulher. Nesse sentido, constatou-se a ocorrência de formas do discurso marcado e do discurso bivocal, com a predominância daquelas.

Documentary research in education can often be overlooked as an approach to exploring policy and practice issues, particularly for dissertation research projects. However, a range of documents can offer valuable data. In particular, school inspection documentation can be an illuminating and accessible source. Building on my recent research and teaching experiences, this paper provides a guide to utilising school inspection documentation from the Scottish context as primary sources for research dissertations in education and other disciplines. The intention is to support students and researchers undertaking research projects to navigate these sources confidently and to enable them to develop insightful analyses and discussions.

In this thesis, we investigate geometric aspects of the Langlands parameters arising in the local Langlands Program for p-adic groups. This work was inspired by David Vogan’s “The Local Langlands Conjecture”, and we built off of the work of Clifton Cunningham, Andrew Fiori, Ahmed Moussaoui, James Mracek, and Bin Xu in their book “Arthur Packets for p-Adic Groups by Way of Microlocal Vanishing Cycles of Perverse Sheaves, with Examples”. This thesis follows the construction detailed in Part II of their book, and we give more concrete examples to demonstrate their construction. Additionally, we provide an exposition on the local Langlands program for p-adic groups and give an algorithm for computing the resolutions of singularities arising from the study of the orbits of certain generalized quiver varieties for their respective Langlands parameters in the groups GLn, SOn, and Sp2n.

My work is centered around the question of how teachers, in K-12 classrooms in southern Alberta, have responded to the Truth and Reconciliation (TRC) Commission’s Calls to Action and related reform to provincial education such as the fifth Teaching Quality Standard (TQS5). My work is based on ethnographic interviews with nine Indigenous and settler teachers and follow-up collaborative group sessions with some of them. Along with how teachers are responding the TRC and TQS5, I focus on the challenges and possibilities that they find in responding. I found that their responses deliberately value relations and reflect Indigenous notions of relationality. Their challenges reflect commodified, sanctioned, abstracted, and objective ideas of schooling which align with the logic of homo economicus. Their possibilities seem to lie in non-scalable and relational spaces which provide the potential for struggle, engagement, and enunciation.

Long-term potentiation (LTP) is proposed as a molecular mechanism for learning and memory. N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) are implicated during LTP and new learning. However, if rats are pre-trained prior to new learning NMDARs are not needed. Rather the activation of voltage gated calcium channels (VGCCs) and associated calcium influx might be responsible for LTP independent of NMDARs, and new learning with familiar information. The hypothesis was that to impair new learning with familiar information both NMDARs and VGCCs would need to be blocked. Rats were trained in a version of the Morris water task, consisting of a pre-training, mass-training, and a probe test. Before mass-training NMDARs and VGCCs were blocked in the hippocampus using AP5 and Verapamil, which are receptor antagonists. All rats were able to learn regardless of their experimental condition, which means that activation of NMDARs and VGCCs is not crucial for new spatial learning with familiar information.

Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] is an important legume crop in western Canada. However, soybean exhibits delayed emergence and growth compared with many weeds in this region, resulting in greater reliance on herbicides. A field experiment was established near Lethbridge, Alberta, in 2020 and 2021 to determine how four cultural weed management practices [soybean row spacing (23 cm vs. 69 cm), target plant density (400,000 vs. 600,000 plants ha-1) cultivar (slender vs. bushy) and fall rye cover cropping (with vs. without)] influenced soybean productivity and weed suppression. Overall, narrow compared with wide rows increased the ability for soybean to compete with and withstand competition from weeds. Increased target densities improved weed suppression, while bushy cultivars played a supporting role. The fall rye cover crop had inconsistent effects between years. Planting a bushy soybean cultivar in narrow rows at higher densities could improve irrigated soybean productivity and weed suppression in Alberta.

The H/ACA snoRNP complex directs the formation of pseudouridines in ribosomal RNA (rRNA); however, the mechanisms by which the eukaryotic two-hairpin structured H/ACA snoRNP mediates pseudouridylation in rRNA are poorly understood. This study investigates the function of the conserved two-hairpin structure of eukaryotic H/ACA snoRNA while modifying large, structured rRNA. The biochemical analysis reveals that the two hairpins of the snoRNP complex can independently convert two uridines to two pseudouridines in long rRNA fragments. Moreover, the H/ACA snoRNP can likely unfold secondary structures in rRNA without the help of additional factors. Further, the GAR domains of Gar1 are required for pseudouridine formation, but the KKE/D extensions of Cbf5 play no role in pseudouridylation of rRNA. In summary, this study addresses the mechanism of the H/ACA snoRNP complex in modifying rRNA during ribosome biogenesis.

