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  • Distributed evolutionary algorithm for co-optimization of building and district systems for early community energy masterplanning

    Resource Type:
    Article
    Creator:
    Bucking, Scott and Dermardiros, Vasken
    Abstract:
    Buildings play a significant role in climate change mitigation. In North America, energy used to construct and operate buildings accounts for some 40% of total energy use, largely originating from fossil fuels. The strategic reduction of these energy demands requires knowledge of potential upgrades prior to a building's construction. Furthermore, renewable energy generation integrated into buildings façades and district systems can improve the resiliency of community infrastructure. However, loads that are non-coincidental with on-site generation can cause load balancing issues. This imbalance is typically due to solar resources peaking at noon, whereas building loads typically peak in the morning and late afternoon or evenings. Ideally, the combination of on-site generation and localized storage could remedy such load balancing issues while reducing the need for fossil fuels. In response to these issues, this paper contributes a methodology that co-optimizes building designs and district technologies as an integrated community energy system. A distributed evolutionary algorithm is proposed that can navigate over 10154 potential community permutations. This is the first time in literature that a methodology demonstrates the co-optimization of buildings and district energy systems to reduce energy use in buildings and balance loads at this scale. The proposed solution is reproducible and scalable for future community masterplanning studies.
    Date Created:
    2018-02-01

  • Scholarly and public engagement in Jewish politics: A journey through liminal space in ten short chapters

    Resource Type:
    Article
    Creator:
    Sucharov, Mira
    Abstract:
    This article interrogates the question of what it means to be a scholar-commentator in the digital age. Deploying an autoethnographic style, the essay asks about the role of power and responsibility in teaching, research, and public commentary, particularly in the context of studying and engaging in Jewish politics. The article addresses questions about the proper role of the scholar in the academy and the role of subjectivity and political commitments in structuring scholarship, pedagogy, and public engagement. It also examines how one’s view of the profession can seem to shift through the emergence of new writing outlets and new forums for public engagement. Finally, the author investigates how a scholar’s own political commitments can shift over time, how one seeks to shore up identification on social media while trying to change hearts and minds through the op-ed pages, and how community identification can serve as a buffer and motivator for particular forms of research and political action.
    Date Created:
    2018-12-01

  • Characterizing and computing causes for query answers in databases from database repairs and repair programs

    Resource Type:
    Conference Proceeding
    Creator:
    Bertossi, Leopoldo
    Abstract:
    A correspondence between database tuples as causes for query answers in databases and tuple-based repairs of inconsistent databases with respect to denial constraints has already been established. In this work, answer-set programs that specify repairs of databases are used as a basis for solving computational and reasoning problems about causes. Here, causes are also introduced at the attribute level by appealing to a both null-based and attribute-based repair semantics. The corresponding repair programs are presented, and they are used as a basis for computation and reasoning about attribute-level causes.
    Date Created:
    2018-01-01

  • Reframing the history of new religious movements

    Resource Type:
    Article
    Creator:
    Driedger, Michael and Wolfart, Johannes
    Abstract:
    In this special issue of Nova Religio four historians of medieval and early modern Christianities offer perspectives on basic conceptual frameworks widely employed in new religions studies, including modernization and secularization, radicalism/violent radicalization, and diversity/diversification. Together with a response essay by J. Gordon Melton, these articles suggest strong possibilities for renewed and ongoing conversation between scholars of "old" and "new" religions. Unlike some early discussions, ours is not aimed simply at questioning the distinction between old and new religions itself. Rather, we think such conversation between scholarly fields holds the prospect of productive scholarly surprise and perspectival shifts, especially via the disciplinary practice of historiographical criticism.
    Date Created:
    2018-05-01

