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The Impact of Entrepreneurship Education on the Development of Entrepreneurial Intention Among Engineering Students: The Mediating Role of Entrepreneurial Mindset and Self-Efficacy.
No full textThis thesis explores how entrepreneurship education (EE) influences the development of entrepreneurial intention (EI) among engineering students, specifically examining the mediating roles of entrepreneurial mindset (EM) and entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE). Considering the growing global importance of innovation and entrepreneurial skills, the study investigates the degree to which EE enhances EI by fostering EM and strengthening ESE. Using a quantitative survey of 431 engineering students at York University’s Lassonde School of Engineering, the study applied structural equation modeling to examine the direct and indirect effects of EE on EI through EM and ESE. Our findings show that EE significantly enhances EI, with both EM and ESE positively mediating this relationship. In this research, we investigated the impact of entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial mindset and on entrepreneurial intention. In reality this relationship is more complex, and causality might be in the opposite direction. Future research should investigate the interplay between these entrepreneurial components and the iterative nature of their evolving relationships. This highlights the value of integrating EE into engineering curricula to develop the EM needed in today’s technology-driven world. The research contributes to existing literature by quantifying EE's impact on EI and offers practical implications for educational policy and curriculum development, advocating for the continued inclusion of EE to effectively prepare engineering students for entrepreneurial careers and foster economic innovation and growth
Mapping Child Marriage Within the History of International Law: A Turn to the Archives of the 1926 Slavery Convention
No full textAt its heart, this thesis is an investigation into how the female child, compelled into conditions akin to slavery through marriage, has been historically marginalized from the scope of slavery as it is defined in the 1926 Slavery Convention. Conversely, the Human Rights Council of the United Nations General Assembly recently recognized that the experiences and exploitation of women in forced marriages can meet the international legal definition of slavery. This framing evolution indicates the reorientation of institutional efforts in recognizing forced marriages as a form of slavery. Through a historical study of the international legal origin of slavery, this thesis probes into the conceptual and linguistic shift in the framing of forced marriages. In doing so, it identifies, within the archives of the League of Nations, the forces which shaped a narrow conception of slavery in the law.
A critical analysis of the intersections of law and gender during the colonial era of the League of Nations concludes with the identification of a systematic exclusion of child marriage from the legal construction of slavery, driven by hegemonic forces. This work finds that the politics and ideologies of coloniality shaped a narrow conception of slavery, enabling the continued economic, labor, and other forms of exploitation of the colonized Global South. It emphasizes the limitations of the prevailing anti-slavery framework, rooted in this history, which continues to relegate the enslaved child to the margins
Chronically Excluded? Public Toilet Access for Youth with Gastrointestinal Illnesses
No full textThis thesis explores the intersection between public infrastructure, health and youth geographies, time geography, and sensuous and emotional embodiments to highlight public toilets as a critical yet often overlooked urban space. Through these intersections, this thesis not only spotlights public toilets as central nodes in everyday life, but also the differential ways these spaces impact populations who rely on them most for medical needs. Through a feminist methodological approach that employs semi-structured interviews and space-time diaries, this thesis asks: How do the daily mobility patterns of youth with chronic gastrointestinal illnesses depend on the spatial and temporal availability and accessibility of public and private toilet facilities? This thesis investigates the constraints to mobility and wellness that these individuals face when met with inadequate and inaccessible toilet infrastructure, with a case study in the Greater Toronto Area. Encompassing both suburbs and city centre, the research sample illustrates the infrastructural disparities between dense and sparse landscapes. From the ‘in-betweens’ from one toilet to the next, to the sensuous and emotional experiences felt within these spaces themselves, this research investigates how the everyday lifeworlds of chronically ill youth – through work, school, and play – can be enabled and disabled by the quality of infrastructure they are met with, and the coping mechanisms they employ to aid their journeys and experiences, attributing to overall wellness
Application and Optimization of Prompt Engineering Techniques for Code Generation in Large Language Models
No full textLarge Language Models have demonstrated remarkable capabilities across various domains, particularly in code generation and task-oriented reasoning. However, their accuracy and reliability in generating correct solutions remain a challenge due to the lack of task-specific prior knowledge and the limitations of existing prompt engineering techniques. Current state-of-the-art approaches, such as PAL, rely on manually crafted prompts and examples but often produce suboptimal results. Additionally, while numerous prompt engineering techniques have been developed to improve performance, selecting the most effective technique for a given task remains difficult since different queries exhibit varying levels of complexity.
