Building an Inclusive Society: Post-Secondary Youth Perspectives on Immigration, Multiculturalism and Racism in Newfoundland and Labrador

Building an Inclusive Society: Post-secondary Youth Perspectives on Immigration, Multiculturalism and Racism in Newfoundland and Labrador is a project that seeks to understand youth attitudes towards immigration, multiculturalism, and politics in addition to the experiences of racism among university students within the province. In addition, this project was designed to better understand the program needs and sociological circumstances of youth in St. John’s and surrounding areas and involves surveying, and subsequently analyzing, the views of postsecondary students in Newfoundland and Labrador. It also aims to gain a better understanding of how and why such attitudes are formed in order to test existing theories established by scholars. By capturing and understanding the attitudes of students in Newfoundland and Labrador, this report will not only add to a growing body of literature, but will also complement existing community efforts to enhance the integration of newcomers. As such, this report is a step towards ensuring that newcomers not only integrate into Newfoundland and Labrador society, but feel welcomed while doing so

Federalism and the Double Standard of Judicial Review

From 1937 to 1995, federalism was part of a “Constitution in exile.” Except for the brief interlude of the National League of Cities doctrine2—which, like Napoleon’s ill-fated return from Elba, met with crushing defeat3—the post–New Deal Supreme Court has been almost completely unwilling to enforce constitutional limits on national power vis-à-vis the states. The reason, by all accounts, has much to do with federalism’s historic link to other aspects of our expatriate constitution—e.g., economic substantive due process, legislative nondelegation— which were banished for their collusion against the New Deal

The General Purpose Interface Bus

The General Purpose Interface Bus, as defined by the IEEE Standard, deals with systems that require digital data to be transferred between a group of instruments. An overview of this standard is presented which summarizes the interface\u27s capabilities, functions and versatility by explaining the basic interface concepts. In addition, a GPIB testing application and a GPIB related design example are presented and investigated

Defending the indefensible? The use of argumentation, legitimation, and othering in debates on refugees in the Canadian House of Commons, 2010-2012

The goal of this thesis is to investigate language use among elite parliamentarians in debates related to refugee asylum. It challenges the non-political “taken for granted” notions that many parliamentarians employ in their speeches and, using Critical Discourse Analysis, seeks to understand how argumentation, legitimation, and Othering strategies are used to support and reinforce their positions. While the Conservative government contends that Bill C-11: The Balanced Refugee Reform Act and Bill C-31: Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act are aimed at refugee reform and designed to target “criminal middlemen,” I argue that their approach is actually aimed at restricting refugee asylum, despite the fact that it is an internationally recognized treaty right. To augment my efforts, I frame my analysis around the work of two key theorists: Antonio Gramsci and Zygmunt Bauman. The Gramscian model of cultural hegemony informs my thesis in at least two key ways: first, I argue that language use (specifically, the negative portrayal of asylum seekers) is manipulated for the sole purpose of presenting refugee claimants as criminals; second, by criminalizing certain groups, the Conservative government is able to put forward a particular worldview that portrays certain types of refugees as legitimate, and therefore deserving of protection. I contend, however, that cultural hegemony is insufficient to explain how the Conservatives are able to propagate this worldview given that cultural hegemony is primarily driven by ideology. While contemporary Canadian political ideologies differ significantly, opposition parties nonetheless unintentionally reproduce a Conservative worldview regarding asylum seekers. In its place, I argue that banal hegemony helps to explain this discrepancy. Bauman’s discussion of mobility is relevant given that I assess how asylum seekers are framed as illegals whose ability to seek asylum is restrained. Restricting or controlling mobility is central to the Conservative defense precisely because those who cannot arrive in Canada are unable to make an asylum claim. In fact, over the past few years, there has been a movement to “push the border out.” I conclude that the Conservative defense is not only fallacious, untenable, and prejudicial but designed to portray asylum seekers are criminals, fraudsters, and security threats. This thesis adds to the extant literature on Critical Discourse Analysis from a Canadian parliamentary perspective and describes how politics is constituted by, and through, language. Moreover, it offers a sociological understanding of how parliamentary debates help to produce and reproduce social inequality and prejudice

Developing A Customized Program Assessment Methodology For Assurance Of Learning: A Case Study

For most academic institutions, selecting and/or designing a Program Assessment methodology for Assurance of Learning is a challenging task.  This paper describes the steps taken to establish goals, values and criteria driving this process for a College of Business. In this case analysis, we document the options we explored in finding the right vehicle for our particular situation.  Our experience with a beta test and full rollout of our Program Assessment is detailed. After considerable research and a trial and error process, we have implemented a hybrid Program Assessment approach for our undergraduate students.  This approach includes a business simulation product that has been customized and tailored for our institution along with locally developed major field exams.  Our lessons learned from this experience include issues surrounding student resistance, faculty engagement, logistics, and the need to use multiple assessment vehicles

Excimer laser interaction with dentin of the human tooth

The use an excimer laser produced many unusual conical structures within the dentin of the inner part of the human tooth. By varying the frequency of the laser one can disperse the energy and cause more bleeding in laser surgery, but not destroy the cells associated with the incision. Therefore, the healing process will virtually be without scarring. Whereas, using the infrared laser the blood loss would be less, but the healing process would tend to be longer because cells are being destroyed due to the cauterization effect of the laser. The question is, are these structures produced as an interaction with the laser or are they an intrinsic part of the structure. The effects of the laser interaction upon dentin was studied, and in using electron microscopy the interaction of the excimer laser upon the tooth dentin and other various biological tissue is more clearly understood

Is it for generation me? A qualitative study exploring marketing and selling plants online to millennial-aged consumers

As online selling of products like living plants increases, it is increasingly important to understand how millennial-aged consumers perceive the purchasing experience. New-media technologies like social media, e-newsletters, and other forms of digital communication are easily adopted by millennial-aged consumers. One of these tools, 360-degree video, offers novel ways to preview products offered online and look inside local brick-and-mortar stores, which can be visited in person. Sales of horticultural goods online have been slow to be developed by industry veterans, creating ample opportunities available to new ventures. This qualitative study used a series of three focus groups to answer the research questions of RQ1: What challenges exist for garden centers attracting millennials? RQ2: What are millennials preferences for purchasing live plants online? RQ3: What aspects of digital online marketing influence millennials to make decisions? RQ4: What are millennials preferences for 360-degree video? Results of this study indicate 360-degree video is not the preferred avenue for marketing plants online to millennials, however, high-quality photos and video with educational content and the use of social media could be effective

Wearable computing: Will it make people prosocial?

We recently reported that people who wear an eye tracker modify their natural looking behaviour in a prosocial manner. This change in looking behaviour represents a potential concern for researchers who wish to use eye trackers to understand the functioning of human attention. On the other hand, it may offer a real boon to manufacturers and consumers of wearable computing (e.g., Google Glass), for if wearable computing causes people to behave in a prosocial manner, then the public's fear that people with wearable computing will invade their privacy is unfounded. Critically, both of these divergent implications are grounded on the assumption that the prosocial behavioural effect of wearing an eye tracker is sustained for a prolonged period of time. Our study reveals that on the very first wearing of an eye tracker, and in less than 10 min, the prosocial effect of an eye tracker is abolished, but by drawing attention back to the eye tracker, the implied presence effect is easily reactivated. This suggests that eye trackers induce a transient social presence effect, which is rendered dormant when attention is shifted away from the source of implied presence. This is good news for researchers who use eye trackers to measure attention and behaviour; and could be bad news for advocates of wearable computing in everyday life