  • Assigning Value to Peel's Regional Police’s School Resource Officer Program

    Resource Type:
    Report
    Creator:
    Duxbury, Linda E. and Bennell, Craig
    Abstract:
    Police in schools In an era where the costs of policing are constantly under scrutiny from governing municipalities, the time has come for police agencies to re-evaluate the services they provide. To do this, they need to answer questions relating to the value that different activities they perform create in the communities they serve. In other words, they need to change the focus of the conversation from “what does this service cost” to “what value does this service provide.” This document summarizes key findings from a longitudinal (2014-2017), multi-method (quantitative, qualitative, and ethnographic analysis, along with a Social Return on Investment [SROI] analysis) case study undertaken to identify the value of School Resource Officers (SROs) that are employed by Peel Regional Police and work in the service’s Neighborhood Police Unit (NPU). Of note is the application of SROI techniques in this evaluation process. SROI, a methodology that emerged from the not-for-profit sector, helps researchers identify sources of value outside of those considered through traditional valuation techniques, such as cost-benefit analysis. Evaluation of Peel Police’s SRO program was motivated by a number of factors. First, the costs of this program are both easy to identify and significant (just over $9 million per year). Second, it is very challenging to identify the value that this program provides to students and the community. The challenges of quantifying the value offered by assigning full-time SROs to Canadian high schools is evidenced by the fact that such programs are rare, as police services around the world have responded to pressures to economize by removing officers from schools and either eliminating the role of the SRO or having one officer attend to many schools.
    Date Created:
    2018-01-10

  • Portfolio Allocation over Life-Cycle with Multiple Late-in-Life Saving Motives

    Resource Type:
    Research Paper
    Creator:
    Lee, Minjoon
    Abstract:
    Older households face health-related risks, including risk of being in need of long-term care and mortality risk. How these risks affect financial portfolio choice of households depends on household preferences for long-term care and bequest. Using linked survey-administrative data on clients of a mutual fund company, this paper finds that the desire to have enough resources for long-term care and bequests are overall strong but also heterogeneous across households. The estimated relationship between actual stock share of households and the strength of these preferences is qualitatively similar but quantitatively much weaker compared to the predictions from the life-cycle model with the estimated preference heterogeneity. Based on the predictions from the model, this paper discusses what financial instruments would better meet the needs of households.
    Date Created:
    2018-07-22

  • The Welfare and Distributional Effects of Fiscal Volatility: a Quantitative Evaluation

    Resource Type:
    Research Paper
    Creator:
    Bachmann, Rudiger, Lee, Minjoon, Bai, Jinhui H., and Zhang, Fudong
    Date Created:
    2018-05-18

  • Forced Retirement Risk and Portfolio Choice

    Resource Type:
    Research Paper
    Creator:
    Nam, Tong-yob, Lee, Minjoon, and Chen, Guodong
    Date Created:
    2018-08-12

  • Political Contestation about International Economic Agreements: Lessons for the Canada-UK Trade Relationship after Brexit.

    Resource Type:
    Report
    Creator:
    Chalmers, Adam William, Hurrelmann, Achim, Atikcan, Ece Özlem, and Viju, Crina
    Date Created:
    2018-11-30

  • Implementation considerations in a Complex Adaptive System

    Resource Type:
    Report
    Creator:
    Peters, Paul A. and Petrie, Samuel
    Description:
    This report was prepared for the Centre for Rural Medicine in Storuman, Sweden, as part of the Free Range international student exchange program. See also Carleton's Spatial Determinants of Health Lab:  https://carleton.ca/determinants
    Abstract:
    This report is provides guidance for research teams who are currently planning or are in the midst of implementing an e-health intervention in rural communities. It describes the important factors which need to be considered when scaling - up a pilot project from one context to another, and demonstrates what a successful project needs to maximize the probability that it will achieve the desired level of spread within the healthcare system. This report can be used as a reference for people who wish to implement a novel intervention into a new environment. Ideally it will be used in the early stages of intervention design to help researchers understand how a complex adaptive system functions and why navigating one is important for the outcome of their intervention. To begin, the report covers some basic terminology used when discussing complex adaptive systems and highlights the importance of working with these ideas moving forward. Next, in-depth discussions about sense-making, leverage points, self-organization, and agent-based modelling provide evidence of the complexity of implementation. Finally, the principle of antifragility is discussed, as well as a tangible example of an intervention which has been designed with antifragility in mind. Finally, the conclusion summarizes the key findings of the report, offers future directions, and identifies some of the limitations.
    Date Created:
    2018-09-22

