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- Resource Type:
- Poster
- Creator:
- Cross, Emma
- Abstract:
- The emerging technology collection at Carleton University is a successful collaboration between the Library, Discovery Centre for Undergraduate Research & Engagement and Information Technology Services. Starting with a pilot project in Jan. 2015, the collection now provides access to over 40 pieces of technology equipment for loan. The poster will discuss benefits and challenges associated with this project and the value of shared Library space for the development and delivery of an innovative new service. Conference poster presented at the Ontario Library Association SuperConference on Friday February 3, 2017.
- Date Created:
- 2017-02-03
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- Resource Type:
- Report
- Creator:
- Sinclair, Ian, Adler, Andy, and Dawson, David
- Abstract:
- Several studies have discussed the need for reliable uniform testing of Conducted Energy Weapons (CEWs) independent of the manufacturer. This Test Procedure is designed to enable organizations across Canada to test CEWs in a reliable, repeatable manner to determine whether they are operating within manufacturerʼs specifications. The CEW Test Procedure establishes a methodology by which testing facilities and personnel will be able to test CEWs and determine whether they are operating within manufacturers' specifications, and defines data collection requirements so that data collected may be used in forensic analysis and for future research.
- Date Created:
- 2017-02-17
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- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Zhai, Long
- Abstract:
- A novel short-circuit self-heating (SCSH) control system was developed in this thesis to achieve the preheating of lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries operated in extremely cold weather (< -30°C). The proposed system relies on the internal resistance of batteries and the short circuit current to heat up batteries using Joule heating. Experiments show that the SCSH control system can heat up the commercial Panasonic 18650 Li-ion batteries from -30°C to 0°C in 43 seconds, with less than 5 percent of the battery capacity consumed. The proposed heating system outperformed both external convective air heating and alternating current (AC) heating, in terms of heating time and energy consumption. Furthermore, a DC to AC battery power inverter was developed to implement the AC heating and to make the battery pack available for household appliances.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Mechanical
- Date Created:
- 2017
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- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Smith, Matthew
- Abstract:
- In Canada, buildings are designed for fire safety in a predominately prescriptive manner, especially the structural design of those buildings for the fire limit state. The research presented herein first assessed the Canadian literature to determine if performance-based fire design (PBFD) could be implemented nationally and then analyzed what precedents existed in Canada. Next, benchmark modelling was performed to transparently demonstrate the competency that is needed to assess a structure for a real fire. Building on this, a novel alternative solution was proposed which incorporated PBFD to achieve quantifiable benefits in robustness, economy, and resilience, as well as identify mechanisms in the response of the floor. Finally, a framework is proposed for progressing PBFD responsibly in Canada. This is sorely lacking in the Canadian literature if PBFD is to see more development and implementation for structural fire solutions.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Civil
- Date Created:
- 2017
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- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Mastronardi, Emily Elizabeth
- Abstract:
- With an increasing global population, there is a need for more efficient fertilizers to alleviate the negative environmental impacts of fertilizer runoff. Developments in nanotechnology could lead to fertilizers that interact with plants more efficiently. Aptamers are oligonucleotide receptors that fold into unique shapes and bind target molecules with high affinity and selectivity. Aptamers are generated through the in vitro evolution process called SELEX. Aptamers have been incorporated into sensors, diagnostics, therapeutics, targeted-delivery vehicles, and responsive materials. Biomolecules called exudates that are associated with improved nutrient uptake by crops have been identified and could serve as targets for specific fertilizer delivery. This work describes the selection of DNA aptamers binding to crop exudate, L-serine, for use in a smart fertilizer system. SELEX for small molecules has some inherent challenges, and three SELEX strategies paired with high-throughput sequencing analysis were implemented to improve the selection process. Aptamers developed from an original DNA library, as well as from DNA libraries modified from a previous small molecule selection are described. Aptamers binding to L-serine in solution were identified, and were modified to lower their production cost, and to increase their stability for use in fertilizer applications. Finally, an aptamer-polymersome nanostructure was investigated for potential use as a targeted-delivery vehicle.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Chemistry
- Date Created:
- 2017
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- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Goudreau, Daniel
- Abstract:
- Aflatoxins are a class of mycotoxins that are of great agro-economic importance. Due to their health implications, and large economic burden, aflatoxins have become the most studied group of mycotoxins. A specific interest in rapid, robust, and cost effective, on-site sensing platforms for mycotoxin contaminants has been shown. Aptamers are functional oligonucleotide sequences that are selected to bind a cognate ligand with high affinity and selectivity. Novel structure switching aptamer candidates for total aflatoxin were previously selected. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays, melting temperature, and circular dichroism along with predictive structural characterization techniques were used to help elucidate the aptamer candidate's structural biases for G-quadruplex formation. Two candidates were determined to bind aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) with high affinity using microscale thermophoresis. Using the AFB1 binding aptamers, progress has been made towards developing FRET-based signalling sensors that leverage the structure-switching properties of the aptamer.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Chemistry
- Date Created:
- 2017
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Black, Kelly
- Abstract:
