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- Resource Type:
- Conference Proceeding
- Creator:
- Brubaker, Jed R., Handel, Mark, Yarosh, Svetlana, Bivens, Rena, Haimson, Oliver L., and Lingel, Jessa
- Abstract:
- Online systems often struggle to account for the complicated self-presentation and disclosure needs of those with complex identities or specialized anonymity. Using the lenses of gender, recovery, and performance, our proposed panel explores the tensions that emerge when the richness and complexity of individual personalities and subjectivities run up against design norms that imagine identity as simplistic or one-dimensional. These models of identity not only limit the ways individuals can express their own identities, but also establish norms for other users about what to expect, causing further issues when the inevitable dislocations do occur. We discuss the challenges in translating identity into these systems, and how this is further marred by technical requirements and normative logics that structure cultures and practices of databases, algorithms and computer programming.
- Date Created:
- 2015-01-01
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- Resource Type:
- Article
- Creator:
- Cross, Emma, Smith, Robert, and Mould, David
- Abstract:
- The rise of game development and game studies on university campuses prompts academic libraries to consider how to support teaching and research in this area. This article examines current issues and challenges in the development of game collections at academic libraries. The gaming ecosystem has become more complex and libraries may need to move beyond collections largely based on console video games. This article will advance the discussion by considering emerging issues to support access to the full range of games. The article will use examples from Carleton University Library, Ottawa, which has been developing a game collection since 2008.
- Date Created:
- 2015-01-01
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- Resource Type:
- Article
- Creator:
- Moos, Markus and Mendez, Pablo
- Abstract:
- Current research depicts suburbs as becoming more heterogeneous in terms of socio-economic status. Providing a novel analysis, this paper engages with that research by operationalising suburban ways of living (homeownership, single-family dwelling occupancy and automobile use) and relating them to the geography of income across 26 Canadian metropolitan areas. We find that suburban ways of living exist in new areas and remain associated with higher incomes even as older suburbs, as places, have become more diverse. In the largest cities the relationship between income and suburban ways of living is weaker due to the growth of condominiums in downtowns that allow higher income earners to live urban lifestyles. Homeownership is overwhelmingly more important than other variables in explaining the geography of income across 26 metropolitan areas.
- Date Created:
- 2015-01-01
-
- Resource Type:
- Conference Proceeding
- Creator:
- Labiche, Yvan and Barros, Márcio
- Date Created:
- 2015-01-01
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- Resource Type:
- Conference Proceeding
- Creator:
- Polk, Spencer and Oommen, B. John
- Abstract:
- This paper pioneers the avenue of enhancing a well-known paradigm in game playing, namely the use of History-based heuristics, with a totally-unrelated area of computer science, the field of Adaptive Data Structures (ADSs). It is a well-known fact that highly-regarded game playing strategies, such as alpha-beta search, benefit strongly from proper move ordering, and from this perspective, the History heuristic is, probably, one of the most acclaimed techniques used to achieve AI-based game playing. Recently, the authors of this present paper have shown that techniques derived from the field of ADSs, which are concerned with query optimization in a data structure, can be applied to move ordering in multi-player games. This was accomplished by ranking opponent threat levels. The work presented in this paper seeks to extend the utility of ADS-based techniques to two-player and multi-player games, through the development of a new move ordering strategy that incorporates the historical advantages of the moves. The resultant technique, the History-ADS heuristic, has been found to produce substantial (i.e, even up to 70%) savings in a variety of two-player and multi-player games, at varying ply depths, and at both initial and midgame board states. As far as we know, results of this nature have not been reported in the literature before.
- Date Created:
- 2015-01-01
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- Resource Type:
- Conference Proceeding
- Creator:
- Oommen, B. John and Astudillo, César A.
- Abstract:
- We present a method that employs a tree-based Neural Network (NN) for performing classification. The novel mechanism, apart from incorporating the information provided by unlabeled and labeled instances, re-arranges the nodes of the tree as per the laws of Adaptive Data Structures (ADSs). Particularly, we investigate the Pattern Recognition (PR) capabilities of the Tree-Based Topology-Oriented SOM (TTOSOM) when Conditional Rotations (CONROT) [8] are incorporated into the learning scheme. The learning methodology inherits all the properties of the TTOSOM-based classifier designed in [4]. However, we now augment it with the property that frequently accessed nodes are moved closer to the root of the tree. Our experimental results show that on average, the classification capabilities of our proposed strategy are reasonably comparable to those obtained by some of the state-of-the-art classification schemes that only use labeled instances during the training phase. The experiments also show that improved levels of accuracy can be obtained by imposing trees with a larger number of nodes.
- Date Created:
- 2015-01-01
-
- Resource Type:
- Conference Proceeding
- Creator:
- Yazidi, Anis, Oommen, B. John, and Hammer, Hugo Lewi
- Abstract:
- The problem of clustering, or unsupervised classification, has been solved by a myriad of techniques, all of which depend, either directly or implicitly, on the Bayesian principle of optimal classification. To be more specific, within a Bayesian paradigm, if one is to compare the testing sample with only a single point in the feature space from each class, the optimal Bayesian strategy would be to achieve this based on the distance from the corresponding means or central points in the respective distributions. When this principle is applied in clustering, one would assign an unassigned sample into the cluster whose mean is the closest, and this can be done in either a bottom-up or a top-down manner. This paper pioneers a clustering achieved in an “Anti-Bayesian” manner, and is based on the breakthrough classification paradigm pioneered by Oommen et al. The latter relies on a radically different approach for classifying data points based on the non-central quantiles of the distributions. Surprisingly and counter-intuitively, this turns out to work equally or close-to-equally well to an optimal supervised Bayesian scheme, which thus begs the natural extension to the unexplored arena of clustering. Our algorithm can be seen as the Anti-Bayesian counter-part of the wellknown k-means algorithm (The fundamental Anti-Bayesian paradigm need not just be used to the k-means principle. Rather, we hypothesize that it can be adapted to any of the scores of techniques that is indirectly based on the Bayesian paradigm.), where we assign points to clusters using quantiles rather than the clusters’ centroids. Extensive experimentation (This paper contains the prima facie results of experiments done on one and two-dimensional data. The extensions to multi-dimensional data are not included in the interest of space, and would use the corresponding multi-dimensional Anti-Na¨ıve-Bayes classification rules given in [1].) demonstrates that our Anti-Bayesian clustering converges fast and with precision results competitive to a k-means clustering.
- Date Created:
- 2015-01-01
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- Resource Type:
- Article
- Creator:
- Quastel, Noah and Mendez, Pablo
- Abstract:
- This article draws on Margaret Radin's theorization of 'contested commodities' to explore the process whereby informal housing becomes formalized while also being shaped by legal regulation. In seeking to move once-informal housing into the domain of official legality, cities can seldom rely on a simple legal framework of private-law principles of property and contract. Instead, they face complex trade-offs between providing basic needs and affordability and meeting public-law norms around living standards, traditional neighbourhood feel and the environment. This article highlights these issues through an examination of the uneven process of legal formalization of basement apartments in Vancouver, Canada. We chose a lengthy period-from 1928 to 2009-to explore how basement apartments became a vital source of housing often at odds with city planning that has long favoured a low-density residential built form. We suggest that Radin's theoretical account makes it possible to link legalization and official market construction with two questions: whether to permit commodification and how to permit commodification. Real-world commodification processes-including legal sanction-reflect hybridization, pragmatic decision making and regulatory compromise. The resolution of questions concerning how to legalize commodification are also intertwined with processes of market expansion.
- Date Created:
- 2015-11-01
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- Resource Type:
- Report
- Creator:
- Labiche, Yvan, Torre, Damiano, and Genero, Marcela
- Abstract:
- Context: The Unified Modeling Language (UML), with its 14 different diagram types, is the de-facto standard modeling language for object-oriented modeling and documentation. Since the various UML diagrams describe different aspects of one, and only one, software under development, they are not independent but strongly depend on each ot her in many ways. In other words, diagrams must remain consistent. Dependencies between diagrams can become so intricate that it is sometimes even possible to synthesize one diagram on the basis of others. Support for synthesizing one UML diagram from other diagrams can provide the designer with significant help, thus speeding up the design process, decreasing the risk of errors, and guaranteeing consistency among the diagrams. Objective: The aim of this article is to provide a comprehensive summary of UML synthesis techniques as they have been described in literature to date in order to obtain an extensive and detailed overview of the current research in this area. Method: We have performed a Systematic Mapping Study by following well-known guide-lines. We selected ten primary studies by means of a search with seven search engines per-formed on October 2, 2013. Results: Various results are worth mentioning. First it appears that researchers have not frequently published papers concerning UML synthesis techniques since 2004 (with the exception of two papers published in 2010). Only half of the UML diagram types are involved in the synthesis techniques we discovered. The UML diagram type most frequently used as the source for synthesizing another diagram is the sequence diagram (66.7%), and the most synthesized diagrams are the state machine diagram (58.3%) and the class diagram (25%). Conclusion: The fact that we did not obtain a large number of primary stud ies over a 14 year period (only ten papers) indicates that synthesizing a UML diagram from other UML diagrams is not a particularly active line of research. Research on UML diagram synthesis is nevertheless relevant since synthesis techniques rely on or en force diagram consistency , and studying UML diagram consistency is an active line of research. Another r esult is that research is need ed to investigate synthesis techniques for other types of UML diagrams than those involved in our primary studies.
- Date Created:
- 2015-08-01
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- Resource Type:
- Report
- Creator:
- Mehrfard, Hossein and Labiche, Yvan
- Abstract:
- Reverse-engineering object interactions from source code can be done through static, dynamic, or hybrid (static plus dynamic) analyses. In the latter two, monitoring a program and collecting runtime information translates into some overhead during program execution. Depending on the type of application, the imposed overhead can reduce the precision and accuracy of the reverse-engineered object interactions (the larger the overhead the less precise or accurate the reverse-engineered interactions), to such an extent that the reverse-engineered interactions may not be correct, especially when reverse-engineering a multithreaded software system. One is therefore seeking an instrumentation strategy as less intrusive as possible. In our past work, we showed that a hybrid approach is one step towards such a solution, compared to a purely dynamic approach, and that there is room for improvements. In this paper, we uncover, in a systematic way, other aspects of the dynamic analysis that can be improved to further reduce runtime overhead, and study alternative solutions. Our experiments show effective overhead reduction thanks to a modified procedure to collect runtime information.
- Date Created:
- 2015-11-01
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- Resource Type:
- Other
- Creator:
- Draayer, Ingrid
- Abstract:
- This guide combines the knowledge gathered during my long career coordinating the Carleton University Library exhibits program and my recent sabbatical research on exhibits and events in academic libraries. Between 1983, when I was hired as Exhibits Librarian at Carleton University Library, and 2002, when the Library had little space available for exhibits and I became Head of Access Services, I was responsible for running the Library’s exhibits program. After the latest renovation to MacOdrum Library was completed in the Fall of 2013 and included dedicated space for exhibits, I was once again asked to coordinate and produce exhibits for the Library. During my 2014/2015 sabbatical I investigated the current state of exhibits and events in academic libraries through literature and Web searches and site visits to a number of universities. The end result is this guide, which I hope is both practical and inspirational.
- Date Created:
- 2015-09-10
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- Resource Type:
- Report
- Creator:
- Yisa, Felix
- Abstract:
- My study attempted to find out if the old part of our brain (limbic system) had a significant role in influencing how we detect the valence of blurry words without conscious awareness of what the words are. 10 participants were shown blurry words that could not be read and were asked to guess valence, without a time limit. The hypotheses for this study was that participants would be accurate in detecting valence of blurred words and that participants would rate negative words the most accurately. I also predicted that participants would attempt to read words before rating valence and they would attempt to read the words only in the beginning. The stimuli were shown to the participants on printed-paper. There were 10 blurred words per page with accompanying 5-point Likert scales by each blurred word with a reference scale at the top of every page. My research data found that there was a significant statistical difference between people’s ability to detect the valence of blurred words compared to the normal ability (which is 100% accuracy). The comparison showed that the participants were significantly worse at detecting the valence of blurred words than unblurred words. There was no significant statistical difference between people’s ability to detect the valence of blurry neutral words compared to the valence of blurry nonsensical words. Participants were equally accurate at both of these word-types. Participant responses also showed that they were statistically better at detecting the valence of negative blurry words than positive blurry words. So they were better at detecting negative valence than those of other valences.