  • The Criminalization of Migration: Context and Consequences

    Resource Type:
    Book
    Creator:
    Simeon, James C. and Atak, Idil
    Description:
    Free access to this e-book is available to readers, scholars, and students located in the Global South whose institutions lack the resources to purchase access to these books as well as to those in other regions who are part of non-profit or community organizations concerned with displacement and who lack alternate forms of access to the book or the resources needed to purchase these publications. Please see full access conditions below.
    Abstract:
    With over 240 million migrants in the world, including over 65 million forced migrants and refugees, states have turned to draconian measures to stem the flow of irregular migration, including the criminalization of migration itself. Canada, perceived as a nation of immigrants and touted as one of the most generous countries in the world today for its reception of refugees, has not been immune from these practices. This book examines "crimmigration" - the criminalization of migration - from national and comparative perspectives, drawing attention to the increasing use of criminal law measures, public policies, and practices that stigmatize or diminish the rights of forced migrants and refugees within a dominant public discourse that not only stereotypes and criminalizes but marginalizes forced migrants. Leading researchers, legal scholars, and practitioners provide in-depth analyses of theoretical concerns, legal and public policy dimensions, historic migration crises, and the current dynamics and future prospects of crimmigration. The editors situate each chapter within the existing migration literature and outline a way forward for the decriminalization of migration through the vigorous promotion and advancement of human rights. Building on recent legal, policy, academic, and advocacy initiatives, The Criminalization of Migration maps how the predominant trend toward the criminalization of migration in Canada and abroad can be reversed for the benefit of all, especially those forced to migrate for the protection of their inherent human rights and dignity.
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Data Science Research to Support Stem Cell Therapy for Muscular Dystrophy

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Hernandez Salas, Karen Nathaly
    Abstract:
    This thesis project focused on using a sequence-based, high-performance computational tool to design synthetic proteins and is part of current collaborative research on Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). A possible treatment for DMD consists of injecting patients with healthy muscle satellite cells grown in tissue culture. However, such cells cannot currently be produced in quantity because they convert to muscle cells (differentiate) prematurely. Using InSiPS, theIn-SilicoProteinSynthesizer, protein sequences were designed to interact with target proteins and inhibit the protein-protein interaction proposed to regulate the premature differentiation. The resulting sequences were predicted to interact with the target proteins with high specificity (99.98%). Complementary biochemistry experiments indicated interactions with the intended target for two out of ten synthetic proteins. These results are being studied as part of the ongoing research seeking to develop a treatment for DMD.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Computer Science (M.C.S.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Computer Science
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Synthetic Data Generator for User Behavioral Analytics Systems

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Narayanan, Asad
    Abstract:
    Most User Behavioral Analytics (UBA) applications rely on the distributions and baselines of users and are sensitive to the changes in these patterns. Development and testing of these applications need synthetic data as the availability of the real data is usually scarce. Synthetic data generated must follow these patterns, or else the results can be noisy. Through this work, we present a data generation technique, which could be utilized by UBA applications. The proposed system extracts the patterns of data attributes by considering the dependencies between them. The extracted patterns can be used any number of time to generate data. Additionally, we also generate synthetic users, whose behaviors and distributions are similar to that of real users. Our experiments show that the synthetic data captures the required patterns and relations from the real data. We also show that our data generation process can be scaled linearly to the available processors.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Computer Science (M.C.S.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Computer Science
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Fabrication of Long Range Surface Plasmon Polariton Biosensors Incorporating a Channel Etch Stop Layer and Wafer Bonded Cover

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Ren, Pengshuai
    Abstract:
    This thesis presents the micro-fabrication process of a Long Range Surface Plasmon Polariton (LRSPP) biosensor device. The fabrication process was modified in two aspects which include adding a channel etch stop layer to improve the accuracy and uniformity of channels in the device and replacing the photoresist etching mask by an Al etching mask to avoid the thermal cracking. The optical performance of the fabricated chips shows that the biosensor has a 5.03dB/mm attenuation loss and has a 0.10dB response for a monolayer of BSA on Au waveguides. CYTOP bonding process was introduced in the fabrication of the device that incorporates a glass cover. A glass wafer was successfully bonded to a silicon wafer by CYTOP bonding process to seal the channels, which ensured an isolated testing environment for the biochemical fluid.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Engineering, Electrical and Computer
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Evaluation of the Signal Quality of Wrist-Based Photoplethysmography

