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The problem of model selection is addressed from a general perspective and solutions are considered within the domain of item response theory (IRT). Selection is conceptualized as including both the evaluation of individual models and the simultaneous comparison of multiple candidates. Traditional tests of goodness of fit can often be regarded as dealing with the former situation, while information criteria can only be applied to the latter. The significance of this last point is pursued in some detail. In terms of optimization, it is shown that information criteria do not provide a means of determining how well their various objective functions are satisfied. This implies that some further criterion is required in order to establish whether the candidates recommended by any information criterion are indeed satisfactory. The need for such a criterion motivates the present work. This approach begins by conceptualizing parametric stochastic models as sets of probability distributions. In any given application the purpose of such a model is to predict the relative frequencies with which an outcome variable takes on its values. This notion of prediction is described in terms of the inclusion of the distribution of the outcome variable in the set of distributions implied by the model: If this is not the case, the model is said to be inaccurate. The concept of accuracy then serves as a basis for selection in IRT. In particular, any IRT model can be represented as a manifold embedded in Euclidean space, and the proximity of any observed distribution to a point on this manifold can be interpreted in terms of the norm of their difference. Describing the geometric properties of sets of candidates provides a means of selection that is not tied to any particular set of observations; this is an important area of further investigation.

This report explores how Arsenal Pulp Press participated in a bibliographic data exchange network with its online retail and data aggregation partners in Canada from May 2005 to May 2006. Looking specifically at the data requirements of Amazon.ca, BookManager, Bowker’s Books In Print, and Indigo Books & Music, this report observes the challenges faced by this midsize, independent publisher when it used a bibliographic database management system to store and distribute industry-standard marketing data (cover images and book descriptions). The conclusion of the report proposes recommendations to Canadian and international book industry institutions—BookNet Canada and EDItEUR—supply chain partners, database system developers, and Arsenal Pulp Press itself for improving the standards and procedures for exchanging comprehensive and accurate marketing data while reducing the managerial workload for the publisher.

This research re-situates Heart of Darkness within the contexts of the English adventure fiction genre during the period of high imperialism and brings to light a feature of the novel that has escaped scholarly analysis, that of the racialization of white Eureopeans. In re-situating Heart of Darkness in its literary historical contexts, this thesis identifies the adventure genre as a whole as more complex and ambivalent concerning both race and Empire than has previously been recognized. Although these inconsistencies complicate the genre, adventure fiction nonetheless reinforces the status of whiteness in order to promote contemporary racial hierarchies and imperialism. Heart of Darkness, however, does not. Conrad presents his adventure story and its white heroes with a substantial degree and frequency of unconventionality that both critiques imperialism and disrupts its promotion. Moreover, through his unconventional representation of whiteness, Conrad generates a rather startling ambivalence toward white racial identity.

Succession planning is fast becoming an urgent issue facing today's organizations. Looming mass retirements due to the baby boomer generation means that organizations can expect to lose knowledgeable and experienced workers, and finding replacements will be difficult as mass retirements force a labour shortage. Consequently, many organizations are creating succession plans. In an investigation of the British Columbia Ministry of Forests and Range Succession Plan, internal documents and previous government surveys were analyzed, and stakeholder interviews were conducted to assess the Ministry's readiness to adapt and implement this project. This investigation concludes that the Ministry's plans are thorough, yet many opportunities for improvement exist. In addition, analysis of the visioning process relating to employee buy-in showed that different visioning processes seemed to lead to different degrees of employee alignment with change objectives. Opportunities for improving visioning were derived and recommended to the Ministry of Forests and Range.

“Cinderella’s Slippers” revisits the argument that Charles Perrault, the first writer to publish Cinderella in print form in 1697, allegedly mistranslated the tale, which was relayed to him in French, mistaking Vair (fur) for Verre (glass). The essay inserts a feminist critique of the glass slippers by demonstrating tones of implicit misogyny and making observations that link Perrault’s deliberate adaptation with the cultural and architectural history of Seventeenth century France. It also explores the metaphoric symbolism of fur and glass connecting them with Friedrich Nietzsche’s dichotomy of the Dionysian and the Apollonian. --and-- “Performance Art” explores the notion that the smells used by artists in works of live Performance Art create shifts in consciousness for viewers and practitioners. The essay also addresses smell as a primal sense that evokes “feminine” or Dionysian perceptions of reality, a trigger of involuntary memory, and a device for social critique.

Between 1927 and 1933, Walter Benjamin produced eighty-four radio pieces; more than a third of them for children. Because there are no known recordings, scholars have only a partial understanding of these works. Both radio and childhood are under-examined in Benjaminian scholarship. ‘Telling Demonic Fairytales’ approaches Benjamin from an interdisciplinary perspective. This project—an essay and a sound piece—starts by asking: What did Benjamin hope to achieve by addressing children over the radio? The essay focuses on three points. It describes Benjamin’s hopes contrasted with actual German state radio; it examines his conception of children and storytelling, and offers a reading of the radio script ‘Demonic Berlin’ and a related E.T.A. Hoffmann story. Using montage, the sound piece weaves a biographical story of Benjamin with fragments about modern rituals, play, and politics. The sound piece examines large social issues through the common poetry of individual voices telling specific stories.

Current methods for conducting exact inference for logistic regression are not capable of handling large data sets due to memory constraints caused by storing large networks. We provide and implement an algorithm which is capable of conducting (approximate) exact inference for large data sets. Various application fields, such as genetic epidemiology, in which logistic regression models are fit to larger data sets that are sparse or unbalanced may benefit from this work. We illustrate our method by applying it to a diabetes data set which could not be analyzed using existing methods implemented in software packages such as LogXact and SAS. We include a listing of our code along with documented instructions and examples of all user methods. The code will be submitted to the Comprehensive R Archive Network as a freely-available R package after further testing.