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How asynchronous video interview design affects applicant outcomes : interview performance, impression management, anxiety, and perceived fairness
Get PDF115 leaves : illustrations ; 29 cmIncludes abstract and appendices.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 79-88).This research examines how the allowance and usage of two asynchronous video interview (AVI) design features (response preparation time (PT) and number of attempts to record a response) may influence crucial applicant outcomes. The outcomes of interview performance, anxiety, perceived fairness, and impression management (IM) behaviours are examined using a 2 (low PT, unlimited PT) × 2 (one attempt, five attempts) design. Prolific users from the United States (N = 223) participated in one of four AVI conditions and responded to five structured interview questions. Results were analyzed using path models and correlations. Interview performance was related to interviewees’ usage of multiple attempts and honest IM. Anxiety was associated with using more attempts and with lower perceived fairness. Several limitations of the study’s methodology are raised, and practical implications for both interviewees of AVIs and employers using AVIs are discussed
Trends in studies of edge influence on vegetation at human created and natural forest edges across time and space
Get PDFSubmitted versionForest edges, or boundaries between adjacent ecosystems, play important ecological roles. Both anthropogenic and natural forest edges affect vegetation while contributing to landscape heterogeneity. The recent proliferation of studies on vegetation at edges suggests that a comprehensive review of global edge studies is timely. We reviewed the literature on forest edges to identify trends in edge studies over time, determine types and localities of studied edges, and compare findings on edge influence. We found 446 studies conducted in 55 different countries that considered edge influence on vegetation structure and (or) composition. Research on vegetation at anthropogenic edges has increased and expanded geographically, but studies are still scarce in some areas and at natural forest edges. Forest edges were generally characterized by greater species diversity and nonnative species abundance than interior forest. Distance of edge influence on vegetation extended furthest at tropical anthropogenic forest edges compared with other edge types and locations. Edge influence on responses caused by indirect effects of edges generally extended further into the forest than edge influence on responses related to forest structure. Our findings indicate that vegetation characteristics differ between edge and forest types and should be considered in the sustainable management of heterogeneous forested landscapes
An acquired taste : an investigation of the microbial content in L’Acadie Blanc natural wine
No full text1 online resource (xi, 177 pages) : illustrations (some colour), maps (some colour), charts (some colour), graphs (some colour)Includes abstract and appendices.Includes bibliographical references (pages 120-131).Terroir is a term describing influences of a region on wine flavours and qualities. Contributions to terroir from the microbial communities in soils and the ones causing fermentation are often overlooked. The work presented herein is an investigation of the soil microbial populations in an organic, conventional vineyard, and the microbial community in spontaneous fermentation of L’Acadie Blanc wine. Organic soils were found to be more heterogeneous than conventional soils, and have a higher relative abundance of Proteobacteria, representing 3% more of the microbial community than in organic soils, which was traced to the genus Bradyrhizobium. The relative increase of Alphaproteobacteria was offset by a relative decrease of Betaproteobacteria and Gammaproteobacteria. Saccharomyces cerevisiae was the dominant species in the natural wine, followed by Delftia acidovorans, Delftia tsuruhatensis, and Oenococcus oeni. This work begins characterizing the microbial communities of vineyards in Nova Scotia, an essential part of describing regional terroir.