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Pradhan, Nikhilesh
    Abstract:
    Detection of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation requires continuous cardiovascular monitoring due to its episodic nature. Such monitoring is impractical with electrocardiogram Holter monitors, which are the currently employed for ambulatory cardiovascular monitoring, but are cumbersome for prolonged use. This thesis studies monitoring using photoplethysmography (PPG) devices, which may be embedded into wristband devices which can be easily worn continuously. However, the quality of wrist-based PPG is highly variable, and is subject to artifacts from motion and other interferences. The goal of this thesis is to evaluate the signal quality obtained from wrist-based PPG when used in an ambulatory setting. Ambulatory data is collected over a 24-hour period for 10 elderly, and 16 non-elderly participants. Visual assessment is used as the gold standard for PPG signal quality, with Fleiss's Kappa being used to evaluate the agreement between raters. With this gold standard, 5 classifiers are evaluated using a modified 13-fold cross-validation approach.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Engineering, Biomedical
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Understanding the Role and Value of Participatory Mapping in an Inuit Knowledge Research Context

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Depaiva, Alex
    Abstract:
    Participatory mapping has had a long history in the Arctic, particularly since the Inuit Land Use and Occupancy Project (ILUOP) undertaken from 1973 - 75. Despite its widespread use, there has been little critical assessment of the role and value of participatory mapping in an Inuit cultural context. In particular, this study investigates the role and value of participatory mapping for learning, documenting, and representing Inuit cultural and geographical knowledge through both a comprehensive literature review and key informant interviews. Findings indicate that methods employed have largely remained consistent from the ILUOP – present. Participatory mapping is seen as valuable for both how it can record Inuit knowledge, as well as for the process of engagement that it supports. The role and value of participatory mapping is also discussed in relation to meeting diverse project objectives and the ability to facilitate knowledge exchange.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Arts (M.A.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Geography
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Direction Finding for Unmanned Aerial Systems Using Rhombic Antennas and Amplitude Comparison Monopulse

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Kuiper, Ryan
    Abstract:
    The purpose of this thesis is to design an antenna for a UAS (Unmanned Aerial System) comprised of an aircraft and a two channel transceiver/spectrum recording device for a DF (Direction Finding) application with an error of 6.12 degrees or less. The UAS had to work in a bandwidth from 0.6-6 GHz and under the size constraints imposed by the bottom face of the transceiver/spectrum recording device (19.4x32.4 cm). Due to the large operating spectrum of the DF UAS and size constraints imposed by the aircraft, a multi-antenna rhombic antenna solution is used.The DF portion of the thesis is done using amplitude comparison monopulse with a 45 degree squint angle. Therefore, the rhombic antenna elements were designed to have a radiation pattern which allowed for this squint angle.Once the requirements were accounted for and simulated, the rhombic antenna elements were built and tested with Carleton University's anechoic chamber.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Engineering, Electrical and Computer
    Date Created:
    2018

  • How Design Tools Facilitate Right-Sizing Choices for First-Time Homebuyers

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    St-Arnaud, Claudie
    Abstract:
    As society evolves, so does the variety of housing models, which were traditionally distinguished by location, components, and type of dwelling. Currently, lifestyle plays a large part in differentiating housing choices, and the right-sizing movement, which optimizes physical space in conjunction with lifestyle goals, is a new housing model that is gaining interest. Since the first-time home buying process can be overwhelming, a creative decision-making tool may offer direction into choosing the right home that is a suitable fit for individuals and families. The key contributions of the research include a home buying preparation aid and a right-sizing teaching tool as well as an organizational approach to designing a decision-making tool. The preliminary results suggest that a decision-making tool could prepare and facilitate the home buying process and create a platform for evaluating one's lifestyle objectives leading to right-sizing embodiment.Keywords:Right-sizing; first-time homebuyers; creative decision-making tools; lifestyle choices
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Design (M.Des.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Industrial Design
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Transcriptome analysis of programmed cell death associated with allorecognition in chestnut blight fungus Cryphonectria parasitica