In this thesis, we investigate geometric aspects of the Langlands parameters arising in the local Langlands Program for p-adic groups. This work was inspired by David Vogan’s “The Local Langlands Conjecture”, and we built off of the work of Clifton Cunningham, Andrew Fiori, Ahmed Moussaoui, James Mracek, and Bin Xu in their book “Arthur Packets for p-Adic Groups by Way of Microlocal Vanishing Cycles of Perverse Sheaves, with Examples”. This thesis follows the construction detailed in Part II of their book, and we give more concrete examples to demonstrate their construction. Additionally, we provide an exposition on the local Langlands program for p-adic groups and give an algorithm for computing the resolutions of singularities arising from the study of the orbits of certain generalized quiver varieties for their respective Langlands parameters in the groups GLn, SOn, and Sp2n.

Event cameras detect significant changes at each pixel asynchronously and report these events in real-time. A changing scene can generate many events in a short time. Efficient storage and transmission are necessary for further processing of this event data. Inspired by this necessity, we propose a lossless Motion Compensated Compression algorithm based on Optical Flow (MCCOF) for event cameras. We analyzed our proposed algorithm performance compared with the lossless spike coding algorithm. We found that our MCCOF algorithm achieves a higher compression ratio on most datasets compared to the spike coding algorithm. Using a real-time event-based optical flow algorithm for motion compensation, our algorithm does not significantly increase the computational time for compression and decompression.

The perceptual brain decomposes the audiovisual world into a set of audiovisual features such as color, shape, and pitch. An important question in perception science is whether selective attention is required to bind audiovisual features back into unified perceptual objects. In visual displays, targets defined as conjunctions of bound features typically cannot be searched for in parallel across a complex scene. Instead, attention must be scanned through a visual scene to find such targets. This means that conjunction of features requires selective attention. Only a few prior studies have investigated this process in the crossmodal audiovisual case. These prior studies left some ambiguity as to how temporal dynamics interact with selective attention, and none have used dynamic audiovisual speech as stimuli. In two experiments, this thesis explored whether the crossmodal conjunction of audio and visual speech features requires selective attention. In Chapter 2, we presented observers with displays of multiple visual faces and one audible voice. The task was to determine whether one of the faces was saying a sentence that matched the voice. In Chapter 3, we presented observers with displays of multiple audible voices and one visual face. Similarly, the task was to determine whether one of the voices was saying the sentence that matched the lip movements of the visual face. We compared response times to complete the task as the number of distracting items was increased. We found that it took longer to complete tasks with increasing number of distractors. This means that audiovisual speech targets cannot be registered in parallel across the scene and strongly suggests that selective attention is required to bind speech features across modalities.

My work is centered around the question of how teachers, in K-12 classrooms in southern Alberta, have responded to the Truth and Reconciliation (TRC) Commission’s Calls to Action and related reform to provincial education such as the fifth Teaching Quality Standard (TQS5). My work is based on ethnographic interviews with nine Indigenous and settler teachers and follow-up collaborative group sessions with some of them. Along with how teachers are responding the TRC and TQS5, I focus on the challenges and possibilities that they find in responding. I found that their responses deliberately value relations and reflect Indigenous notions of relationality. Their challenges reflect commodified, sanctioned, abstracted, and objective ideas of schooling which align with the logic of homo economicus. Their possibilities seem to lie in non-scalable and relational spaces which provide the potential for struggle, engagement, and enunciation.

Event cameras detect significant changes at each pixel asynchronously and report these events in real-time. A changing scene can generate many events in a short time. Efficient storage and transmission are necessary for further processing of this event data. Inspired by this necessity, we propose a lossless Motion Compensated Compression algorithm based on Optical Flow (MCCOF) for event cameras. We analyzed our proposed algorithm performance compared with the lossless spike coding algorithm. We found that our MCCOF algorithm achieves a higher compression ratio on most datasets compared to the spike coding algorithm. Using a real-time event-based optical flow algorithm for motion compensation, our algorithm does not significantly increase the computational time for compression and decompression.

Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] is an important legume crop in western Canada. However, soybean exhibits delayed emergence and growth compared with many weeds in this region, resulting in greater reliance on herbicides. A field experiment was established near Lethbridge, Alberta, in 2020 and 2021 to determine how four cultural weed management practices [soybean row spacing (23 cm vs. 69 cm), target plant density (400,000 vs. 600,000 plants ha-1) cultivar (slender vs. bushy) and fall rye cover cropping (with vs. without)] influenced soybean productivity and weed suppression. Overall, narrow compared with wide rows increased the ability for soybean to compete with and withstand competition from weeds. Increased target densities improved weed suppression, while bushy cultivars played a supporting role. The fall rye cover crop had inconsistent effects between years. Planting a bushy soybean cultivar in narrow rows at higher densities could improve irrigated soybean productivity and weed suppression in Alberta.

Long-term potentiation (LTP) is proposed as a molecular mechanism for learning and memory. N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) are implicated during LTP and new learning. However, if rats are pre-trained prior to new learning NMDARs are not needed. Rather the activation of voltage gated calcium channels (VGCCs) and associated calcium influx might be responsible for LTP independent of NMDARs, and new learning with familiar information. The hypothesis was that to impair new learning with familiar information both NMDARs and VGCCs would need to be blocked. Rats were trained in a version of the Morris water task, consisting of a pre-training, mass-training, and a probe test. Before mass-training NMDARs and VGCCs were blocked in the hippocampus using AP5 and Verapamil, which are receptor antagonists. All rats were able to learn regardless of their experimental condition, which means that activation of NMDARs and VGCCs is not crucial for new spatial learning with familiar information.

The perceptual brain decomposes the audiovisual world into a set of audiovisual features such as color, shape, and pitch. An important question in perception science is whether selective attention is required to bind audiovisual features back into unified perceptual objects. In visual displays, targets defined as conjunctions of bound features typically cannot be searched for in parallel across a complex scene. Instead, attention must be scanned through a visual scene to find such targets. This means that conjunction of features requires selective attention. Only a few prior studies have investigated this process in the crossmodal audiovisual case. These prior studies left some ambiguity as to how temporal dynamics interact with selective attention, and none have used dynamic audiovisual speech as stimuli. In two experiments, this thesis explored whether the crossmodal conjunction of audio and visual speech features requires selective attention. In Chapter 2, we presented observers with displays of multiple visual faces and one audible voice. The task was to determine whether one of the faces was saying a sentence that matched the voice. In Chapter 3, we presented observers with displays of multiple audible voices and one visual face. Similarly, the task was to determine whether one of the voices was saying the sentence that matched the lip movements of the visual face. We compared response times to complete the task as the number of distracting items was increased. We found that it took longer to complete tasks with increasing number of distractors. This means that audiovisual speech targets cannot be registered in parallel across the scene and strongly suggests that selective attention is required to bind speech features across modalities.

My work is centered around the question of how teachers, in K-12 classrooms in southern Alberta, have responded to the Truth and Reconciliation (TRC) Commission’s Calls to Action and related reform to provincial education such as the fifth Teaching Quality Standard (TQS5). My work is based on ethnographic interviews with nine Indigenous and settler teachers and follow-up collaborative group sessions with some of them. Along with how teachers are responding the TRC and TQS5, I focus on the challenges and possibilities that they find in responding. I found that their responses deliberately value relations and reflect Indigenous notions of relationality. Their challenges reflect commodified, sanctioned, abstracted, and objective ideas of schooling which align with the logic of homo economicus. Their possibilities seem to lie in non-scalable and relational spaces which provide the potential for struggle, engagement, and enunciation.

Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] is an important legume crop in western Canada. However, soybean exhibits delayed emergence and growth compared with many weeds in this region, resulting in greater reliance on herbicides. A field experiment was established near Lethbridge, Alberta, in 2020 and 2021 to determine how four cultural weed management practices [soybean row spacing (23 cm vs. 69 cm), target plant density (400,000 vs. 600,000 plants ha-1) cultivar (slender vs. bushy) and fall rye cover cropping (with vs. without)] influenced soybean productivity and weed suppression. Overall, narrow compared with wide rows increased the ability for soybean to compete with and withstand competition from weeds. Increased target densities improved weed suppression, while bushy cultivars played a supporting role. The fall rye cover crop had inconsistent effects between years. Planting a bushy soybean cultivar in narrow rows at higher densities could improve irrigated soybean productivity and weed suppression in Alberta.