Terroir est un terme décrivant les influences d’une région sur les saveurs et qualités des vins. La contribution des communautés microscopiques, soit dans le sol ou responsable de la vinification, sont souvent négligées. Le travail présenté ci-après comprend une investigation des communautés microbiennes d’un vignoble organique et d’un vignoble conventionnel, ainsi que la communauté microbienne d’un vin fait par inoculation spontanée du jus de raisin L’Acadie Blanc. Les sols organiques étaient plus hétérogènes, et avaient une plus grande abondance relative de Protéobactéries, qui représentaient environ 3% de plus des communautés. La cause était attribuée à la genre Bradyrhizobium. L’augmentation des Alphaprotéobactéries fut contrebalancée par une diminution des Bêtaprotéobactéries et Gammaprotéobactéries. Saccharomyces cerevisiae était l’espèce dominante dans le vin, suivit par Delftia acidovorans, Delftia tsuruhatensis, et Oenococcus oeni. Ce travail débute la description des communautés microbiennes des vignobles de la Nouvelle-Écosse, qui essentiel pour dépeindre le terroir de la région.</p
A feminist analysis of the global adoption of the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls
Get PDF1 online resource (81 pages)Includes abstract and appendix.Includes bibliographical references (pages 67-78).This thesis explores the framing of #BringBackOurGirls on twitter and in the mainstream media, particularly through the lens of third world feminism. Using feminist content analysis, it explores themes extracted from the Nigerian twitter and North American/European twitter and reveals a larger discussion and perspectives of Nigerians and non-Nigerians, concerning the kidnapping of the Chibok girls. It finds that themes extracted from the Nigerian twitter were based on lived experiences, while themes found in the North American/European twitter were influenced by uninformed opinions of third world countries. It finds that social media activism tends to lead to slacktivism and the mainstream media outside of Nigeria is mostly influenced by the political interests of their nation-states. Finally, it finds that the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls not only addresses the oppressions of third-world women, but also exposes issues of political corruption, inefficiencies and the importance of international policies that protect the security of women
Plant species composition across several natural edge types in Nova Scotia
Get PDF1 online resource (26 pages) : colour illustrations, colour mapIncludes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (pages 24-26).Forest edges, anthropogenic and natural, experience edge effects which influence the surrounding species and abiotic factors. The amount of effect on the forest depends on a variety of factors including how the edge was made (or if it exists naturally), severity of contrast between adjacent habitat and forest, forest type and age. Many studies have looked in depth on anthropogenic edges but there is a lack of knowledge about natural edges, specifically looking at multiple natural edges and comparing them. My objectives were 1) to compare different edge types in Nova Scotia and 2) look at differences in species composition between the edge, forested and non-forested areas of each study. The data set used in this study spans a ten-year period and includes lakeshore, bog, barren, coastal, insect and fire edges. Cover estimates of vascular plants were taken within quadrats along a transects perpendicular to the edges and varied in length from 100 to 200m. I conducted a correspondence analysis to compare species composition. The bog, lakeshore and barren edges had patterns of distinction between the edge, forested and non-forested categories. The coastal, insect and fire sites had a lack of distinction in species composition at these three distance categories. This was related to disturbance with coastal, insect and fire being frequently/previously disturbed and thus with less complex species composition. Overlap in species composition were seen between forest and edge at all six edge types and there was also overlap with the edge and non-forested area, less so. The natural inherent sites shared more similarities to each other. The naturally created sites were not like each other nor to the naturally inherent sites. The edge and forested sites had similar species composition, as did non-forested and edge sites. The non-forested and forested species composition was distinct from each other
The agrarian question of extractive capital : political economy, rural change, and peasant struggle in 21st century Paraguay
Get PDF286 leaves : illustrations (chiefly colour) ; 29 cmIncludes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 242-286).This dissertation examines the impact of contemporary capitalist globalization on class relations, class conflict, and economic development in the Paraguayan countryside. It offers a political economy analysis of agrarian change, situating this analysis in the wider historical context of the protracted transition to democracy between 1989 and 2008, the rural class structure of the country, the changing character of contemporary agro-extractive capitalism, and the long‐standing class struggle for redistributive land reform. Particular focus is placed on the combative but still highly fragmented peasantry and on the “parliamentary coup” that took place in June 2012, as this event reveals the major fault lines of the balance of class forces in the countryside, in particular the commitment of a compact and coalesced, dominant agrarian class and political elite in Congress to preserving the country’s unequal distribution of land and wealth. By examining the Paraguayan land reform impasse under the short‐lived government of Fernando Lugo (2008–2012) through an interactive state-society framework, this dissertation attempts to locate the sources of current social and political conflict in the country, and the demands of rival social groups. In doing so, it argues that the rise and fall of Lugo occurred in the context of structural legacies from the Stroessner era (1954–1989) that have remained largely unchanged and that coexist today with an expanding agro‐ extractivist development model.