This work presents an integrated approach to enhance the application and optimization of prompt engineering for code generation. First, it introduces TITAN, a novel framework that refines language model reasoning and task execution through step-back and chain of thought prompting. TITAN eliminates the need for extensive manual task-specific instructions by leveraging analytical and code-generation capabilities, achieving state-of-the-art zero-shot performance in multiple tasks. Second, it proposes PET-Select, a prompt engineering agnostic model that classifies queries based on code complexity and dynamically selects the most suitable prompt engineering technique using contrastive learning. This approach enables Pet-Select to optimize prompt selection, leading to improved accuracy and significant reductions
in token usage.
Comprehensive evaluations across diverse benchmarks, including HumanEval, MBPP, and APPS, demonstrate the effectiveness of TITAN and Pet-Select. TITAN achieves up to 7.6 percent improvement over existing zero-shot methods, while Pet-Select enhances pass@1 accuracy by up to 1.9 percent and reduces token consumption by 49.9 percent. This work represents a significant advancement in optimizing prompt engineering for code generation in large language models, offering a robust and automated solution for improving performance in complex and diverse programming tasks
The Effect of Optic Flow During Attention Related Tasks and Quiet Stance
No full textVision plays a significant role in balance as it provides visual cues to help maintain balance. Increasing visual information during upright stance leads to tighter regulation of upright stance. Cognitive related tasks and postural control share capacities and compete for cognitive resources which may cause interference on one or both tasks. There is limited work on the impact of visual gain manipulation on dual tasks that include attention tasks that require visual information while maintaining an upright stance. While previous studies have explored how dual tasks and modified visual feedback influence balance separately, there is limited work on the impact of visual feedback during dual tasks that require visual information.
This study explored how visual cues affect balance when combining effects of visual conditions and different cognitive attention tasks. Optic flow was amplified or reduced to 4 gain conditions (0.25x,1x,4x,16x) within virtual reality (VR) relative to the head position while participants stood quietly on a force plate that measure ground reaction forces and completed 12 randomized trials across 3 conditions. Kinematics were collected through 8 markers placed on different parts using motion capture. Muscle activity was also collected by placing EMG on 3 lower leg muscles during the trials. MSRS questionnaire was completed after each trial to assess movement consciousness. Root mean square (RMS), and the mean power frequency (MPF) of Centre of Pressure (COP) and head position (HeadPos) were used to quantify balance. The mean angle RMS of relative angular displacement of the hip, knee and ankle was calculated, and the mean angle RMS of absolute angular displacement of the trunk, thigh, shank, foot was calculated to quantify balance. Developing a greater understanding of complex dynamics of visual feedback on cognitive task that requires vision while quiet standing, may enhance our understanding of how visual information aids postural control during dual tasks
Appearance-Based Social Media Use, Body Dissatisfaction, and Mood Among Young Women with High Weight Bias Internalization: Investigating the Roles of Body-Related Shame and Self-Compassion
No full textThe current study investigated how weight bias internalization (WBI) relates to body dissatisfaction and mood among young women following an upward appearance-based comparison to thin-ideal Instagram imagery, and whether such relationships are mediated by body-related shame and moderated by self-compassion. Undergraduate women (N=109) completed trait measures of WBI and body-related shame in Part I. During Part II, participants were randomly assigned to either 1)compare their body parts to those of thin-ideal Instagram models; or to 2)an appearance-neutral control condition. Participants completed pre(Time 1)/post(Time 2) measures of body dissatisfaction and mood and Time 2 measures of self-compassion and appearance-based comparison. Following upward comparison, higher WBI was related to greater weight and appearance dissatisfaction and depressed mood. At heightened WBI, body-related shame explained elevated appearance-dissatisfaction and self-compassion buffered against increased depression. Findings highlight the need for interventions addressing body dissatisfaction and mood among young women with high WBI in social media contexts