The H/ACA snoRNP complex directs the formation of pseudouridines in ribosomal RNA (rRNA); however, the mechanisms by which the eukaryotic two-hairpin structured H/ACA snoRNP mediates pseudouridylation in rRNA are poorly understood. This study investigates the function of the conserved two-hairpin structure of eukaryotic H/ACA snoRNA while modifying large, structured rRNA. The biochemical analysis reveals that the two hairpins of the snoRNP complex can independently convert two uridines to two pseudouridines in long rRNA fragments. Moreover, the H/ACA snoRNP can likely unfold secondary structures in rRNA without the help of additional factors. Further, the GAR domains of Gar1 are required for pseudouridine formation, but the KKE/D extensions of Cbf5 play no role in pseudouridylation of rRNA. In summary, this study addresses the mechanism of the H/ACA snoRNP complex in modifying rRNA during ribosome biogenesis.

Event cameras detect significant changes at each pixel asynchronously and report these events in real-time. A changing scene can generate many events in a short time. Efficient storage and transmission are necessary for further processing of this event data. Inspired by this necessity, we propose a lossless Motion Compensated Compression algorithm based on Optical Flow (MCCOF) for event cameras. We analyzed our proposed algorithm performance compared with the lossless spike coding algorithm. We found that our MCCOF algorithm achieves a higher compression ratio on most datasets compared to the spike coding algorithm. Using a real-time event-based optical flow algorithm for motion compensation, our algorithm does not significantly increase the computational time for compression and decompression.

The H/ACA snoRNP complex directs the formation of pseudouridines in ribosomal RNA (rRNA); however, the mechanisms by which the eukaryotic two-hairpin structured H/ACA snoRNP mediates pseudouridylation in rRNA are poorly understood. This study investigates the function of the conserved two-hairpin structure of eukaryotic H/ACA snoRNA while modifying large, structured rRNA. The biochemical analysis reveals that the two hairpins of the snoRNP complex can independently convert two uridines to two pseudouridines in long rRNA fragments. Moreover, the H/ACA snoRNP can likely unfold secondary structures in rRNA without the help of additional factors. Further, the GAR domains of Gar1 are required for pseudouridine formation, but the KKE/D extensions of Cbf5 play no role in pseudouridylation of rRNA. In summary, this study addresses the mechanism of the H/ACA snoRNP complex in modifying rRNA during ribosome biogenesis.

The perceptual brain decomposes the audiovisual world into a set of audiovisual features such as color, shape, and pitch. An important question in perception science is whether selective attention is required to bind audiovisual features back into unified perceptual objects. In visual displays, targets defined as conjunctions of bound features typically cannot be searched for in parallel across a complex scene. Instead, attention must be scanned through a visual scene to find such targets. This means that conjunction of features requires selective attention. Only a few prior studies have investigated this process in the crossmodal audiovisual case. These prior studies left some ambiguity as to how temporal dynamics interact with selective attention, and none have used dynamic audiovisual speech as stimuli. In two experiments, this thesis explored whether the crossmodal conjunction of audio and visual speech features requires selective attention. In Chapter 2, we presented observers with displays of multiple visual faces and one audible voice. The task was to determine whether one of the faces was saying a sentence that matched the voice. In Chapter 3, we presented observers with displays of multiple audible voices and one visual face. Similarly, the task was to determine whether one of the voices was saying the sentence that matched the lip movements of the visual face. We compared response times to complete the task as the number of distracting items was increased. We found that it took longer to complete tasks with increasing number of distractors. This means that audiovisual speech targets cannot be registered in parallel across the scene and strongly suggests that selective attention is required to bind speech features across modalities.

Long-term potentiation (LTP) is proposed as a molecular mechanism for learning and memory. N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) are implicated during LTP and new learning. However, if rats are pre-trained prior to new learning NMDARs are not needed. Rather the activation of voltage gated calcium channels (VGCCs) and associated calcium influx might be responsible for LTP independent of NMDARs, and new learning with familiar information. The hypothesis was that to impair new learning with familiar information both NMDARs and VGCCs would need to be blocked. Rats were trained in a version of the Morris water task, consisting of a pre-training, mass-training, and a probe test. Before mass-training NMDARs and VGCCs were blocked in the hippocampus using AP5 and Verapamil, which are receptor antagonists. All rats were able to learn regardless of their experimental condition, which means that activation of NMDARs and VGCCs is not crucial for new spatial learning with familiar information.