This dissertation also challenges the recent hailing of agricultural biotechnology as a panacea for food insecurity and rural poverty in countries of the global South. Based on an empirical investigation of the neoliberal soy regime in Paraguay, the present study documents how the profound transformation of this country’s agricultural mode of production over the past two decades, spurred by the neoliberal restructuring of agriculture and the bio-revolution, has jeopardized rural livelihoods. Drawing on the concept of “agrarian extractivism”, the study demonstrates how the transgenic soyization of Paraguay’s agriculture has led to an increased concentration of landholdings, as well as the displacement and disempowerment of peasants and rural labourers who have been rendered surplus to the requirements of agribusiness capital. At the same time, the consolidation of this new agro-industrial model has fostered a growing dependence on agrochemicals that compromise environmental quality and human health. Agrarian extractivism has also reshaped the political terrain of the countryside; the class struggle for land and agrarian reform has now expanded to include struggles against the deleterious operations of extractive capital
Pollen as a potential vector for Nosema microsporidia
Get PDF1 online resource (iii, 21 pages)Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (pages 17-21).In recent years, pollinators have been experiencing a significant decline. Of particular note are bees such as honeybees (Apis spp.) and bumblebees (Bombus spp.) which provide essential pollination as both natural and managed pollinators. Among other suggested causes for the decline, such as tracheal mites, microsporidia may be responsible for the increased colony loss seen in bees. Microsporidia are eukaryotic intracellular parasites that are known to infect many invertebrates including bees, in which the pathogen causes many detrimental effects. Nosema microsporidia, a genus that includes bee-specific species like Nosema apis and Nosema cerenae may be of increased importance to the decline of these pollinators. Microsporidia can be transmitted between individuals by direct contact or indirectly via infected feces. In addition to these transmission routes, the collection of raw pollen from flowers by foraging bees may be a further means of transmission. Unpasteurized pollen samples from three sources were examined for the presence of Nosema microsporidia. Samples were boiled to release the genetic material from the spores, which was then amplified using primers targeting a ~1230bp region of the SSU rRNA genes of the microsporidia. Amplification of the DNA was inconsistent, with 1/9 of the infected larvae and 5/9 of the infected larvae in pollen giving a band for the presence of Nosema microsporidia. Although no extractions from the pollen tested positive for Nosema microsporidia, due to the inconsistency of the extraction the presence of the pathogen cannot be determined conclusively. Other extraction methods such as the use of enzymes or chemical treatments may provide more precise results, and thus would allow for the status of pollen as a vector of microsporidia to be known
Oppression in the shadows : the Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia and the development of Indian Affairs, 1760-1950
Get PDF207 leaves ; 29 cmIncludes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 196-207).This thesis is a political history of the development of the Department of Indian Affairs (DIA) in Nova Scotia. Rather than position assimilation as the central objective of the DIA, this research proposes that protecting the capital interests of the government was the DIA’s purpose. Four distinct periods of colonialism in Nova Scotia are examined to demonstrate the fluctuating priorities of the DIA. This examination reveals how the Mi’kmaq of Nova
Scotia consistently experienced government oppression through neglect rather than control or surveillance. By questioning the validity of our national historiography on Indians Affairs, a broader understanding of colonialism is created. Positioning the protection of capital as the DIA’s core objective also allows for the Maritime region to be included in Canada’s history of Indian Affairs and colonization, rather than isolating it as an outlier
Hopf algebras : definitions and examples
Get PDF1 online resource (36 pages) : illustrationsIncludes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (page 36).We define a Hopf algebra and give a variety of examples of varying complexity. To facilitate the definition, we first define the commutative diagram, the tensor product, and an algebra/coalgebra/bialgebra. We briefly discuss the duality between algebras and coalgebras. Prior to introducing the non-commutative Hopf algebras of Sweedler and Taft, we define the q-binomial coefficient and prove a related lemma from q-series which allows an explicit formula for the coproduct of a Taft algebra
Nature of the soft excess in blazar 3C273
Get PDF1 online resource (xii, 80 pages) : colour illustrationsIncludes abstract and appendices.Includes bibliographical references (pages 78-80).The multi-epoch data involving 27 observations of the blazar 3C273 obtained over a period of 16 years from June 2000 to June 2016 in the 0.3-10 keV x-ray band is analysed. A single power-law model is fitted to the hard x-ray band while a double power-law model is fitted to the 0.3-10 keV band. The soft x-ray band in 0.3-0.8 keV range is observed to be originating in the jet due to synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) effect while the hard x-ray band is also observed to be originating in the jet through the external Compton (EC) effect. Furthermore, the accretion rate of 3C273 is found to be increasing with time while the jet power has been observed to
be decreasing with time