- Date Created:
- 2015-01-06
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- Resource Type:
- Poster
- Creator:
- Hayward, Angela, Cross, Emma, and McGreal, Louise
- Abstract:
- Carleton University Library has an innovative staff development program to expand the skill set of e-book cataloguers to provide a comprehensive service to manage and expand access e-books. In 2009 Carleton University Library hired its first e-book cataloguer in response to the rapid growth of digital resources in the Library collection; a second position was added in 2011. These positions have successfully evolved to incorporate a wide variety of duties related to e-books in response to rapidly changing digital environment. Conference poster presented at the CLA annual conference, June 3 to 5, 2015 in Ottawa, Ontario.
- Date Created:
- 2015-06-03
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- Resource Type:
- Conference Proceeding
- Creator:
- Bucking, Scott and Cotton, James S.
- Abstract:
- Net zero energy (NZE) communities are becoming pivotal to the energy vision of developers. Communities that produce as much energy as they consume provide many benefits, such as reducing life-cycle costs and better resilience to grid outages. If deployed using smart-grid technology, NZE communities can act as a grid node and aid in balancing electrical demand. However, identifying cost-effective pathways to NZE requires detailed energy and economic models. Information required to build such models is not typically available at the early master-planning stages, where the largest energy and economic saving opportunities exist. Methodologies that expedite and streamline energy and economic modeling could facilitate early decision making. This paper describes a reproducible methodology that aids modelers in identifying energy and economic savings opportunities in the early community design stages. As additional information becomes available, models can quickly be recreated and evaluated. The proposed methodology is applied to the first-phase design of a NZE community under development in Southwestern Ontario.
- Date Created:
- 2015-01-01
-
- Resource Type:
- Article
- Creator:
- Lim, Merlyna
- Abstract:
- The article scrutinizes the complex entanglement of cyberurban spaces in the making and development of contemporary social movement by analyzing its imaginaries, practices, and trajectories. This issue of New Geographies, “Geographies of Information” (edited by Taraneh Meskhani & Ali Fard), presents a new set of frameworks that refrain from generalizations to highlight the many facets of the socio-technical constructions, processes, and practices that form the spaces of information and communication. In addition to Lim, contributors of the issue include prominent thinkers and scholars in various related disciplines such as Rob Kitchin (critical data), Stephen Graham (urbanism) and Malcolm McCullough (architecture/urban computing).
- Date Created:
- 2015-10-20
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- Resource Type:
- Report
- Creator:
- Daw, Jamie R., Mintzes, Barbara, Morgan, Steven G., Gagnon, Marc-André, Martin, Danielle, and Lexchin, Joel
- Date Created:
- 2015-07-15
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- Resource Type:
- Research Paper
- Creator:
- Rowlands, Dane and Calleja, Rachael
- Abstract:
- The analysis of official development assistance has always struggled with the contradiction between its more altruistic motivations for global development and its easy adaptation as an instrument for the donor’s pursuit of self-interested foreign policy objectives. In the international system foreign aid may thus become a forum for both cooperative and competitive interactions between donors. This chapter explores the interdependence of aid by reviewing the literature on donor interdependence, with a particular focus on donor competition for influence in recipient states. We then present a simple theoretical framework to examine donor competition, and provide some preliminary empirical testing of resulting hypotheses. We conclude that while the evidence about competition is fixed, the behaviour of some donors is consistent with their pursuit of influence in certain recipient states.
- Date Created:
- 2015-03-01
-
- Resource Type:
- Research Paper
- Creator:
- Kilberg, Joshua, Vidino, Lorenzo, Lefkowitz, Josh, and Kohlmann, Evan
- Abstract:
- Since the early 2000s the Internet has become particularly crucial for the global jihadist movement. Nowhere has the Internet been more important in the movement’s development than in the West. While dynamics differ from case to case, it is fair to state that almost all recent cases of radicalization in the West involve at least some digital footprint. Jihadists, whether structured groups or unaffiliated sympathizers, have long understood the importance of the Internet in general and social media, in particular. Zachary Chesser, one of the individuals studied in this report, fittingly describes social media as “simply the most dynamic and convenient form of media there is.” As the trend is likely to increase, understanding how individuals make the leap to actual militancy is critically important. This study is based on the analysis of the online activities of seven individuals. They share several key traits. All seven were born or raised in the United States. All seven were active in online and offline jihadist scene around the same time (mid‐ to late 2000s and early 2010s). All seven were either convicted for terrorism‐related offenses (or, in the case of two of the seven, were killed in terrorism‐related incidents.) The intended usefulness of this study is not in making the case for monitoring online social media for intelligence purpose—an effort for which authorities throughout the West need little encouragement. Rather, the report is meant to provide potentially useful pointers in the field of counter‐radicalization. Over the past ten years many Western countries have devised more or less extensive strategies aimed at preventing individuals from embracing radical ideas or de‐radicalizing (or favoring the disengagement) of committed militants. (Canada is also in the process of establishing its own counter‐radicalization strategy.)
- Date Created:
- 2015-05-01
-
- Resource Type:
- Report
- Creator:
- Mount, Phil and Knezevic, Irena
- Abstract:
- REPORT HIGHLIGHTS - Opportunity for on-site food production comes from public and political support for ‘local food’, combined with a shortage of land for new producers - GIS study of Ontario healthcare properties shows 217 with more than one acre of arable land available, and 54 with more than five acres - Case studies demonstrate the benefits of a ‘farmer’— independent, staff member or community group—and/or labour force dedicated to the project - Initial and on-going viability correlates to the extent of institutional support, particularly staff time for project coordination - Institutional motivations for on-site food production initiatives vary, include mental and physical therapeutic benefits See more at the Project SOIL website.
- Date Created:
- 2015-09-30
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- Resource Type:
- Article
- Creator:
- Sarma, Nandini and Knoerr, Hélène
- Date Created:
- 2015-02-05
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The Whole is Greater than the Sum of its Parts: Collection Growth Reports & Informed Decision-Making
- Resource Type:
- Poster
- Creator:
- Newton Miller, Laura
- Abstract:
- Collection space is an issue within the library. The assessment librarian examined statistics from various resources that are typically collected in the library, but not normally looked at as a whole. These Collection Growth Reports will help library staff to make evidence-based purchasing and weeding decisions.
- Date Created:
- 2015-07-20
-
- Resource Type:
- Poster
- Creator:
- Newton Miller, Laura
- Abstract:
- What contributions are considered sufficient to justify authorship credit? As universities show increasing interest in both interdisciplinary work & research metrics, the library is in a unique position to help researchers across disciplines navigate through this important area of scholarly communication.
- Date Created:
- 2015-04-10
-
- Resource Type:
- Report
- Creator:
- Community First: Impacts of Community Engagement (CFICE)
- Abstract:
- In the winter of 2015, when the Community First: Impacts of Community Engagement (CFICE) project was in the preliminary stages of planning its transition to Phase II, the Community Food Security (CFS) Hub prepared a discussion paper to synthesize collective reflections from hub partners on their proposals for action priorities to be implemented over the next four years of the project (2015-2019). This discussion paper was developed based primarily on interviews conducted with approximately 30 individuals representing the broad array of community- and campus-based partners related to the CFS Hub and reflections from the CFS Hub Management Team. Following the release of this discussion paper, the CFS Hub gathered additional feedback from CFS Hub participants. at a CAFS meeting in May 2015, and via email for those unable to attend.
- Date Created:
- 2015-05-01
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Amos-Binks, Allen
- Abstract:
- This thesis presents a preliminary study to evaluate the ability of our sequence-based protein-protein interaction prediction tool (PIPE) to detect changes in the interactome caused by non-synonymous Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs). Sequence-based PPI prediction is not sensitive to SNP-induced interactome changes, however sequence-based PPI interaction site prediction can be used to extract information regarding interactome changes. PIPE on its own does not perform well on detecting the effects of SNPs. However, this lack of sensitivity is not limited to PIPE, but likely affects all sequence-based methods. Using the interaction site prediction feature of PIPE, PIPE-Sites, a number of interactions are identified for which there is reason to believe that they may, in fact, be affected by SNPs. To examine the effect of co-occuring SNPs, genotypes are extracted from the 1000 Genomes initiative. It appears that PIPE-Sites is able to identify subsets of interactions likely affected by particular genotypes.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Electrical and Computer
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Sandhu, Navjot S.
- Abstract:
- Three dimensional graphical user interfaces is a subject long studied, but due to its technical dependency on large amounts of processing power, it has not been possible to implement until recently. Due to these recent advances in computing technology there has been a recent research interest in the HCI realm focused on spatial interactive devices and complementary technologies. This paper introduces a technology system that was created after reviewing existing research and then used to create an application on top of the system framework that provides research data on 3D user interface applications.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Computer Science (M.C.S.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Human-Computer Interaction
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Hopkins, John
- Abstract:
- Barbara Stanwyck’s performance as Phyllis Dietrichson is considered to be the quintessential femme fatale. Despite this, the consideration of her other femme fatale performances is minimal. Her contribution to the canon of the subversive figure can be located in her engagement with the domestic, specifically her disruption and transformation of domestic spaces through the utilization of her sexuality and sexualized image. This thesis will explore the ways her characters in the early 1940’s films BALL OF FIRE, DOUBLE INDEMNITY, and CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT are narratively and formally positioned as cinematic fatales in their representation and use domestic masquerade and gender performance in order to prove their narrative agency.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Film Studies
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Bashardoust Tajali, Maryam
- Abstract:
- This thesis grew from understanding the present common values of today’s contemporary society, where people are less unified and prefer their secluded private realm showing diminished interest in integrating with the public sphere. The significance of social values and the benefits of being and living with others are lost to many societies impacted by the consumer culture. The research focuses on the enduring patterns of social relations and the design aspects of the well-established cohousing model in order attain the desired sense of belonging in the proposed design. The thesis proposes co-housing+, a mixed-use community-oriented residential complex in Toronto, which is designed to promote a balanced private and public life for the inhabitants, creating an urban community.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Architecture (M.Arch.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Architecture
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Keogh, Andrew
- Abstract:
- The awkwardness of the suburban environs could be likened to a young teen: unsure, flippant, aggressive, and ill prepared, and for these we can forgive them. It takes time to refine character. How best to guide their development? The worry of course, is that the damage is done, and we've entered into the relationship too late to have any significant impact on the outcome. Or, have we caught it early enough, and we hope we have, that we could nurture and train it back into a healthy, productive and inspired place to be. This thesis will defend how to put an end at once to the nowhere of the suburban utopia, and a beginning to place, purpose and posterity.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Architecture (M.Arch.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Architecture
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Mooi, Jason
- Abstract:
- Within a hyper-culture, people suffer from mental fatigue caused by daily stress and strains. The airport is a prime example of a space that heightens anger, anxiety and stress unintentionally due to the unique nature of air travel. The environment of air travel exposes a series of potential adverse events within a brief and concentrated period of time that evokes negative emotions. The airport provides a unique situation where psychology, anatomy and architecture meet and overlap with the potential to resolve most of the situations leading to anxiety and instead create a space designed to be therapeutic rather than induce stress. The unplanned voids of waiting spaces have the potential to become spaces that will not only serve the purpose of waiting but also create a restorative environment rather than an uncomfortable void.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Architecture (M.Arch.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Architecture
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Naghikhani, Narsi
- Abstract:
- In the midst of all the political struggles in the Caspian region the only thing that is certain is that the resources will be exploited one day. All regional countries are hoping for a secure access to a largely untapped reservoir of oil. Rigs will be installed, pipelines will flow, and the oil will be sold. Yet as this process moves inevitably forward, it is also becoming clear that the petroleum economy and its associated operations will have a limited lifespan. Beyond that moment when the last barrel of oil leaves the seabed, the Caspian will remain. A wasteland of what once was a unique eco-system. This thesis proposes to develop a strategy for post-oil reactivation of the Caspian Sea (specifically in Iran) by reviving abandoned offshore platforms; a plan that identifies potential new resources and establishes activities that will form the basis for ongoing occupation of the sea.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Architecture (M.Arch.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Architecture
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Roma, Giovanna
- Abstract:
- Corruption is a central cause of economic, financial, and political risk and instability; depreciated social capital and trust; democratic deficit; and violence and terrorism. It is thus no surprise that as regionalization and the integration of global markets has intensified, the fight against corruption has become an important part of the global policy agenda. This thesis investigates Italy’s new Anti-Corruption Law (Legge n. 190/2012)—a law that was passed by Mario Monti’s technocratic government in 2012, as part of a series of structural reforms designed to stabilize the Italian economy. This thesis looks at the Anti-Corruption Law from a regional lens. By speaking to Italian academics, jurists, politically-engaged citizens, regional anti-corruption officials, and Transparency International Italia, this thesis evaluates the implementation of the Anti-Corruption Law in two regions and identifies factors that affect its implementation at the regional level.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- European, Russian and Eurasian Studies
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Kumarasingam, Ajantha
- Abstract:
- Architecture and communities together create a ‘sense of place’. Communities transform over time due to the economic and social needs. Consequently, architecture should be transforming as well in order to respond to surrounding context, however it is not. Among many structures, schools are important to create a sense of community for neighborhoods. Schools today are under enormous pressure to maintain educational excellence meanwhile facing continuous budget cuts. Historic schools like any other form of architecture have layers of history, values and memories. The history behind a structure consists of forms of transformation based on alternation and recreation that continue the life of a building. This thesis seeks to explore the relationship between architecture and communities through adaptive reuse and participatory design in order to enrich the experience and meaning of the building.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Architecture (M.Arch.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Architecture