In this thesis, we investigate geometric aspects of the Langlands parameters arising in the local Langlands Program for p-adic groups. This work was inspired by David Vogan’s “The Local Langlands Conjecture”, and we built off of the work of Clifton Cunningham, Andrew Fiori, Ahmed Moussaoui, James Mracek, and Bin Xu in their book “Arthur Packets for p-Adic Groups by Way of Microlocal Vanishing Cycles of Perverse Sheaves, with Examples”. This thesis follows the construction detailed in Part II of their book, and we give more concrete examples to demonstrate their construction. Additionally, we provide an exposition on the local Langlands program for p-adic groups and give an algorithm for computing the resolutions of singularities arising from the study of the orbits of certain generalized quiver varieties for their respective Langlands parameters in the groups GLn, SOn, and Sp2n.

Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] is an important legume crop in western Canada. However, soybean exhibits delayed emergence and growth compared with many weeds in this region, resulting in greater reliance on herbicides. A field experiment was established near Lethbridge, Alberta, in 2020 and 2021 to determine how four cultural weed management practices [soybean row spacing (23 cm vs. 69 cm), target plant density (400,000 vs. 600,000 plants ha-1) cultivar (slender vs. bushy) and fall rye cover cropping (with vs. without)] influenced soybean productivity and weed suppression. Overall, narrow compared with wide rows increased the ability for soybean to compete with and withstand competition from weeds. Increased target densities improved weed suppression, while bushy cultivars played a supporting role. The fall rye cover crop had inconsistent effects between years. Planting a bushy soybean cultivar in narrow rows at higher densities could improve irrigated soybean productivity and weed suppression in Alberta.

In this thesis, we investigate geometric aspects of the Langlands parameters arising in the local Langlands Program for p-adic groups. This work was inspired by David Vogan’s “The Local Langlands Conjecture”, and we built off of the work of Clifton Cunningham, Andrew Fiori, Ahmed Moussaoui, James Mracek, and Bin Xu in their book “Arthur Packets for p-Adic Groups by Way of Microlocal Vanishing Cycles of Perverse Sheaves, with Examples”. This thesis follows the construction detailed in Part II of their book, and we give more concrete examples to demonstrate their construction. Additionally, we provide an exposition on the local Langlands program for p-adic groups and give an algorithm for computing the resolutions of singularities arising from the study of the orbits of certain generalized quiver varieties for their respective Langlands parameters in the groups GLn, SOn, and Sp2n.

Long-term potentiation (LTP) is proposed as a molecular mechanism for learning and memory. N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) are implicated during LTP and new learning. However, if rats are pre-trained prior to new learning NMDARs are not needed. Rather the activation of voltage gated calcium channels (VGCCs) and associated calcium influx might be responsible for LTP independent of NMDARs, and new learning with familiar information. The hypothesis was that to impair new learning with familiar information both NMDARs and VGCCs would need to be blocked. Rats were trained in a version of the Morris water task, consisting of a pre-training, mass-training, and a probe test. Before mass-training NMDARs and VGCCs were blocked in the hippocampus using AP5 and Verapamil, which are receptor antagonists. All rats were able to learn regardless of their experimental condition, which means that activation of NMDARs and VGCCs is not crucial for new spatial learning with familiar information.

Event cameras detect significant changes at each pixel asynchronously and report these events in real-time. A changing scene can generate many events in a short time. Efficient storage and transmission are necessary for further processing of this event data. Inspired by this necessity, we propose a lossless Motion Compensated Compression algorithm based on Optical Flow (MCCOF) for event cameras. We analyzed our proposed algorithm performance compared with the lossless spike coding algorithm. We found that our MCCOF algorithm achieves a higher compression ratio on most datasets compared to the spike coding algorithm. Using a real-time event-based optical flow algorithm for motion compensation, our algorithm does not significantly increase the computational time for compression and decompression.