Structural and RNA-Binding Characteristics of Three Yeast LA Motif Domains
No full textLa-related proteins (LARP) are a conserved class of RNA-binding proteins that function in RNA metabolism, including mRNA stabilization, translation regulation, and non-coding RNA processing. In humans, La-related protein 1 (LARP1) regulates translation and stability of 5′ terminal oligopyrimidine (TOP) tract-containing mRNAs linked to cell growth and proliferation. Although its role as a downstream effector of the mTORC1 pathway is established, the molecular interactions of LARP1 and yeast homologs remain poorly defined. This thesis examines the structure–function relationship of the La motif domain (LaM) in yeast proteins Slr1p, Slf1p, and Sro9p using isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC), circular dichroism (CD), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Findings show these proteins share conserved features and bind RNA and ligands with high affinity (low micromolar Kd). NMR line broadening observed for Slf1p–RNA interactions suggests conformational sampling. Collectively, these results advance understanding of conserved mechanisms underlying LARP1-mediated translational regulation
Improvements in Microfabrication of Integrated Collagen Scaffolds Containing Embedded Microchannels Inside 3D Extracellular Matrix with 2D Basement Membrane Linings
No full textCollagen's biocompatibility, biodegradability, and cell-adhesive properties make it vital for developing biomimetic scaffolds in tissue engineering. This thesis enhances the microfabrication of collagen scaffolds with micro-conduits, mimicking the Extracellular Matrix (ECM). These scaffolds feature a 3D porous collagen sponge, mimicking the interstitial matrix, with embedded microchannels with varying widths (70-1000 μm) resembling veins and vessels and micropatterns, as well as a 2D collagen film lining the microchannel walls that mimic the basement membrane. Through soft lithography, freeze-drying, and contact printing, scaffolds with enclosed macrochannels in multiple layers were created and reinforced with composite effects of components and crosslinking. Characterization methods included microscopy, ImageJ analysis, optical profilometry, flow studies, and SEM imaging. Factors influencing scaffold flatness and achievable microchannel dimensions were investigated in a parametric study. Preliminary cultures evaluated scaffold viability for culturing mice brain tissue and studying various cell behaviors, including HEp2, HEp2D and HEK 293T cell lines. These scaffolds offer customizable physical characteristics for diverse tissue applications, facilitating blood vessel modeling, cell co-culture, and drug delivery studies
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On t-fold Totally-Concave Polyominoes
No full textThis article has been submitted for publication.A t-fold totally concave polyomino (t-TCP) is an edge-wise connected collection of cells of the square lattice with t or more gaps in every row and column. We describe an efficient algorithm for counting 1-TCPs (modulo translation) by area, and comment on its extension to t > 1. We prove that the minimum area of a t-TCP is 21 for t = 1, 50 for t = 2, and 6(t+1)2 −1 for t > 2. We show that the counting sequence κt(n) of t-TCPs of area n satisfies λn+o(n) as n → ∞, where λ is the same growth constant as for all polyominoes. From this, we prove that the ratio of successive terms converges to λ. For
each t, we obtain an explicit constant θt such that κt(n) ≥ n−θtλn for infinitely-many values of n, complementing the fact that κt(n) ≤ n−1/2λn for every n ∈ N. We also briefly discuss the relation of t-TCPs to similar models from statistical physics