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Rockwood, Michael
- Abstract:
- As in other countries, Canada needs to be ready to care for an aging population. Innovation is needed to make health care more efficient and effective. One solution is to monitor health remotely using the Internet. Driving is a high-order function, and its loss can be catastrophic for an elderly person’s independence. Unfortunately, physicians do not have the tools they need to adequately determine their patients’ driving ability. This thesis details the design and implementation of a remote patient monitoring system that is capable of real-time monitoring, tests its performance, and utilizes it to observe aspects of driver behavior. Data were collected on sixteen acceleration/deceleration profiles using accelerometers, GPS, and dashboard velocity. The resulting acceleration waveforms were filtered with an adaptive filtering algorithm and compared. Differences between hard and soft acceleration profiles are clearly visible, and notable features of each may be characteristic of individual driver behavior.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Biomedical
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Williams, Robert
- Abstract:
- Aerodynamic and aeroacoustic prediction tools are developed for rigid rotor blades to provide insight into the aeroacoustics of vertical-axis wind turbine rotor blades. The aerodynamic component uses an unsteady inviscid panel method over the surface of the blades to predict the unsteady pressure distribution over the surface, with vortex particles shedding from the blades to represent their freely-convecting wake. The aeroacoustic component employs a non-penetrable version of Formulation 1C of the Ffowcs Williams-Hawkings equation to predict the noise from surface-based acoustic sources called thickness and loading noise. The prediction tools are compared to accepted results for fundamental test cases and vertical-axis wind turbines before being used to investigate the aerodynamics and acoustic noise of vertical-axis wind turbine rotors. Investigations into the effects of the blade geometry, the geometric scale of the rotor, the number of rotor blades, and the tip-speed ratio of the rotor on the acoustic field are presented.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Aerospace
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Aqueel, Naureen
- Abstract:
- This thesis examines the role of Muslim media in providing unique discourses in the media landscape that differ from the mainstream media. Two print Muslim newspapers, The Muslim Link and Muslim Link, are used as a case study to explore how the journalism, goals and practices of the Muslim media differ from the mainstream media. A mixed method approach, comprising comparative content analysis, discourse and text analysis and interviews, is used in the study. The content of both Muslim newspapers is compared to the mainstream newspapers of their respective regions. Drawing from theoretical perspectives on alternative media, the findings show, in varying ways, that these Muslim newspapers are able to provide an alternative in terms of their coverage, representations and discourses. The newspapers are also able to foster social and political engagement in their communities and in many ways attempt to write the Muslim community’s own narrative about itself.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Journalism (M.J.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Journalism
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Stephens, Diana Lynne
- Abstract:
- 3-D has had a long and tempestuous relationship with mainstream cinema. From its early days as a parlour attraction to its use as a gimmick in the huge Hollywood blockbusters now being made, the cinematic standardization of 3-D has always been in question due to its cycle of success and failure. By examining what factors influenced the decline of other film gimmicks—notably economics, technology, and psychology—and examining how closely 3-D is being affected by those same pitfalls, it is determined that 3-D is seeing yet another downfall. The reason for the consistent renaissance of 3-D technology in particular is also considered, as the industry is doubtlessly using it as a stepping-stone for the development of cinema as a form of virtual reality.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Film Studies
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Breault, Vincent
- Abstract:
- Generation of narrative is a domain that is mostly exclusive to human authors. Most current narrative generators use planning to adapt or follow a human authored story or guideline. This work proposes an engine for Creation Of Novel Adventure Narrative (CONAN). It uses a procedural approach to story generation that uses series of quests to make a rich player – NPC (non-player character) interaction from which a structured narrative can emerge. The engine is tested on its ability to create quests, which are sets of actions that must be performed in order to achieve a certain goal, usually for a reward. Compared against human structural quest analysis, the current engine was found to be able to replicate the structure found in commercial video game quests.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Cognitive Science (M.Cog.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Cognitive Science
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Corbin, Darcy James
- Abstract:
- Species yields and combustion efficiency of lab-scale flares, turbulent non-premixed buoyant flames, were measured. A new facility was constructed allowing gas mixtures to be burned on 38.1 to 76.2 mm diameter flares at flow rates up to 410 standard litres per minute. A methodology was developed to quantify species yields and combustion efficiency within calculated uncertainties. Results showed combustion efficiencies greater than 97.8% in all cases, with up to 90% of the non-CO2 carbon emitted as soot. Soot yields were heavily dependent on flare gas chemistry, ranging from an average of 7.34∙10-5 kg-soot/kg-flare-gas for methane tests to 1.20∙10-2 kg-soot/kg-flare-gas for ethylene tests. NOX data suggest that average mass yield per energy content of the flare gas is 3.76∙10-2 kg-NOX/GJ and is independent of exit conditions and fuel chemistry for the range of fuels considered. Results are compared with published soot and NOX emission factors and potential scaling methods are discussed.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Mechanical
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Dolihan, Hailey Anne
- Abstract:
- Cette thèse examine le contact culturel dans l’Autobiographie du Père Jésuite Pierre Joseph-Marie Chaumonot (1611-1693). Elle est divisée en trois parties. D’abord nous examinons les transformations culturelles de Chaumonot pendant sa jeunesse, sa nature nomade, et la façon dont le récit de sa vie est modelé sur le Bildungsroman et la vie de Jésus Christ. Ensuite, dans les deux chapitres qui suivent, nous analysons le contact entre ce Jésuite nomade et les Nations amérindiennes de Nouvelle-France, d’abord avec les Hurons, et ensuite avec les Iroquois et les Neutres afin de trouver des transferts culturels bidirectionnels ainsi qu’un rapprochement culturel.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- French and Francophone Studies
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Lamb, Megan
- Abstract:
- The current study examined the frequency and motivations for using social aggression and cyber-social aggression against a friend in the past school year. 429 students (females, n =227) completed a set of self-report measures. The majority of youth (86%) indicated using social aggression and half (51%) of students reported using cyber-social aggression against a friend in the past school year. Girls reported using more socially aggressive behaviours than boys, with no sex differences for cyber-social aggression. Factor analytic results indicated a five factor model for both the Motivations for Social Aggression Scale (Acceptance, Revenge, Amusement, Jealousy, Anonymity), and the Motivations for Cyber-social Aggression Scale (Jealousy, Revenge, Amusement, Social Image, Anonymity. Results have implications for the study of social and cyber-social aggression, and highlight the importance of addressing the motivations for using these behaviours when developing future interventions.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Psychology
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Lyncaster, Juhli Yvurnn
- Abstract:
- Ritual murder in the Venda region of South Africa is both real and imagined; it is spoken about, ‘real’ cases are identified by officials and the lay public, and the act of ritual murder articulates wider tensions that persist within this region post-Apartheid. This thesis will show that people in Venda talk about ritualized murder in a way which speaks to wider socio-economic, gendered, class, ethnic-national and global conceptualizations and practices and how they saw themselves fitting in to these processes. Drawing on Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Margret Lock’s (1987) “three bodies” framework, in this thesis I will examine discourses and practices about ritual murder as a way to understand the interplay between the individual, social, and political spheres of organization.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Anthropology
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Menard, Lisa Marie
- Abstract:
- Although identity development is most active during late adolescence and emerging adulthood and post-secondary education is regarded as a normative experience for the majority of individuals in Westernized societies, there remains a lack of longitudinal research investigating identity development during the transition to university. In his formative writings, Erikson emphasized the need for researchers to account for the influence of social context and environment in the examination of identity development. The aim of this study was to explore the process of identity development within early emerging adulthood (18-24 years of age), during the transition to university using Eriksonian-measures. More specifically, this three-wave longitudinal study examined the influences of social capital (social belongingness and university fit), psychosocial maturity (ego strength development), coping strategy use, and perceived stress on identity development. The study included 771 first-year university students at large Canadian university, with 554 females and 217 males aged 18 to 24 (M = 18.35, SD = 1.47). Using the Identity Issues Inventory (I3, Côté and Roberts, 2005), identity formation was assessed from two broad perspectives, each with two developmental task domains: self-identity with Integration and Differentiation; and social identity with the domains of Work roles and Worldview. Multivariate multiple regressions, with interaction terms, were conducted to examine identity development, during the first year of university, after controlling for incoming levels of identity formation in each of the four task domains (Integration, Differentiation, Work roles, and Worldview). Research findings highlighted the importance of social belongingness, perceived fit, and psychosocial maturity, in particular, as capital resources that were supportive of identity development during the first year of university. In addition, participants’ perceived levels of stress were found to impede identity formation in both phases of the study (Time1-2, Time 2-3). Finally, the results highlighted some unexpected gender differences in the identity development of university students. Evidence from the present study would suggest that it is from within this complex social context that emerging adults must develop a distinct, cohesive, and adult sense of self. Keywords: identity development; social belongingness; ego strengths; psychosocial maturity; social capital; emerging adulthood; transition to university
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Psychology
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Kedare, Siddharth
- Abstract:
- CubeSats and nano-satellites provide flexible low-cost platforms for the academic and scientific communities to conduct cutting-edge research in the harsh environment of space. The mission life of nano-satellites is often limited by the attitude actuators, and it is therefore beneficial to reduce torque and angular momentum usage during reorientation maneuvers. In this capacity, a computationally lightweight torque-optimal guidance algorithm was formulated, solved using pseudospectral methods, and validated in a MATLAB-Simulink environment. A low-computation atmospheric density model, developed in support of this research, was extensively validated via performance assessment of passive CubeSat aerostabilization. Results indicate that this torque-optimal guidance algorithm demonstrates substantial improvements in performance and pointing accuracy over an Eigenaxis controller for similar maneuvers, with low to moderate computational overhead. In doing so, it presents a significant advancement towards the development of intelligent GN&C systems for small satellites.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Aerospace
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Rocca, Vera
- Abstract:
- This paper presents evidence on the gender differentiated effects in the nucleus-estate outgrower arrangement from a case study of a sugarcane outgrower scheme in the community of Magobbo, Zambia. Specifically, the paper explores women’s participation in the scheme, access to employment, decision-making, control of household income, and access to natural resources. Women are disadvantaged in these areas overall, though there is a key generational difference. As well, both women and men enjoy increased economic stability and improvements in family diets. I find that the outcomes observed are influenced by: 1) the existing inequalities in access to land and discriminatory gender norms; 2) the institutional arrangements of the outgrower model; and 3) the gendered division of labour. These findings contribute a nuanced discussion of the gender differentiated effects of agricultural investments to the literature on women in contract farming and large-scale land acquisitions for agriculture.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- International Affairs
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Lu, Wenzhe
- Abstract:
- Graben–fissure systems can have radiating, linear or arcuate/circumferential geometry and are generally interpreted as the surface expressions of underlying dyke swarms on Venus. Coronae on Venus are large, circular surface features and form in response to magmatic loading of the crust over zones of partial melting at the tops of mantle plumes that impinge on the base of the thermal lithosphere. This project has mapped 32 different graben-fissure systems in the study area (10°-20° N, 30° -50° E) within the Mead Quadrangle: 24 of these systems are spatially associated with 4 different coronae (Didilia, Pavlova, Isong, and Ninmah), and in 8 cases are genetically linked. Eight remaining systems are not related to coronae. Five have foci associated with known magmatic centers (corona or volcano). Two others radiate from a cryptic magmatic center. Additional arcuate systems are interpreted to be circumferential about magmatic centers.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Earth Sciences
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Sklenar, Simona Jane
- Abstract:
- We will be considering two dimensional queueing systems which can be equated to a random walk in the quarter plane. For simplification, we use a bivariate generating function $\pi(x,y)$ to represent the stationary distribution and we derive a functional equation that will incorporate the unknown bivariate generating function and two unknown univariate generating functions, $\pi_{1}(x)$ and $\pi_{2}(y)$, which represent the two boundary stationary distributions. Employing suitable conditions and adhering to certain values, we are able to reduce the functional equation to one which only contains both $\pi_{1}(x)$ and $\pi_{2}(y)$. Various techniques exist to compute $\pi_{1}(x)$ and $\pi_{2}(y)$, however, in order to successfully employ these methods, the original domains of analyticity for $\pi_{1}(x)$ and $\pi_{2}(y)$ need to be expanded. In this instance, analytical continuation is critical.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Mathematics
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Marquis, David
- Abstract:
- We give new results for the problem of deterministically and unconditionally factoring polynomials over finite fields. We give efficient algorithms for the factorization of some odd degree polynomials over finite fields. We remove the assumption of the Extended Riemann Hypothesis from a well known algorithm for factoring polynomials over finite fields in the case that the degree of the polynomial to be factored is coprime to phi(p-1) where p is the characteristic of the field and phi is the Euler totient function. We also give new results on the factorization of polynomials of bounded degree. Using new tools we give a concrete proof of a result from the literature that a polynomial of degree n over the finite field can be factored deterministically in a number of operations that is polynomial in n^l where l is the least prime factor of n and log(p).