My work is centered around the question of how teachers, in K-12 classrooms in southern Alberta, have responded to the Truth and Reconciliation (TRC) Commission’s Calls to Action and related reform to provincial education such as the fifth Teaching Quality Standard (TQS5). My work is based on ethnographic interviews with nine Indigenous and settler teachers and follow-up collaborative group sessions with some of them. Along with how teachers are responding the TRC and TQS5, I focus on the challenges and possibilities that they find in responding. I found that their responses deliberately value relations and reflect Indigenous notions of relationality. Their challenges reflect commodified, sanctioned, abstracted, and objective ideas of schooling which align with the logic of homo economicus. Their possibilities seem to lie in non-scalable and relational spaces which provide the potential for struggle, engagement, and enunciation.

The H/ACA snoRNP complex directs the formation of pseudouridines in ribosomal RNA (rRNA); however, the mechanisms by which the eukaryotic two-hairpin structured H/ACA snoRNP mediates pseudouridylation in rRNA are poorly understood. This study investigates the function of the conserved two-hairpin structure of eukaryotic H/ACA snoRNA while modifying large, structured rRNA. The biochemical analysis reveals that the two hairpins of the snoRNP complex can independently convert two uridines to two pseudouridines in long rRNA fragments. Moreover, the H/ACA snoRNP can likely unfold secondary structures in rRNA without the help of additional factors. Further, the GAR domains of Gar1 are required for pseudouridine formation, but the KKE/D extensions of Cbf5 play no role in pseudouridylation of rRNA. In summary, this study addresses the mechanism of the H/ACA snoRNP complex in modifying rRNA during ribosome biogenesis.

The perceptual brain decomposes the audiovisual world into a set of audiovisual features such as color, shape, and pitch. An important question in perception science is whether selective attention is required to bind audiovisual features back into unified perceptual objects. In visual displays, targets defined as conjunctions of bound features typically cannot be searched for in parallel across a complex scene. Instead, attention must be scanned through a visual scene to find such targets. This means that conjunction of features requires selective attention. Only a few prior studies have investigated this process in the crossmodal audiovisual case. These prior studies left some ambiguity as to how temporal dynamics interact with selective attention, and none have used dynamic audiovisual speech as stimuli. In two experiments, this thesis explored whether the crossmodal conjunction of audio and visual speech features requires selective attention. In Chapter 2, we presented observers with displays of multiple visual faces and one audible voice. The task was to determine whether one of the faces was saying a sentence that matched the voice. In Chapter 3, we presented observers with displays of multiple audible voices and one visual face. Similarly, the task was to determine whether one of the voices was saying the sentence that matched the lip movements of the visual face. We compared response times to complete the task as the number of distracting items was increased. We found that it took longer to complete tasks with increasing number of distractors. This means that audiovisual speech targets cannot be registered in parallel across the scene and strongly suggests that selective attention is required to bind speech features across modalities.

My work is centered around the question of how teachers, in K-12 classrooms in southern Alberta, have responded to the Truth and Reconciliation (TRC) Commission’s Calls to Action and related reform to provincial education such as the fifth Teaching Quality Standard (TQS5). My work is based on ethnographic interviews with nine Indigenous and settler teachers and follow-up collaborative group sessions with some of them. Along with how teachers are responding the TRC and TQS5, I focus on the challenges and possibilities that they find in responding. I found that their responses deliberately value relations and reflect Indigenous notions of relationality. Their challenges reflect commodified, sanctioned, abstracted, and objective ideas of schooling which align with the logic of homo economicus. Their possibilities seem to lie in non-scalable and relational spaces which provide the potential for struggle, engagement, and enunciation.

Long-term potentiation (LTP) is proposed as a molecular mechanism for learning and memory. N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) are implicated during LTP and new learning. However, if rats are pre-trained prior to new learning NMDARs are not needed. Rather the activation of voltage gated calcium channels (VGCCs) and associated calcium influx might be responsible for LTP independent of NMDARs, and new learning with familiar information. The hypothesis was that to impair new learning with familiar information both NMDARs and VGCCs would need to be blocked. Rats were trained in a version of the Morris water task, consisting of a pre-training, mass-training, and a probe test. Before mass-training NMDARs and VGCCs were blocked in the hippocampus using AP5 and Verapamil, which are receptor antagonists. All rats were able to learn regardless of their experimental condition, which means that activation of NMDARs and VGCCs is not crucial for new spatial learning with familiar information.