- This dissertation explores the local, material, and affective processes of Settler (non-Indigenous) attachment to land on southern Vancouver Island, British Columbia. I describe these feelings for land as Settler belonging and my research is guided by a reflexive and interdisciplinary approach that seeks to "explain Settlers to ourselves." Through original archival research and personal reflection, I argue that "(dis)possession," a term that encompasses Settler efforts to take the land and belong to the land, is a generational process, one that is worked at over time in an effort to link the past with the present and serve future Settler belonging. Through a study of plants, forest resource extraction, roads and railways, park creation, and real estate development in the Cowichan Valley and Sooke - Juan de Fuca regions, I argue that Settler feelings for land manifest in locally specific and contradictory ways. I contribute to the study of Settler colonialism and political economy in Canada by adapting the staples approach, as developed by Harold A. Innis, Mel Watkins, and others, to trace the intersection of belonging with the resource economy and the characteristics of Settler colonialism. This dissertation links historical and ongoing transformations in the relations of production, such as the conversion of private forestry lands into real estate, to reveal the ways in which belonging adjusts to political and economic changes that both assist and threaten its future. I argue that studying the locality of belonging contributes insight and nuance to our understanding of materiality and affect, class relations, the staple economy, and Settler colonialism's broader processes. In doing so, I demonstrate that Settler attachment to land is entrenched and expanded through a series of recurring events that are shared, personal, and conflictual.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Canadian Studies
- Date Created:
- 2017
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Paziuk, Tyler
- Abstract:
- The apartheid era was characterized by a concerted program of denationalization that rendered the Black majority both 'right-less' and exploitable while simultaneously institutionalizing racial and ethnic differences. In casting all workers, irrespective of ethnicity or origin, as members of the Black working class, trade unions of the period transcended divisions and, eventually, claimed citizenship for Black South Africans. Today, a set of legitimized legal discriminations, embodied in the Western, statist institution of citizenship, similarly renders noncitizens vulnerable to xenophobia and exploitation, and contributes to the disunity of the southern African working class. Drawing on primary research conducted in Gauteng, South Africa in the southern spring of 2016 and with analytical inspiration from feminist citizenship theory, my thesis questions whether this proudly held "organizational norm of universalism" is capable of mitigating the effects of these legal discriminations and of overcoming the divisions they incite.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Political Economy
- Date Created:
- 2017
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Tishler, Nicole Alexandra
- Abstract:
- Little academic attention has been accorded to terrorism hoaxers—i.e. those perpetrators who use lies, benign materials and/or empty threats to give the impression that a terrorist act is or has been underway. This dissertation harnesses under-utilised terrorism events data to build a theory of hoaxes in pursuit of a dual aim: to provide a robust substantive answer to the empirical puzzle of why hoaxes are used, but not by all groups, and not all the time; and to evaluate the degree to which existing data can demystify the hoax phenomenon. The starting point is a rationalist framework for terrorist groups' strategic logics, which emphasizes the relative costs and benefits of hoaxes in relation to serious terrorism activity. In the empirical theory-building chapters, probit regression and qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) are used to identify various organizational conditions that differentiate hoaxers from non-hoaxers, thereby indicating which strategic logics are plausibly at play, and in which contexts. A statistical cluster analysis demonstrates that there are five broad classes of hoaxing terrorist groups, which differ from one another along motivational, structural, and campaign contextual lines. While the unit of analysis throughout is the terrorist group, these analyses rely on cross-national terrorism events databases—predominantly ITERATE and the Monterey WMD Terrorism Database—to identify which groups never hoax, and which groups sometimes do. In the dissertation's final section, earlier findings are tested against a new sample of terrorism perpetrators derived from the recently-released Canadian Incident Database (CIDB). Although the Canada-centric data reveals a biased under-reporting of hoax activity in the cross-national datasets, a QCA analysis of its perpetrators reveals roughly similar conditions differentiating hoaxers from non-hoaxers. The CIDB's comprehensive events coverage is further exploited to test whether these organizational indicators and their associated hypothesized mechanisms hold, when campaign activities are evaluated at the event-level. A fine-grained analysis of event sequencing in Canada's most prolific terrorism campaign (that of the Front de libération du Québec) corroborates a range of proposed strategic logics. The observational nature of available data is thus limited in its ability to clarify hoaxers' strategic logics, which are both over-determined and equifinal.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- International Affairs
- Date Created:
- 2017
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- McKenney, David Greig
- Abstract:
- Complex networks are prevalent structures throughout technological systems, and are also used to model many non-technological systems as well. Application domains that make use of networks range from financial systems, to biology/medicine, to online social networks and agent-based systems. There is a strong desire to control these types of systems, to avoid catastrophic failures, increase system stability, or achieve some known system goal.The development of automated controllers for these types of systems is a complex problem that involves several key subproblems, including the selection of a control node set and the generation of control signals to be injected into the network. Previous research involving network control has typically assumed the underlying network connections are precisely known and has also taken a strictly vector-based view of system state. This thesis expands on the existing network control work in two significant directions.First, this thesis investigates algorithmic, behaviour-based methods for predicting links within networks. This involves using transfer entropy measurements, calculated between time series of actions generated by participating agents. This approach could be used to predict underlying networks in unobservable problem domains (e.g., financial systems) or to identify links that are truly influential within observable problem domains (e.g., online social networks). A number of prediction algorithms are proposed and compared, several of which attain high levels of accuracy, even with a limited amount of available system information.Second, this thesis eschews the traditional vector-based view of system state within network control problems, proposing a novel, distribution-based approach. One of the most studied control goals in the existing research has involved moving a system between two vector-based states. Distribution-based control, however, identifies state distributions as targets for control, which is arguably a more expressive and suitable approach for many problem domains. The effect of various network parameters on control success is investigated within a distribution-based control problem, with microscopic analysis of subset distributions being used to demonstrate why control is more difficult in certain scenarios. This information is used to inform the creation of new control node selection algorithms, with statistically significant improvements over the highest rated heuristic from previous research being realized.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Computer Science
- Date Created:
- 2017