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Mathematics
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Kelly, Peter Fredrick
- Abstract:
- Technology has always been a double edged sword. In the very near-future domestic drones will operate commercially, far beyond the current confines of military applications. This creates a radically new social and spatial condition. Our existing transportation infrastructures and our built environment will need to evolve in response to the wide spread integration of autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles [UAV/Drones]. UAV's are a controversial technology that boldly embodies many of societies concerns; challenging our notions of privacy, security and surveillance in both private and public space. Drones can inflict unimaginable terror and oppression upon an entire population when weaponized. Conversely the same technology can produce incredible new efficiencies in both communications and distribution on a global scale. Drones have proven themselves incredibly useful for Architects in various ways, but how will the presence of UAV’s in our skies affect the ways we design and build in the near future?
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Architecture (M.Arch.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Architecture
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Sonley, Laura
- Abstract:
- In this thesis I investigate the effectiveness of promoting competition through a reduction in consumer switching costs in the mobile telecommunications market. I modify an analytical model by Shi et al. (2006) to determine whether a reduction in switching costs can stimulate competition in Canada’s wireless telecommunications market. More specifically, I use the example of eliminating fees for unlocking mobile phones. Given the results of the analytical model, I survey the empirical research of switching costs in mobile telecommunications and find evidence that supported the conclusions of our model. From this evidence I am able to make several policy suggestions for future consideration.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Economics
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Sakr, Rasha Ibrahim
- Abstract:
- A model of the smart grid system with two different energy sources - the main grid and the energy storage units - is considered. The arriving power demands can be activated by either type of energy sources, with differing rates and costs. Finding an optimal policy that minimizes the expected long-run operational cost of the system is the main interest of this work. The problem is considered in a so called heavy traffic regime, and is solved using fluid approximation techniques. The formal scaling limit of the problem leads to a simple deterministic optimization problem, whose solution is shown to be an achievable lower bound on the limiting cost of the stochastic problem. Three different scenarios are considered according to whether the batteries are disposable or rechargeable and whether the arrival rates are homogeneous or nonhomogeneous. The solution method provides a good alternative to numerical methods such as Markov Decision Processes.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Mathematics
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Jodayree, Sara
- Abstract:
- In this thesis research evaluated the potential of oat protein hydrolyzed (OPH) with trypsin (better in vitro antioxidant activity relative to alcalase hydrolysate) to reduce oxidative in vivo. Three different concentrations (1, 10, and 100 mg OPH/g diet) were added to the diet of CD-1 male mice. The animals were divided into five groups, normal diet (ND), high fat (HF), and HF containing 1, 10, and 100 mg OPH/g. The study lasted for 3 weeks after which, mice were scarified. Blood, liver, brain, muscle, lung, and heart tissues collected for analysis. Erythrocytes of mice on 100mg OPH/g had higher (p < 0.05) peroxyl radical scavenging activity compared to HF group. The activity of the antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase (SOD) in the liver of mice on HF diet was 13.2% lower compared to the activity of those on the normal diet. Advanced oxidation protein products (AOPP) level in the brain and heart of animals supplemented with 10 mg OPH/g was lowered significantly compared to the rest of the groups. Supplemented with OPH increased (p < 0.05) vitamin C level but did not affect vitamin A or E concentrations in the liver compared to the high fat diet in group. In conclusion, addition OPH to high fat diet reduced oxidative by either increased the total antioxidative capacity of erythrocytes, by reducing protein oxidation or nitric oxide depending on the organ. From these results, it appears that OPH can have beneficiary in conditions associated with oxidative stress.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Chemistry
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Whalen, Kathleen Charlotte
- Abstract:
- The Higgs boson was proposed in 1964 as part of a solution to the problem of how certain subatomic particles acquire mass. Until its discovery at CERN's Large Hadron Collider in 2012, the Higgs boson was the last missing piece of the Standard Model of particle physics. This thesis studies the Higgs boson in the four-lepton decay channel: H->ZZ*->4l, where the leptons may be electrons or muons, using ~25 inverse femtobarns of data recorded by the ATLAS detector at centre-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV in 2011 and 2012, respectively. Particular attention will be given to the role of electrons in the search for and study of the Higgs boson. An offline electron identification algorithm, the MultiLepton menu, was developed in order to efficiently distinguish true reconstructed electron objects from the hadronic background. It achieved an efficiency of ~95% and excellent background rejection, and contributed to the discovery of the Higgs boson. The reducible electron-like background in the H->ZZ*->4l channel has been studied, and a data-driven method for estimating the background contributions of the Z+jets, Z+bb, and tt processes was developed and implemented as a cross-check for the final analysis, published in 2014. Several precision measurements of the Higgs boson's properties have been performed in the H->ZZ*->4l channel, including the first measurements of the inclusive and differential fiducial cross-sections, using the method of bin-by-bin correction factors. The inclusive cross-section has been measured to be 2.11 +0.53/-0.47(stat.) +/- 0.8(syst.) fb. Differential cross-sections have been measured for six observables; no significant deviations from theoretical Standard Model predictions have been observed. An alternative method for extracting the differential cross-sections, the Bayesian iterative unfolding method, has been studied and has been found to yield results consistent with the nominal results. This method shows particular promise for future precision measurements in the high-statistics regime, where resolution effects may degrade the performance of the method of correction factors.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Physics
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Lukhumaidze, Leila
- Abstract:
- Knowledge of the x-ray spectra enables system designers to predict patient dose accurately and develop better methods to reduce patient dose. Consequently, it is important to correctly implement these cross sections within Monte Carlo (MC) codes, such as EGSnrc. X-ray spectra of low energy electron impacting on tungsten, molybdenum, and titanium are calculated using the EGSnrc BEAMnrc code with two Electron Impact Ionization (EII) cross-sections, one implemented by Kawrakow and another by Salvat (Penelope cross-sections). The spectra calculated with the two cross sections are compared to experimental ones obtained by Tian et .al ant PTB. It is found that agreement is less than satisfactory when using the Penlope data, while the Kawrakow cross sections underestimate the values for the characteristic x-ray peaks. Further these differences are analyzed through air kerma calculations. Overall, the results indicate that further investigation into the theoretical aspects of EII is required.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Physics
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Ariyan, Maryam
- Abstract:
- We present a procedural technique for the synthesis of detailed and controllable terrains. We generate terrain based on a sparse curve network representation, where interconnected curves are distributed in the plane and can be procedurally assigned height. The user controls the placement and elevation of peaks. We employ path planning to procedurally generate irregular curves around peaks. Optionally, the user can specify base signals for the curves. Then we assign height to curves using biased random walks with controlled probability distributions, a process which we show produces signals with distinct shapes. The structure of a curve network partitions space into individual patches. We interpolate patch heights using mean value coordinates, after which we have a complete terrain heightfield.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Computer Science (M.C.S.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Computer Science
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Alzahrani, Ahmed
- Abstract:
- In this research, we improved the outcomes of Eulerian Video Magnification in real life scenarios. The proposed system minimizes or eliminates the motion constrained effect. The system will preprocess the video through multi staged tasks using subject targeting and stabilizing. The resulted prepared video will be compatible with Eulerian method bounds. Our method will enable the magnification to be used in variety of applications with presence of motion. Therefore, video analysis for subjects’ skin redness that was captured by a normal camera is easy to use, mobile and less complex.The core element of the research which is stabilization was achieved by using face tracking and features detection, extraction and matching with skin selection. Furthermore, the skin tone and illumination in the environment are affecting the results. Since skin redness change is related to blood flow, then controlling the skin redness will enhance the readable information under video magnification.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Electrical and Computer
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
Child Abuse, Its Aftermath, and Criminal Recidivism in a Mixed Gender Sample of Adolescent Offenders
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Wanamaker, Kayla Ann
- Abstract:
- The current study examines if childhood abuse increases the likelihood of criminal recidivism through four potential mediators—deviant peers, substance abuse, running away from home, and internalizing behaviours (i.e., anxiety, depression), and determine if these relationships vary across gender. To test these relationships, a prospective research design was used with 332 justice-involved youth (113 females, 219 males; ages 12-21). Official provincial recidivism data was obtained and the average follow up time was 30.43 months (SD = 4.96). Overall, substance abuse and deviant peers significantly and positively mediated the relationship between childhood abuse and criminal recidivism for males only. Internalizing behaviours and running away from home, however, were not found to mediate the relationship between child abuse and criminal recidivism for either gender. Limitations include reliance on a simplistic measure of childhood abuse. Results suggest that an integrated approach of combining gender-neutral and gender-specific theories of criminal behaviour is warranted.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Psychology
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Smith, Raleigh Robert
- Abstract:
- This work describes the implementation of a simple phase detector and an algorithm to adjust variable Transmission Line (TL) capacitance to tune the phases of an RTWO. Symmetrical XOR (SXOR) phase detectors were designed, fabricated in SiGe BiCMOS and tested to resolve one degree of phase error over 35 to 55 degrees and 80 to 100 degrees up to 12 GHz. These phase detectors were used to measure and calibrate the phase of nominal 45 degree transmission line sections of an 18-GHz RTWO fabricated in SiGe BiCMOS . This phase tuning was carried out by a phase alignment algorithm that can be implemented easily in Verilog. This RTWO phase tuning system was shown to function correctly in simulation. Although the fabricated version did not converge correctly, the algorithm was able to adjust the phase of RTWO TL sections. The circuit problem preventing convergence is understood and can be corrected.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Electrical and Computer
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Plewes, Rachel Anne
- Abstract:
- Lake management typologies have been used successfully in many parts of Europe, but their use in Canada has been limited. In this study, a lake typology was developed for 650 lakes within the Muskoka River Watershed (MRW), Ontario, Canada, to quantify freshwater, terrestrial, and human landscape influences on water quality (Ca, pH, TP and DOC). Five distinct lake types were identified, using a hierarchical system based on three broad physiographic regions within the MRW, and lake and catchment morphometrics derived through digital terrain analysis. The three regions exhibited significantly different DOC concentrations (F=15.85; p<0.001), whereas the lake types had significantly different TP concentrations (F=12.88, p<0.001). Type-specific reference conditions were used to identify lakes affected by human activities that may be in need of restoration due to high TP concentrations. Overall, this thesis demonstrates the applicability of new and emerging landscape modelling tools for lake classification and management in Ontario, Canada.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Geography
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Bint, Gregory
- Abstract:
- This thesis examines a new type of range searching problem which we have called Partial Enclosure Range Searching. In this problem, given a set of geometric objects and a query region, our goal is to identify those objects where the size of their intersection with a query region is at least a fixed proportion of their original size. We consider several variations of this problem with different types of geometric objects and query regions. When querying line segments, this thesis presents methods for transforming the problem into one which can be solved using standard range searching techniques. When querying convex or monotone polygons, this thesis presents methods for calculating the area of the intersection between the polygon and a query rectangle, which can have uses outside of determining the partial enclosure property.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Computer Science (M.C.S.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Computer Science
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Fouad, Omar Mohamed Mostafa Kamal
- Abstract:
- In this work, a design of a perception approach for indoor service mobile robots is considered. Unlike outdoor environments, in which Global Positioning System (GPS) can be utilized, indoor environments usually include small workspaces with complex details. Thus, a significantly higher localization precision is required. Readily available sensing techniques that meet those requirements utilize sensors such as transceivers and vision systems. These perception approaches depend on the workspace type. In the proposed approach, a stereo vision system has been used. Such an approach captures the environment features to produce a 2D/3D map. However, due to the mobility of indoor robots, the problem of losing environment features arises, e.g., they might encounter scenes with non-detectable features. In order to solve the difficulty of obtaining a highly precise map in a highly compact environment, a stereo panoramic vision perception model was developed to integrate the data from two omni-directional vision sensors.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Mechanical
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Khimasia, Anna
- Abstract:
- In 1992 author Paul Auster borrowed eight projects from French artist Sophie Calle for Maria, a fictional character in his novel Leviathan; Auster also included two projects of his own invention. Calle, in return, enacted and documented these projects created by Auster and included them, along with her initial projects, in her book Double Game. Double Game begins with these words: “Intrigued by this double, I decided to turn Auster’s novel into a game and to make my own particular mix of reality and fiction.”1 Calle’s autofictional projects seemingly describe events in her life: a job as a chambermaid, a job as a striptease artist, a day spent being followed by a detective. Calle’s use of autofiction, a self-conscious play between autobiography and the novel, emphasizes the impossibility of a coherent and unified subject. I argue that Calle’s book plays with structures and forms usually associated with truth telling (autobiography, archives, photography, the report, the diary) by constructing evidence that relies on these structures for legitimacy, only to expose gaps, inconsistencies, and fictions as a space for play and critique. The French version of Double Game, a series of seven separate books, has the title Doubles-jeux. Jeu in French is understood to mean both game and play, while also a homonym for ‘I’ [je]. Doubles-jeux is a double-cross—to deceive and betray, in the sense of a red herring. Thus the title, Double Game, already speaks to Calle’s autofictional accounts in which the narrating “I” is always unreliable and the events described always undecideable. My dissertation focuses on the contingency of Calle’s documents by highlighting the spaces between what is said to have happened, what we are shown, and what may have taken place. Aligning Calle’s work with performance, and recent discussions about performance documentation, enables a more focused interrogation of the relationship between the event and its representation. My dissertation argues that as a collection of autofictional traces, Double Game performs the autofictional subject at play in the archive. 1. Sophie Calle with the participation of Paul Auster, Double Game (Paris: Violette Editions, 1999), 1.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Cultural Mediations
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Martirosyan, Hasmik
- Abstract:
- This thesis describes the development of neonatal mortality risk estimation models using Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs), the integration of these models into the Physician-Parent Decision Support (PPADS) tool, and the pilot study to test the PPADS tool. A set of data mining programs were created to automate the data preparation, the development of ANN models and the selection of models that satisfy the usefulness criteria specified by our clinician partners. These programs were used to classify neonatal mortality data (6% mortality rate) with the average sensitivity and specificity of 81% and 98% respectively. The mortality models were integrated with the PPADS tool to provide predictions about the risk of mortality for neonates admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). The observational and survey study conducted with parents whose infant did not graduate (died) from the NICU gave encouraging results regarding the usefulness of the PPADS tool.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Biomedical
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Hughes, William
- Abstract:
- Abstract Semelparity—the life history featuring a single, massive bout of reproduction followed by death—has been traditionally considered as a discrete trait, and mathematical models that compare the intrinsic rates of increase between annual semelparity and perennial iteroparity are often used to explain why organisms have semelparous or iteroparous reproductive strategies. However, some authors have proposed that semelparity and iteroparity may represent different extremes along a continuum of possible modes of parity, rather than discrete alternatives. In this thesis, I provide experimental evidence for this “continuum” hypothesis by assessing the degree of variation in the simultaneity and uniformity of semelparous reproduction in the herbaceous monocarp Lobelia inflata (Campanulaceae). I report four points of interest: (1) that reproductive characters can strategically vary among offspring within a semelparous reproductive episode; (2) that phenotypically plastic responses to constrained reproduction cause variation in the “semelparousness” of a semelparous reproductive episode; (3) that L. inflata is capable of deferring reproductive effort to another season, and that this deferral is also phenotypically plastic; and (4) that the degree of genetic variation in a field population of L. inflata suggests non-random survival of ecotypes related to differences in parity. I conclude that the continuum hypothesis more accurately characterizes life history variation among semelparous organisms.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Biology
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Li, Xiaolin
- Abstract:
- A significant proportion of the operational cost for datacenters is attributed to their energy consumption. Using virtualization techniques in datacenters is enabling the control of electricity use in servers. However, as servers are becoming more energy-proportional, datacenter networks are starting to consume a greater portion of the overall power although networks devices often remain under-utilized. This thesis proposes an energy aware resource management technique for reducing the consumption of energy by the network for a Spine-Leaf topology-based datacenter. The main idea of the system is to keep track of the dynamic workload and enable only switches that are necessary for handling the current network traffic. We have developed an energy aware resource management system for dynamically controlling the number of Spine switches in Spine-Leaf datacenter networks and performed simulation using CloudSim for a number of scenarios.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Electrical and Computer
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Coyle, Jason Philip
- Abstract:
- Atomic layer deposition (ALD) of copper seed layers for electrochemical deposition of copper will likely be a step in fabricating future copper interconnects of microelectronic devices. Development of precursors for copper ALD is necessary in order to enable the deposition of suitable seed layers with acceptable properties. Copper(I) amidinate compounds are leading precursor candidates for use in industry. Modifications to their chemical structure was undertaken to improve precursor properties. Copper(I) guanidinates were synthesized and used as single source precursors for copper metal films at 225 °C. Their decomposition mechanism was investigated through solution thermolysis experiments and by unravelling gas phase fragmentation pathways. Evidence for CDI deinsertion occurring in solution was observed by NMR experiments while β-hydrogen elimination was determined as the gas phase pathway by ToF-MS and MI-FTIR experiments. Both pathways were rationalized by DFT calculations. Copper(I) iminopyrrolidinate compounds were specifically designed to block CDI deinsertion and β-hydrogen elimination. As a result, copper(I) tert-butyl-imino-2,2-dimethylpyrrolidinate demonstrated superior thermal stability and adsorbed from the gas phase onto high surface SiO2 at 275 °C with simultaneous loss of its tert-butyl group. Analogous silver(I) and gold(I) compounds were demonstrated to be robust precursors for chemical vapour deposition of metal films at deposition temperatures of 140 °C and 300 °C, respectively. The lack of available monomeric copper(I) amidinate, guanidinate, and iminopyrrolidinate compounds prompted synthetic work to employ N-heterocyclic carbenes and acyclic diamino carbenes as Lewis bases in copper precursors. A large series of monomeric copper(I) hexamethyldisilazide compounds were studied and characterized extensively by thermal gravimetric analysis. Imidazolylidenes were unsuitable for use in copper precursors due to thermal instability. Imidazolinylidenes and formamidinylidenes fashioned several promising precursors demonstrating excellent thermal stability and good volatility. The leading candidate, 1,3-diisopropyl-imidazolin-2-ylidene copper hexamethyldisilazide, had a 1 Torr vapour pressure at 149 °C and could be heated at 130 °C for two weeks without decomposition. Copper metal films were deposited by plasma enhanced ALD at 225°C on SiO2.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Chemistry
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Reinink, Shawn Kasper
- Abstract:
- Forced-convection heat transfer in a heated working fluid at a thermodynamic state near its pseudocritical point is poorly predicted by correlations calibrated with data at subcritical conditions. This is primarily due to the influence of large wall-normal thermophysical property gradients that develop in proximity of the pseudocritical point on the concentration of coherent turbulence structures near the wall. The physical mechanisms dominating this influence remain poorly understood. In the present study, direct numerical simulation is used to study the development of turbulence structures within a turbulent spot, which is a more controlled turbulence environment than a fully-turbulent boundary layer, with large wall-normal property gradients. It is found that during improved heat transfer, wall-normal density gradients accelerate the growth of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability in the shear layer enveloping low-speed streaks through baroclinic vorticity generation. This causes hairpin vortices to form at a faster rate and to mutually interact more frequently.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Aerospace
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Al-Kathairi, Abdulla
- Abstract:
- It is common for road authorities to adopt the traditional method of road maintenance contracts that include a typical arrangement of relationships between the Client, the Contractor and the Consultant. The traditional method of road maintenance contracts has been found ineffective and expensive which caused difficulties in controlling road quality, time to finish, and cost of construction.. Escalation of cost and delays in completion of maintenance projects coupled with, lack of proper training in the public sector are the main problems associated with traditional method of contracting. The Performance Based Contracts (PBC) has been recognized as an efficient method of contracts addressing the limitations of the traditional contracting methods. Unlike the traditional method of contracting, in PBC the contractor is generally free to make the decisions of “what to do”, “when” and “how” as long as the specified performance measures are achieved. This will lead to assign the responsibility of completing the contract with its risk of failure totally to the contractors. It has been a challenge for contractors to successfully manage the entire risk of projects particularly with limited resources, limited understanding of PBC, lack of skillful staff, and poor management. In addition, unavailability of accurate pavement condition prediction models to understand and predict pavement performance results in a higher risk to the contractor in PBC. This thesis identifies the main problems and challenges for successfully adopting PBC are discussed and analyzed. In order to assist contractors as well as road managers a methodological framework is developed and examined in this thesis. The developed framework necessitates the identification of many cornerstones to effectively manage pavement conditions in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. The main components of the developed framework include 1) developing a robust database of detailed knowledge of the road network, 2) developing practical models to predict the present and future conditions of the pavement, and 3) developing robust models to optimize maintenance strategies. The developed framework was applied on a case study using data from the City of Abu Dhabi.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Civil
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Kropf, Joel Eugene
- Abstract:
- In all portions of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, at least a little of the commentary in Canada concerning criminal justice discussed reforms that might in some way make for a more promising genre of penal activity in the colony or country. This dissertation allows us to probe reformist commentary from the first two thirds of the twentieth century, primarily discourse between 1920 and the mid-1950s regarding imprisonment and parole-related measures pertaining to adult men. Scholarship on nineteenth- or twentieth-century reformist penal activity, or on social reform more generally, has often identified ways in which such activity proved quite consonant with more conservative assumptions or outcomes than would sit well with present-day progressive readers. My dissertation, by contrast, numbers among the studies which associate penal reformers’ outlook primarily with liberal or progressive perspectives. In this particular study, the liberal tenor of their mentality will register in our minds through an assessment of the ethical assumptions that reformers displayed, especially their assumptions concerning condemnation, exclusion, coercion, and compassion. Reformers’ speeches, publications, and so forth allow us to highlight four “moral sources” due to which they thought their penal perspective qualified as compelling: Christianity, the notion of humanness, the meritoriousness of technique, and the idea of justice. Their commentary assigned priority to technique-related rhetoric, to statements that associated penal activity, including rehabilitative tactics, with instrumentalist plans through which “the protection” with which the citizenry was enamoured would materialize. Yet even though reformers’ arguments savoured primarily of instrumentalist assumptions, neither justice nor compassion was wholly neglected in their discourse. In fact, reformers hit upon a defensible affirmation of quasi-compassionate ideas thanks to instrumentalist rhetoric itself.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- History
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Diallo, Mamadou Saliou
- Abstract:
- In Small Area Estimation (SAE), the usual practice is to assume that the random components follow the normal distribution. A simulation study showed that under the one-fold nested error regression model assuming normal distribution may lead to large bias and significant increase of the mean squared error (MSE) of complex parameters (nonlinear function of the mean) estimation when the unit level errors' distribution is skewed. Hence, in this thesis, the assumption of normal distribution for the random components is relaxed by considering the skew-normal (SN) class of distributions. The SN class of distributions is very interesting because it contains the normal distribution family as a special case (when the skewness parameter is equal to zero). For the one-fold nested error regression model with the random components following SN distribution, the empirical best linear unbiased prediction (EBLUP) and the empirical best (EB) estimators of linear parameters are provided. Under the same model, EB estimators of complex parameters are developed following the approach introduced by Molina and Rao (2010). A simpler conditional alternative method is compared to the previously mentioned method. The semi-parametric method developed by Elbers et al. (2003) is improved by correctly assigning the area effects. A parametric bootstrap approach for the MSE estimation of the EB estimator and a semi-parametric bootstrap method for the ELL method are specified. An HB method for estimating complex parameters is also presented. The HB method uses Monte Carlo (MC) simulations and sampling importance resampling (SIR) techniques no Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) is required. For the two-fold nested error regression model with the random components following SN distribution, the empirical best linear unbiased prediction (EBLUP) and the empirical best (EB) for linear parameters for linear parameters are discussed. The best predictor of the area and sub-area random effects is provided under the general linear mixed model setup. For repeated cross-sectional surveys, Rao and Yu (1992, 1994) used AR(1) series to model the area-by-time effects and doing so improved the estimation of the small areas linear parameters. In this thesis an extension to the Rao-Yu model which does not required stationarity assumption is proposed.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Probability and Statistics
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Hopkins, Todd
- Abstract:
- Numerous studies have tracked the emergence of often radically new, digital incarnations of real-world practices, establishing valuable heuristic bridges from traditional to virtual culture, and laying the groundwork for disciplinary study of such practices. This study joins these efforts, by tracking the emergence of a new, ‘digital-borne’ analogue to traditional graffiti praxis, which it terms ‘virtual dyscription’ (encompassing the traditional praxis in a radically new form). The study develops a robust working characterization of the traditional practice, employing this characterization to identify and delineate the corresponding digital analogue, and then characterizing the new phenomenon in a manner thorough and nuanced enough to enable rigorous disciplinary investigation. However, the case of such digital-borne graffiti is unusually complex, owing to the fledgling nature of rigorous graffiti study, the equal importance of both praxis and product in the concept, and the absence of any accepted inter-disciplinary understanding of the very notion of graffiti. Chapter 1 surveys scholarly sources on traditional graffiti to identify key conceptual features of graffiti praxis in general, while assessing the value of graffiti study in diverse disciplinary contexts. Chapter 2 develops and nuances a synthetic characterization of such praxis (including problematic features), sufficiently robust and flexible to investigate homologic affinities in the radically new digital environment. Chapter 3 investigates the relevant context of this new environment, considers a number of graffiti-like candidates, and distinguishes website defacement as the most appropriate homologue to traditional graffiti in the virtual world. Chapter 4 then explores the nature and problematic features of such virtual dyscription, generating a working taxonomy of dyscriptive praxis in general; and Chapter 5 illustrates this characterization through a preliminary encounter with the extant corpus of archival material, arguing that such dyscription stands in an interestingly parallel relation to traditional graffiti in the middle of the last century, before the explosion of interest in the so-called New York style. Chapter 6 supplements Chapter 5’s exploration of the artifacts of virtual dyscription with a series of anecdotal interviews with the dyscriptors themselves, framed in terms of what it calls the ‘dyscriptive cycle’, which generates the bulk of such dyscription.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Cultural Mediations
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Dewar, Anthony James John
- Abstract:
- This thesis offers an understanding of the field of digital additive manufacture and introduces the role of design in advancing the technology and application of this novel commercial production capability. The field is distinguished from other additive techniques with the addition of “digital” to the additive manufacturing term. Methods of increasing process competitiveness for commercial applications are described with the use of low-cost open source equipment through two sets of case studies conducted by the author (design for extrusion-based digital additive manufacture and equipment design / operation). As a result, the author identified and improved eight areas of development: layer design; support design; profile design; mesostructure design; extrusion tooling; solidification control; printing surface and positioning system. These areas of development inform professional and hobbyist design for manufacture and future interdisciplinary research.Keywords:Advanced manufacturing; Competitive advantage; Product design; Iterative design; Additive manufacturing; Fused Deposition Modeling; Computer Numerical Control
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Design (M.Des.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Industrial Design
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Kadivar, Mehdi
- Abstract:
- Cyber-attack studies are at the core of cybersecurity studies. Cyber-attacks threaten our ability to use the Internet safely, productively, and creatively worldwide and are the source of many security concerns. However, the "cyber-attack” concept is underdeveloped in the academic literature and what is meant by cyber-attack is not clear. To advance theory, design and operate databases to support scholarly research, perform empirical observations, and compare different types of cyber-attacks, it is necessary to first clarify the “concept of cyber-attack”. In this thesis, the following research question is addressed: How to represent a cyber-attack? Entity Relationship Diagrams are used to examine definitions of cyber-attacks available in the literature and information on ten successful high-profile attacks that is available on the Internet. This exploratory research contributes a representation and a definition of the concept of cyber-attack.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Technology Innovation Management
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Minor, Daniel Lewis
- Abstract:
- The nearest neighbour search problem is to preprocess a set of points so that for any query point, the closest point in the set to that query point can be determined quickly. In the biased version of this problem a probability distribution over the search points is available that can be used to answer searches more efficiently on average. This thesis contains empirical results showing that practical implementations of data structures for the biased nearest neighbour search problem are possible.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Computer Science (M.C.S.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Computer Science
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Kazemi Zarkouei, Komeil
- Abstract:
- The research describes a micro-macro computer model that captures most of the physics of a weld pool, the fusion zone and the heat-affected zone in a low-alloy steel weld. The macro-model uses either FEM or Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamic (SPH) methodology for the weld pool geometry. The SPH model solves the transient 3D non-linear energy equation for temperature and fraction solid and the Navier-Stokes equations for velocity and pressure. This predicts the transient weld pool size, shape and oscillations including transient temperature, fraction solid, velocity, composition including mixing and dilution and macro-scale solidification. The number of particles ranges from 50K to 500K with particle spacings of roughly 0.2 mm. Time steps are usually 0.2 microsecond and the number of time steps is about 1 to 2M for 1 s physical time. A micro-model for the evolution of microstructure in the FZ includes a model for dendrite growth during the weld pool solidification of a Fe-C-Mn alloy system. A 3D cellular approach is used for the dendrite growth simulation in the micro scale where the solid phase growth is controlled by the constitutional and capillary under-cooling at the liquid-solid interface. This micro model is coupled to a macro-model of the weld in a welded structure. Another micro-model describes the dissolution of ferrite and homogenization of austenite in a low-alloy steel weld. A synthetic microstructure is introduced containing a representation of individual grains. The process is driven by the thermal cycle and carbon diffusion. Holistic frameworks are finally introduced for the HAZ and fusion zone to establish correlations between the weld process parameters in the macro model such as weld process type, weld current, voltage, weld heat input, weld speed, base metal and filler metal composition and the solidification microstructure as well as the solid state microstructure transformations and mechanical properties in the neighborhood of a spatial point in macro-model.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Mechanical
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Bogeljic, Bojana
- Abstract:
- The purpose of this study is to investigate the issues that arise in Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) through cross-border reproductive travel, the global trade in ova and the contracting of surrogates. The concern is around the commercialization and commodification of women and children, as well as the risks associated with the global for-profit ART industry. The project is divided into three case studies. First, the Canadian ART context shows that restrictive federal policy is challenged by transnational ART. The second case study reveals that international online fertility networks are created and located opportunistically in destination countries where surrogates and egg donors can be recruited. The last case study reveals a trend in some destination countries towards more restrictive ART legal frameworks. In conclusion, this thesis argues that the patterns of cross-border ART are shaped by government regulations and the local availability of egg donors and surrogates.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Sociology
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Katz-Rosene, Ryan Maurice
- Abstract:
- Since the late 1980s Canadian proponents of high-speed rail (HSR) have increasingly appealed to the technology’s sustainability potential to sell the idea to decision-makers. This thesis employs an ecological political economy (EPE) approach to examine this phenomenon. It considers when, how, and why high-speed rail became an ‘ecological fix’ – a neoliberal tactic, employed by states and capitalists in search of profit, wherein innovations are proposed as a means of externalizing and internalizing socio-environmental conditions. It demonstrates how this development in Canada’s HSR story was shaped by the underlying transformation of ‘neoliberalization’, a process which in Canada was largely uneven, often contradictory, and featured various national idiosyncrasies. Three distinct ecological political economic narratives for HSR development are identified – ‘Turbotrain’, ‘Zerotrain’ and ‘Ecotrain’ – and these narratives are shown to have competed with one another for legitimacy since the 1960s, during periods of HSR ‘emergence’, ‘impasse’ and ‘unanswered resurgence’. It is argued that HSR became an ecological fix after proponents repeatedly failed to convince decision-makers to invest in the transport infrastructure, a phenomenon that was backgrounded by ‘roll-out’ forms of neoliberalism and the attendant popularization of eco-modernist beliefs. However, considering Canada’s two proposed HSR projects (in the Quebec City-Windsor and Calgary-Edmonton corridors) from an EPE perspective raises doubts about some of the grand claims and motivations underlying this ecological fix, and identifies a number of unintended impacts which could result from the introduction of HSR as a new mode within Canada’s busiest transport corridors.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Geography
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Friberg, Laura
- Abstract:
- The present study examined the use of social networking websites to give and receive social support. Participants were asked to create a hypothetical status update about a stressful time and rate their reactions to one of six messages that either contain information about calling a crisis line or indicate that no one responded. Messages with personal involvement increased positive affect, and any of the messages were received as more supportive than no message at all. In general, messages that were private were perceived as more supportive than public ones, even among individuals who felt stigmatized or depressed. An offer of personal involvement was perceived positively for most, but could be less helpful to the highly depressed or if the messages were sent publicly to individuals experiencing low levels of stigma. Overall, there is promise in using online communication tools in the treatment and prevention of mental health issues.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Neuroscience
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Cunnington, Glenn Matthew
- Abstract:
- Anuran abundance is negatively correlated with road traffic; this may be due in part to the interruption of mate attraction by traffic noise. The impact could be small if anurans can alter their vocalization characteristics to avoid masking of their calls by traffic noise. I compared vocalizations of four anuran species in locations with low traffic noise vs. sites with high traffic noise. I then broadcast traffic noise at low traffic sites, and compared the anuran vocalizations before vs. during the broadcast traffic noise. Finally, I compared vocalizations at high traffic sites to those produced at low traffic sites while broadcasting traffic noise. Some species produced different vocalization characteristics in the presence and absence of traffic noise. Broadcast traffic noise immediately altered vocalizations such that they became similar to individuals of the same species found in locations with high traffic noise. To test whether alterations compensate for an effect of traffic noise on mate attraction, I: (i) recorded a male calling at a quiet site; (ii) played traffic noise at the same male and recorded its altered call; and (iii) used these recordings to attract females to a trap at sites either with or without broadcast traffic noise. Results indicate that when necessary, males change their calls to compensate for potential effects of traffic noise on mate attraction. If my results apply to anurans in general, the previously documented negative effects of roads on populations are likely not caused by traffic noise; I hypothesize that road mortality is the main cause. Culvert-type ecopassages, along with fencing have been used to mitigate road mortality on herptiles. Effectiveness of the ecopassage itself, independent of fencing, is largely untested. I tested the hypothesis that pre-existing drainage culverts actually mitigate anuran road mortality. I found no evidence that culverts alone reduce road kill. In contrast, fencing with culverts was effective at reducing road mortality. Overall, my results suggest that mitigation of road effects on anurans should focus on ways of excluding the animals from the road surface.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Biology