Event cameras detect significant changes at each pixel asynchronously and report these events in real-time. A changing scene can generate many events in a short time. Efficient storage and transmission are necessary for further processing of this event data. Inspired by this necessity, we propose a lossless Motion Compensated Compression algorithm based on Optical Flow (MCCOF) for event cameras. We analyzed our proposed algorithm performance compared with the lossless spike coding algorithm. We found that our MCCOF algorithm achieves a higher compression ratio on most datasets compared to the spike coding algorithm. Using a real-time event-based optical flow algorithm for motion compensation, our algorithm does not significantly increase the computational time for compression and decompression.

Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] is an important legume crop in western Canada. However, soybean exhibits delayed emergence and growth compared with many weeds in this region, resulting in greater reliance on herbicides. A field experiment was established near Lethbridge, Alberta, in 2020 and 2021 to determine how four cultural weed management practices [soybean row spacing (23 cm vs. 69 cm), target plant density (400,000 vs. 600,000 plants ha-1) cultivar (slender vs. bushy) and fall rye cover cropping (with vs. without)] influenced soybean productivity and weed suppression. Overall, narrow compared with wide rows increased the ability for soybean to compete with and withstand competition from weeds. Increased target densities improved weed suppression, while bushy cultivars played a supporting role. The fall rye cover crop had inconsistent effects between years. Planting a bushy soybean cultivar in narrow rows at higher densities could improve irrigated soybean productivity and weed suppression in Alberta.

In this thesis, we investigate geometric aspects of the Langlands parameters arising in the local Langlands Program for p-adic groups. This work was inspired by David Vogan’s “The Local Langlands Conjecture”, and we built off of the work of Clifton Cunningham, Andrew Fiori, Ahmed Moussaoui, James Mracek, and Bin Xu in their book “Arthur Packets for p-Adic Groups by Way of Microlocal Vanishing Cycles of Perverse Sheaves, with Examples”. This thesis follows the construction detailed in Part II of their book, and we give more concrete examples to demonstrate their construction. Additionally, we provide an exposition on the local Langlands program for p-adic groups and give an algorithm for computing the resolutions of singularities arising from the study of the orbits of certain generalized quiver varieties for their respective Langlands parameters in the groups GLn, SOn, and Sp2n.

The perceptual brain decomposes the audiovisual world into a set of audiovisual features such as color, shape, and pitch. An important question in perception science is whether selective attention is required to bind audiovisual features back into unified perceptual objects. In visual displays, targets defined as conjunctions of bound features typically cannot be searched for in parallel across a complex scene. Instead, attention must be scanned through a visual scene to find such targets. This means that conjunction of features requires selective attention. Only a few prior studies have investigated this process in the crossmodal audiovisual case. These prior studies left some ambiguity as to how temporal dynamics interact with selective attention, and none have used dynamic audiovisual speech as stimuli. In two experiments, this thesis explored whether the crossmodal conjunction of audio and visual speech features requires selective attention. In Chapter 2, we presented observers with displays of multiple visual faces and one audible voice. The task was to determine whether one of the faces was saying a sentence that matched the voice. In Chapter 3, we presented observers with displays of multiple audible voices and one visual face. Similarly, the task was to determine whether one of the voices was saying the sentence that matched the lip movements of the visual face. We compared response times to complete the task as the number of distracting items was increased. We found that it took longer to complete tasks with increasing number of distractors. This means that audiovisual speech targets cannot be registered in parallel across the scene and strongly suggests that selective attention is required to bind speech features across modalities.

The H/ACA snoRNP complex directs the formation of pseudouridines in ribosomal RNA (rRNA); however, the mechanisms by which the eukaryotic two-hairpin structured H/ACA snoRNP mediates pseudouridylation in rRNA are poorly understood. This study investigates the function of the conserved two-hairpin structure of eukaryotic H/ACA snoRNA while modifying large, structured rRNA. The biochemical analysis reveals that the two hairpins of the snoRNP complex can independently convert two uridines to two pseudouridines in long rRNA fragments. Moreover, the H/ACA snoRNP can likely unfold secondary structures in rRNA without the help of additional factors. Further, the GAR domains of Gar1 are required for pseudouridine formation, but the KKE/D extensions of Cbf5 play no role in pseudouridylation of rRNA. In summary, this study addresses the mechanism of the H/ACA snoRNP complex in modifying rRNA during ribosome biogenesis.

This paper explores the possibilities of examining undergraduate dissertations as sources. By means of archival research on a collection of Geography undergraduate dissertations at the University of Glasgow, comprising over 2,600 dissertations from 1954 to 2014, this paper argues for the epistemological value of both these “small” knowledge productions and the experiences of becoming a geographer for studying the history of Geography. A sustained study of the collection reveals that the dissertations comprise three kinds of sources: intellectual sources, seeing the dissertations as original pieces of academic research; cultural sources, examining the role of this “rites of passage” in becoming a geographer; and lastly, as social sources, whereby the dissertations illuminate a diverse, personal network within and beyond the university. The vastness of the archival collection of undergraduate Geography dissertations and the opportunities offered for a longitudinal examining of shifts within them over the years, revealing notable overall trends and traditions, ultimately discloses their own importance as exciting and striking original knowledge productions.

The Dissertation project at Uppsala University Library

This paper examines the availability of Open Access Electronic Thesis and Dissertation (OATD) available on Library and Information Science (LIS)in OATD.org. Totally, 10590 Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) on Library and Information Science were contributed by various Universities/Institutions during the period of 1971-2020 in OATD.org. Further, it is found that the countries such as US, Sweden, Finland, UK and South Africa were contributed 73.56% of theses. During 2011-2015, more numbers theses and dissertations were added in OATD.org. Among various courtiers, Sweden was found in the top with 2073(30.24%) of theses; University of Borås had contributed 900(27.70%) of theses than other Universities/Institutions. The department of Swedish School of Library and Information Science has contributed the highest number of theses 819(33.55%). English was found the dominating language, in which, 4204(56.86%) of theses were found in OATD.org.

Interfaith dialogue has become one of the most significant and interesting activities in contemporary socio-political and socio-religious global scenario due to its crucial role in the peace process and peaceful interfaith relations. Many groups of scholars, institutes, organizations, and even governments are promoting the activities regarding interfaith relations. Meanwhile, it is also assumed that Pakistan is one of the countries where interfaith dialogue activities are arranged officially on the state level. In this study, efforts are made to review statistically and to index the literature produced by Pakistani scholars and universities. A mixed-method research methodology is adopted for this study with a bibliometric approach to find out results. Almost 136 theses & dissertations have been produced by scholars in a wide range of Pakistani Universities on interfaith Dialogue, religious debates, harmony, and relations. The research produced by male scholars was 71 (52.21 %) and most 49 (36%) productive era was from 2011 to 2015. The majority of the research was for Master (38%) and MS/M.Phil (34%) level degrees and about one-fifth of the theses were on the theme of “Interfaith Dialogue in Pakistani context”. Therefore, it is suggested that the course on interfaith dialogue, harmony, and relations should be taught at M. Phil and Ph.D. Level in the discipline of Islamic studies and social sciences.

The Sociological Portrait is characterized as a biographical theoreticalmethodological device, in which the oral narrative and other manifestations are used to reconstruct the legacy of an individual’s dispositions, to understand how him/her incorporates the social domain. Between 2011 and 2020, some Brazilian studies used this methodology to understand the influence of dispositions on school trajectories, on the reading practices of individuals, of bilingualism and on the construction of professional teaching identities. To better understand how this methodological instrument was used, this article presents a review of dissertations published in Brazil during that period. The review allows us to conclude that the use of the Sociological Portrait, as part of research methods, contributes to a new look at the way the social domain is apprehended by the individual, whether student or teacher., O Retrato Sociológico é caracterizado como um dispositivo teóricometodológico biográfico que se vale de narrativas orais e outras manifestações de um ator social para a reconstrução do patrimônio de disposições desse ator, com o intuito de compreender como o social é por ele incorporado. Entre 2011 e 2020, algumas pesquisas brasileiras utilizaram essa metodologia para compreender a influência das disposições nas trajetórias escolares, nas práticas de leitura de indivíduos, do bilinguismo e na construção das identidades profissionais docentes. Para melhor compreender como se deu o uso desse instrumento metodológico, este artigo apresenta uma revisão de teses publicadas no Brasil naquele período. O levantamento nos permite concluir que o uso do Retrato Sociológico, como parte do método de pesquisa, contribui com um novo olhar sobre a maneira como o social é apreendido pelo indivíduo, seja ele estudante ou professor.