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Quesnel, Patrick
- Abstract:
- Patients undergoing non-cardiac surgery can have an elevated risk of cardiac complication. Myocardial ischemia, a lack of oxygen in the heart tissue, can precede these complications and is detectable via changes in a patient`s electrocardiogram (ECG). Excessive noise during mobile ECG monitoring can result in frequent false detection of ischemia, rendering mobile ischemia detection clinically impractical. This thesis investigates modification of alarms on the basis of signal quality to increase the positive predictive value (PPV) of mobile ischemia detection. First, methods are presented and validated to automatically quantify ECG signal quality in a single ECG lead via a signal quality index (SQI). This thesis then proposes and evaluates three system approaches to modifying alarms using this SQI. Resulting modified alarms reveal increased PPV from 0.41 to 0.85 while maintaining sensitivity. These results indicate that these methods could help provide for practical mobile monitoring ischemia monitoring.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Biomedical
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Basuta, Sukneet
- Abstract:
- SRAM in the typical microprocessor consumes a substantial amount of on-chip area and significantly contributes to static power dissipation. This study presents a new SRAM architecture with minimum area that utilizes a modified 6T SRAM cell for sub- and near-threshold operation in ultra-low power applications. This new architecture introduces horizontal bit-lines, mitigates half-select disturb, and supports bit-interleaving. The proposed design's stability was thoroughly tested in the presence of process, temperature, and voltage variations and compared to the standard 6T and traditional 8T cells. A 32kb SRAM block implementing the proposed architecture was designed, simulated, and compared to a traditional 8T SRAM cell block. The results show that the proposed design has lower power consumption than the 8T SRAM block, comparable read performance, and better write performance. This was all achieved while only having a 10\% increase in area per bit over the conventional 6T thin-cell layout.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Electrical and Computer
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Vendetti, Corrie Anne-Jane
- Abstract:
- Children begin to tell lies, and to reason about lies told by others, during the preschool period (e.g., Lee, 2013). Most of the work on children’s telling and understanding of lies examines those told in self-serving contexts (to deny misdeeds) or in prosocial contexts (to spare the feelings of others). However, the vast majority of this work has been conducted within one context or the other: no study has reported children’s lie telling across contexts, and only one study compares children’s understanding of these different kinds of lies (Bussey, 1999). Although some research has investigated how Theory of Mind and Executive Function relate to children’s telling of self-serving lies, little is known about how these abilities relate to children’s prosocial lie telling or to their understanding of lies. The two studies reported here compared preschoolers’ understanding and telling of lies across self-serving and prosocial contexts, and to examine the roles of Theory of Mind and Executive Function in these abilities. In Study One, I found that both four- and five-year-olds could identify lies and truths in both contexts and demonstrated some understanding of the emotional consequences of lie telling for the speakers. However, only five-year-olds were sensitive to the moral consequences of telling lies in self-serving and prosocial contexts. Further, different aspects of Theory of Mind were related to these different kinds of reasoning. In Study Two, though fewer children took the opportunity to tell lies than expected, I found some support for a correspondence between children’s lie telling in self-serving and prosocial contexts. I also found some converging evidence for the findings of Study One with regard to preschoolers’ reasoning about lies and truths in self-serving and prosocial contexts and the role of Theory of Mind in these abilities. However, children’s participation in lie telling tasks also influenced their reasoning about others’ lies. Taken together, this research demonstrates that important developments in children’s understanding of lies take place during preschool, and suggests that different aspects of Theory of Mind contribute to these developments. More work is needed to investigate children’s lie telling across contexts.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Psychology
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Xiong, Yule
- Abstract:
- This thesis starts with an investigation of the local oxidation of silicon (LOCOS) technique to fabricate submicron-size photonic waveguides. Next, the thesis shifts the focus theme from fabrication technology to device designs. The first class of silicon devices that was investigated in this thesis is microring resonator (MRR)-based devices, two of which are targeted for label-free evanescent field sensing. The last MRR-based device proposed is an all-optical switch using a ring-assisted Mach-Zehnder interferometer (RAMZI), which is the essential building block for on-chip silicon photonic circuits. The second class of silicon photonic devices investigated in this thesis is subwavelength grating (SWG) structures for polarization management. The SWG structure features the unique engineering capability of the waveguide effective index. The third class of silicon photonic devices investigated in this thesis is taper-based devices. The taper-based devices are first applied in polarization management. One design is a polarization rotator (PR) using a tapered amorphous silicon layer, which can effectively reduce the insertion loss; while the second design is a PSR based on a taper-etched directional coupler (DC). The thesis also presented a two-mode (de)multiplexer using a simple taper-etched DC, where the fabrication tolerance was greatly improved by the tapered design. All the devices mentioned above were thoroughly examined through numerical simulations. A selective set of devices were fabricated experimentally. For example, the LOCOS wire waveguides were fabricated at the Carleton University MicroFabrication Facility; the MMI coupled slotted MRRs and the TE-pass polarizer based on SWG waveguides have been fabricated using deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography by the OpSIS and IMEC foundry services through the CMC Microsystems.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Electrical and Computer
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Megalla, Dina Mesak
- Abstract:
- A conceptual and numerical heat transfer model was developed for a landfill gas to energy (LFGTE) facility in Ste. Sophie, Quebec. The operating LFGTE facility was instrumented with sensors to measure parameters affecting waste stabilization. Temperature data from the field was used to calibrate a heat transfer model to better understand the thermal processes and parameters. Waste was observed to stay frozen for up to 1.5 years when placed in thick layers during the winter. Detection of oxygen within the top 1 m of waste was directly correlated with temperature rises, indicating a heat source, likely aerobic biodegradation. In simulating the placement of five waste lifts over a five year period, aerobic digestion in the top 1 m generated 56% of the total heat generated. A brief sensitivity analysis was completed and the model was used to show the effect of waste sequencing on the vertical temperature profile over time.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Environmental
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Ariffin, Muhammad Irwan
- Abstract:
- This thesis consists of three essays on university behavior in the higher education market. The first essay examines factors that determine the enrollment of international undergraduate students at 116 U.S. universities from 2003 to 2011. Published tuition is found to be exogenous to international students. The relationship between price and international students is best described by a dynamic model. Published tuition positively affects enrollment through the signalling effect, while university financial aid is negatively related to enrollment. Female international students are more sensitive to price changes than male international students. Price competition between 528 U.S. universities from 2004 to 2011 is analyzed in the remaining two essays. The proximity of competitors in the market is incorporated using the spatial econometrics method. The model specification process follows a systematic selection process which confirms the presence of spatial autocorrelations and performs several specification tests between four spatial model candidates. The second essay investigates price competition in the geographical market dimension, where the longitude and latitude coordinates of universities are used to determine their locations. The prices set by a university are found to be positively influenced by prices, cost and demand variables of other competitors in the same geographical market region. Price competition in the geographical market is found to be integrated at the national level. The third essay examines price competition in the product market dimension. The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) rank is used to indicate the locations of universities along a prestige line. The specification process indicates positive spatial effects exist in price competition between universities that are located in a similar prestige range. Spatial effect is present in the demand and cost factors for published tuition but not net tuition. Spatial effect in published tuition competition is sensitive to different market size limitations, while it is persistently positive in net tuition competition in smaller product market range.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Economics
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Al-Zahrani, Ali
- Abstract:
- Heterogeneous networks (HetNet) are a promising solution to improve network performance in terms of spectrum efficiency and energy efficiency. Nevertheless, HetNets suffer from two main sources of interference: mutual interference between macrocells and small cells (called cross-layer interference), as well as inter-cell interference among small cells themselves (called co-layer interference). In this thesis, we study the resource allocation and interference issues of HetNets. First, in HetNet systems with a moderate number of small cells, we integrate two popular approaches: spectrum avoidance and spectrum sharing, using optimization and game theory. In this solution, small base stations (SBSs) opportunistically avoid the parts of the spectrum that are used by macro BS (MBS), thereby controlling cross-layer interference, while the co-layer interference is controlled using a spectrum sharing technique. We then exploit recent advances in the mean-field game theory in order to control the co-layer interference between a large number of small cells. Meanwhile, a spectrum avoidance technique is applied to control the cross-layer interference. Next, we design a full spectrum sharing technique based on the mean-field game theory for interference management in hyper dense HetNet systems. The joint cross-layer and co-layer interference management issue is formulated as two nested problems, which are solved via distributed algorithms. Furthermore, tools from the optimization theory are employed to enhance the performance of cell edge users in open access HetNets. Simulation results are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed schemes.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Electrical and Computer
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- McMahon, Thomas John
- Abstract:
- In this thesis, we present a novel approach to machine translation using syntactic Pattern Recognition (PR) methods. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the possibility of using syntactic PR techniques in this field. To make use of syntactic PR techniques, we propose a system that performs string-matching to pair English sentence structures to Japanese structures. In order to process the sentence structures of either language as a string, we have created a representation that replaces the tokens of a sentence with their respective Part-of-Speech tags. To perform the string-matching operation we make use of the OptPR algorithm, a syntactic PR scheme that has been proven to achieve optimal accuracy. Through our experiments, we show that our implementation obtains superior results to that of a standard statistical machine translation system on our data set, with the additional guarantee of generating a known sentence structure.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Computer Science (M.C.S.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Computer Science
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Jong, Sharmili
- Abstract:
- Four studies investigated the role of personnel selection test and job-task similarity for identifying qualified job candidates. According to the Point-to-Point Theory (Asher, 1972), greater number of common points between a test and job task should result in better predictive tests. Test and job-task similarity was manipulated in three distinct ways: conceptually, contextually, and perceptually. A focus group (Study 1) was conducted with 15 Air Traffic Controllers to identify the abilities required on the job and the context in which the job tasks are performed. Based on these results, three laboratory studies were conducted with undergraduate students at Carleton University. Study 2 examined the role of conceptual similarity by administering spatial ability tests that had high and low conceptual similarity to an Air Traffic Control-related game. Study 3 utilized tests that were best predictive of the game performance in Study 2 and administered them under a control and two different job-relevant contexts (i.e., with increased mental workload and with interruptions). Study 4 examined whether selection tests need to be visually similar to job tasks. The results revealed that a test with both increased conceptual and contextual similarity to job tasks was the only predictor of game performance and that perceptual similarity was not necessary. This finding challenges the conventional method of personnel selection test development and administration and has implications not only for ATC but also other occupations. The results also offer an improved understanding of the spatial ability construct, one that is context dependent. A revised definition of spatial ability is proposed.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Psychology
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- McKinnell, Ryan A.
- Abstract:
- This thesis discusses the role of the political philosophy of Niccolò Machiavelli in the origins of modern political thought. In particular, his teaching regarding political spiritedness. In discussing Machiavelli’s attempt to re-introduce the political practice of the ancients, this thesis discerns and describes the original nature of Machiavelli’s teaching in contrast to ancient and liberal modern political science. This difference can be traced to how these three schools of thought envision the role of political spiritedness in their respective political projects. Where the ancients seek to harness spiritedness and the liberal moderns intend to purge it, Machiavelli hopes to unleash it. Machiavelli’s plan to liberate political spiritedness is founded on three important roots; his goal to replace the classical gentleman-ruler with his Captain-Prince, the aristocratic republic of the ancients with his martial republic, and finally his founder-prophet takes the place of the classical philosopher and Christian saint. These three elements taken together form the basis of Machiavelli’s attempt to restore ancient virtue to his native Italy in order to reverse the political corruption he sees in Florence, Italy, and the West in general. By doing so he founds a version of modernity; one that emphasizes martial virtue and imperial glory. Liberal moderns reject this Machiavellian modernity though and in contrast found a new version of modernity that accentuates comfortable self-preservation via the relief of man’s estate and commercial republicanism. Machiavelli therefore, while not belonging to camp of Plato and Aristotle, cannot be called the founder of the modernity of Hobbes and Locke. This thesis begins and concludes with a discussion of the absence of a debate on the role of political spiritedness in contemporary political science and advocates its return to a prominent position via the study of the history of political thought in order to provide political science with the necessary tools to understand the nature of citizens who desire political distinction.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Political Science
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Gutowsky, Lee
- Abstract:
- Ecologists are recognizing that organism movement can be explained by a combination of inter-related variables that are derived from an individual’s internal state, environment, motion capacity, and navigation capacity. To reveal aspects of movement ecology of free-ranging adfluvial bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus), I used acoustic telemetry and tested hypotheses about thermal resource selection, diel vertical migration, and size and sex-related effects on movement. I tagged 187 adult fish and monitored these individuals for up to two years (2010-2012) in the ~ 425 km2 Kinbasket Reservoir, BC. Correlates of movement included combinations of variables representing the internal state (e.g., phenotypic traits including sex and body size), the external environment (e.g., temperature and diel period), and the navigation capacity (e.g., the way in which an organism perceives and navigates its environment). Over the two-year period, temperature experience was similar for all body sizes (~ 400-800 mm total length). During summers, bull trout were predicted to experience temperatures that were within ~1°C of their lab-derived thermal optimum for metabolism and growth for juveniles. Bull trout occupied temperatures between approximately 11-15°C and selected higher temperatures as these temperatures became less available with the progression of summer and autumn. Diel vertical migration (DVM) was evident, with the largest individuals occupying the shallowest water. Significant DVM continued to occur during winter when the thermal profile was presumably isothermal. Winter DVM, and a significant effect of body size, indicated that multiple inter-related factors were responsible for vertical movements. Body size and season were significant predictors of home range size, with the largest home ranges predicted during autumn and spring in fish greater than 700 mm total length. A significant sex x body size interaction predicted horizontal movement such that in a given month, large females moved significantly farther than large males and small females, whereas there was no difference between large and small males. This work provides novel insight into thermal resource selection, diel vertical migration, and the correlates of horizontal movement. This research generates new information on the movement ecology of adfluvial bull trout in a hydropower reservoir which is relevant to understanding entrainment risk.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Biology
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Baakdah, Morooj
- Abstract:
- Interest in peptides as bioactive agents has gained attention. Oats are a source of dietary fibers and phenols with demonstrated health benefits. However peptides have received little attention. In this research, oat bran treated with viscozyme and digested with protamex. The hydrolysates separated on RP-HPLC to eight fractions. The fractions were assayed for their ability to scavenge radicals, chelate metals, inhibit peroxide and bind calcium. In ORAC assay, F7 had the highest peroxyl quenching activity compared to OPH and other fractions. In the superoxide radical assay F3 and F6-F8 had higher activities while in the hydroxyl radical assay, F4, F7, F8 were the highest (14-16%).In the metal chelation assay F1 and OPH had the best iron chelating in comparison to the RP-HPLC derived peptides (1.22–22.8%). The calcium binding activity of OPH and peptides F5 and F7 was weak. Spectrums/MS charged peaks in F5 and F7 revealed a number peptides.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Chemistry
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Medina Hevia, Alejandro Ramon
- Abstract:
- This thesis studies the fire behaviour of Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) panels in partially protected rooms. A one-dimensional heat transfer model was developed to determine the fire resistance of CLT floor and wall panels. During this study, three room fire tests were conducted at Carleton University Fire Research Laboratory to determine the maximum percentage of unprotected CLT surface area that will yield similar results to that of a fully protected room. The rooms had a single opening and were constructed entirely using 3-ply, 105 mm thick CLT panels. A non-standard, parametric fire using furniture and clothing as fuel was used and 2 layers of gypsum board were used to cover the ceiling and the protected walls. The Heat Release Rate, temperature, charring rate and gypsum falloff time of each test was collected. The results obtained from the room test where then compared to the numerical heat transfer model.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Civil
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Tse, Johnny Wai Fung
- Abstract:
- Network screening is an important step in road safety analysis. Statistical techniques are currently available and have been integrated in the Highway Safety Manual and the SafetyAnalyst software. However, analysis can still be complex to conduct. Several alternative approaches that use spatial analysis methods are identified and applied to collision data from the Ontario Provincial highway network. The results are compared to those of SafetyAnalyst. The results demonstrated the potential of the spatial analysis methods as a network screening tool, particularly the Local Moran I index method. In addition, with the ability of the spatial analysis methods to identify clusters of a specific type of collisions, they can be easily used in speed management efforts in order to identify clusters of speed-related collisions.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Civil
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Samanfar, Bahram
- Abstract:
- As a fundamental step in the gene expression pathway, protein synthesis (also known as translation) plays a crucial role in the biology of a cell. Although much has been discovered about the translation pathway over the last few decades, the list of novel factors affecting the translation pathway continues to grow indicating the presence of other novel players associated with the protein synthesis pathway which are yet to be discovered. This study aimed to identify novel genes involved in the translation pathway. To this end, we used a variety of large-scale screening techniques followed by low throughput experimental analyses designed for genetic studies in yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Using molecular biology techniques and bioinformatics, we systematically investigated the effect of specific gene deletions on translation fidelity and efficiency, Internal Ribosome Entry Sites (IRESs) functionality and translation-related helicase activities, for a total of ~ 70,000 strain analysis. We further studied the activity of ~15 genes in more details for their involvement in translation pathway. In light of the current study we propose that there remain other uncharacterized factors that influence translation regulation. Further investigations to characterize these novel factors are recommended.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Biology
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Fouad, Yasser Hesham
- Abstract:
- A generalized test procedure was developed with the aim of experimentally characterizing the static and dynamic properties of Shock Mitigation Seats and their components. The composite procedure comprises static, friction, and dynamic tests. A user-friendly Component Testing Machine was designed and built by Carleton University's Applied Dynamics Laboratory to effectively apply the developed procedure to the strut components of the seats, the seat cushions, and the assembled seats. The developed individual test procedures were applied to three typical seats with passive suspension components and one seat with a semi-active suspension system. The three seats with passive suspension were disassembled and their individual components were tested. The semi-active seat was only tested as a full seat. Displacement, velocity, and force data were recorded throughout the testing. Static test data were used to obtain load-displacement plots, stiffness properties, as well as static and kinetic friction values for all the tested elements. Dynamic
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Mechanical
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Shiran, Farideh
- Abstract:
- This thesis addresses the challenge of designing reliable and energy-efficient subthreshold flip-flops. A dual-clock-phase flip-flop (TG-FF) and a single-clock-phase flip-flop (SP-FF) configurations are considered and their gradual design modifications are reported towards perfecting their yields at minimum cost in terms of energy consumption. In addition, the two optimized flip-flop designs are compared in based on the criteria of static and dynamic energy consumptions, delay, and reliability in face of PVT variations. A 65 nm and a newer 28 nm CMOS technology kit were used during the course of this work. Multi-threshold MOSFETs and transistor sizing technique were incorporated for yield optimization. In general we were able to increase the flip-flops yields to 100% at the nominal temperature and power supply condition, and in the worst-case around 90% in the extreme cold and -10% noise on the power supply. We also prove the overall superiority of the SP-FF compared to TG-FF.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Electrical and Computer
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Raby, Graham
- Abstract:
- All animals encounter acute stressors during their lifetimes, and while the immediate response to those stressors is well understood and presumed to be adaptive, relatively few studies have linked those responses with subsequent fitness outcomes. This problem finds particular relevance in the fisheries realm, where there is interest in developing a) an understanding of what leads to mortality for caught-and-released animals, b) methods for reducing post-release mortality, and c) predictors of delayed mortality. Pacific salmon are a tractable model for studying post-release mortality because the migration success of individuals after release can be easily and effectively tracked, and migration failure means zero lifetime fitness. In this thesis I report on research in which I used physiological assessments and tracked Pacific salmon fitness outcomes in the wild to examine the response to and recovery from capture, and whether individual differences in responses could be linked to migration or spawning failure. A key finding that arose throughout was that reflex impairment is an effective indicator of the whole-animal response to capture stressors, is correlated with dermal injury, reflects underlying physiological processes, and can predict delayed mortality. I demonstrate that mortality rates currently used in management models are likely inaccurate, but use several lines of evidence to show that mortality could be reduced using different capture and handling techniques. Specifically, more proactive efforts to reduce handling time reduced physiological disturbance and reflex impairment. Revival using industry-standard revival totes and novel in-river recovery bags did not reduce delayed mortality, although the latter and forced-flow revival boxes appeared effective at expediting short-term revival. I found some evidence that sensitivity to capture stressors may change dynamically throughout the spawning migration, with fish becoming particularly resilient once reaching spawning areas. Well-controlled experiments are required if the knowledge gaps arising from this thesis are to be addressed: namely, how does resilience to capture stressors change over the course of the spawning migration, and when does facilitated revival benefit fish survival? Collectively, the work presented in this thesis provides a useful addition to our understanding of the effects of fisheries capture on the physiology and survival of fish.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Biology
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Nir, Manjinder
- Abstract:
- This thesis focuses on scalability of a resource augmentation environment when a large number of mobile devices and multiple service nodes are present. To deal with congestion, a scanning method was proposed to get information on users’ density in an area such that the service nodes and access points could be placed at strategic points. To lower communication overhead, a centralized broker-node architecture was proposed, which manages resource monitoring on behalf of all mobile devices. In the centralized architecture, mathematical models for the task scheduling problem in the local resources case and the mobile cloud computing case were proposed to optimally minimize the total energy consumption across all mobile devices. A generalized model for the task scheduling problem was proposed. The model optimally minimized the total energy and monetary cost when evaluated in two environments for mobile cloud computing, one using a local private cloud and the other using public clouds. The models found optimal solutions for the centralized task scheduling problems, and an improvement in the total costs was observed when offloading with optimization compared to when offloading without optimization using the centralized task scheduler.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Electrical and Computer
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Brown, Allen Edward
- Abstract:
- This research seeks to broaden and strengthen the holistic understanding of IT governance effectiveness by specifically examining why IT governance systems often fail to produce appropriate or desired IT and organizational behaviours. To address this objective, we investigate and develop a theoretical framework for understanding and explaining the varied sources of divergence that occur during the enactment of IT governance mechanisms. Defined as the difference between desired behaviours and actual behaviours, we argue that the acceptance and consideration of all sources of divergence within the enactment of IT governance mechanisms, is not only necessary, but critical to the appropriate design and maintenance of an effective IT governance system. Traditional IT governance perspectives, heavily rooted in the structural and normative aspects of oversight and control (i.e. structures), have limited our ability to adequately and fully understand how IT governance performs in practice. Framing IT governance mechanisms as routines, we draw on institutional theory and organizational routines theory as an alternative lens for understanding why organizational behaviours are not always aligned to those expected by IT governance owners. Based on Pentland and Feldman`s (2008) generative model of organizational routines, we establish a novel conceptualization for IT governance divergence that posits and delineates three primary sources of IT governance divergence: Representational Divergence, Translational Divergence and Performative Divergence. Through the in-depth examination of the IT investment planning, prioritization and selection routines within two exploratory case studies, we inductively propose a model for explaining IT governance divergence. We apply a narrative networks approach to frame and analyse qualitative data captured through semi-structured interviews, archival and document review and direct observation. Pattern-matching and emergent themes analysis is performed to identify and define first-order and second-order constructs, along with 15 relational propositions. Given the dearth of theoretically-grounded research in this domain, the central contribution of this study rests in the establishment of a robust theoretical framework of IT governance divergence upon which further cumulative empirical study can be undertaken.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Management
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Rahimzadeh Rufuie, Mehrdad
- Abstract:
- Nowadays one of the main concerns in the process of nanoscale design and fabrication is uncertainties of geometrical and physical parameters. This problem is due to the difficulty of controlling geometrical and physical parameters during the fabrication process. As a result, the nominal parameter values in pre-fabrication will be different from post-fabrication and can lead to undesired output signals. The traditional solution to estimate the impact of these variations on responses is applying Monte Carlo (MC) simulation, but the drawback is that, this solution needs large samples to converge and as a result is too time consuming, especially for large circuits. Recently, approaches based on polynomial chaos (PC) have been applied to this issue which had considerable computational advantages in comparison to (MC), but the problem is mainly addressed only for linear circuits. This thesis describes a new approach to extend the variability analysis based on PC technique to nonlinear circuits by using Hermite polynomials. The proposed approach enables interconnects and package modules whose macromodels have their variability characterized using the PC, to be used in general nonlinear circuits. This allows the PC variability analysis to be performed directly in the time domain. Also this thesis presents a new approach aimed at limiting the growth of the computational cost of variability analysis, of nonlinear circuits, using the Hermite-based Polynomial Chaos (PC), with the increase in the number of random variables. The proposed technique is based on deriving a closed-form formula for the structure of the augmented Jacobian matrix generated by the PC approach, and then showing that this structure can be approximated with a different structure that can be decoupled into independent diagonal blocks.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Electrical and Computer
- Date Created:
- 2015
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Balogh, Peter T.
- Abstract:
- This study explores queer quarantine, my conceptualization of processes and practices aimed at assessing, diagnosing and isolating queer threats to the nation. In theorizing queer quarantine, I draw upon the longstanding conflation of queerness with disease and contagion, and build a case for reading the isolation, containment and casting out of queerness as an assemblage of discursive tactics and technologies aimed at quarantining queers beyond conventional understandings of quarantine. I examine the ways queers are imagined to threaten public space, healthy bodies, and the future of the nation, and provide a new accounting for so-called homophobic policies and practices deployed in statecraft and dominant culture. I also trace the emergence of the queer AIDS monster, an effect of disciplinary tactics of queer quarantine and a particular discursive formation in its own right. My study has two aims: building a case for queer quarantine and, at the same time, demonstrating how queer quarantine can be used as a new model of analysis to identify and explore some of the ways the Canadian state and dominant culture continue to marginalize and oppress queers despite the rights gains and “acceptance” that some gays and lesbians have achieved. My analysis reveals that in 1970s Toronto, the rapidly increasing visibility of queerness became a public threat necessitating tactical responses from local authorities and the police to quarantine queer spaces. The advent of AIDS saw a new and heightened level of surveillance directed nationwide onto queer bodies by medical and legal authorities, with the development of new tactics and technologies of queer quarantine to protect against multiplying threats of queer contagion. Increased state obsession with national security in the era of homonationalism sees a renewed focus on queer threats to the nation’s future, for example, via children and the national blood supply. This interdisciplinary study weaves together concepts and theories from cultural studies, history, sociology, queer theory, feminist theory, contagion studies, epidemiology, and applied linguistics, resulting in a multi-scalar analysis of the ways that queer quarantine can be employed to provide new readings of state and dominant cultural responses to queer threats over a forty-year period.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Canadian Studies
- Date Created:
- 2015