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Belov, Anatoly
    Abstract:
    In this thesis, I analysed transcriptional profiles of the chestnut blight fungus, Cryphonectria parasitica, during vegetative incompatibility (allorecognition) reactions due to differences at the vic3 locus. Out of a total 13944 identified expressed transcripts, including 2334 novel ones, only 1411 were differentially expressed during vic3 incompatibility reaction. Functional enrichment analysis showed increased expression of genes involved in detoxification and stress response (e.g.s Cytochrome p450, Glutathione S-transferase), and toxin biosynthesis. Surprisingly, even though the test strains were both the same mating type (MAT-2), genes involved in sexual reproduction (mf2-1, mf2-2 and mat-2) showed the most dramatic increase in expression during allorecognition response. Further qPCR analysis showed that activation of mating pheromone genes occurs during incompatible reactions involving five of the six known vic incompatibility loci. The only exception was vic4, which elicits a weak incompatibility and showed almost no change in pheromone gene expression. Analysis suggests that mf2-1, mf2-2 and mat-2 expression is triggered by activation of asexual sporulation. Genes encoded at the vic3 locus, vic3a and vic3b, were upregulated in barraging samples along with seven HET-domain genes located at other regions of the genome. Among the seven HET genes activated, one is located at the vic1 locus and previously implicated in vic1 incompatibility. Activation of these same HET domain genes also occurred in other vic incompatible pairings. For example, upregulation of dev3a and vic1a genes occurred during incompatibility reactions associated with each of the six known vic loci. This suggests that some HET genes serve as universal allorecognition factors. Furthermore, this data indicates that each incompatibility locus uses a set of several HET genes to activate Programmed Cell Death (PCD). In addition, I analysed the effects on barrage formation of p29, a protein-coding region from Cryphonectria hypovirus 1 (CHV1). Expression of p29 in C. parasitica was previously shown to delay the onset of vic3-associated PCD. Results of the analysis indicated that ectopically expressed p29 does not have a strong modifying effect on gene expression in barraging strains. This study illustrates that nonself recognition is an active defence mechanism, where stress response and detoxification are combined with mycotoxins production.
    Thesis Degree:
    Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Biology
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Emancipated Entrepreneuring in the Nascent Commercial Spaceflight Industry: Authoring Ecosystems by Branson, Diamandis, and Musk

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Reid, James Ewan Alexander
    Abstract:
    The emancipatory perspective on entrepreneuring examines the activities undertaken by entrepreneurs to bring about change. Business ecosystems are a mode of organizing economic production that differs from markets and organizational hierarchies, and is increasingly associated with collaborative innovation, opportunities for technology entrepreneurship, and rapid technological progress. This thesis examines how business ecosystems feature in the emancipation actions of entrepreneurs in the commercial spaceflight industry. The research design is a case-based event study of three entrepreneurs and their space ventures: Sir Richard Branson and Virgin Galactic, Peter Diamandis and XPRIZE, and Elon Musk and SpaceX. Results show that business ecosystems can be emancipating – as a means for escaping constraints, in the authoring activities to enact change, and in making declarations to mobilize support, manage interpretations, and motivate change from others. Contributions include a formal operational specification for event studies using the emancipation perspective that can be applied in other field settings.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Engineering, Technology Innovation Management
    Date Created:
    2018

  • On Properties of Relatively Hyperbolic Groups

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Zhang, Ming Ming
    Abstract:
    We discuss a number of problems in relatively hyperbolic groups. We show that the word problem and the conjugacy (search) problem are solvable in linear and quadratic time, respectively, for a relatively hyperbolic group, whenever the corresponding problem is solvable in linear and quadratic time in each parabolic subgroup. We also consider the classRof finitely generated toral relatively hyperbolic groups. We show that groups fromRare commutative transitive and generalize a theorem proved by Benjamin Baumslag toR. Moreover, we discuss two definitions of (fully) residually-Cgroups and prove the equivalence of the two definitions forC=R. Let Γ ∈R. We prove that every finitely generated fully residually-Γ group embeds into a group fromR. On the other hand, we give an example of a finitely generated torsion-free fully residually-Hgroup that does not embed into a group fromR;His the class of hyperbolic groups.
    Thesis Degree:
    Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Pure Mathematics
    Date Created:
    2018

  • An Investigation of Herring Gull Population Decline in Pukaskwa National Park, Lake Superior

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Laurich, Bruce Patrick
    Abstract:
    In Pukaskwa National Park(PNP) on Lake Superior, Herring Gull(Larus argentatus) population is used as an indicator of ecological integrity. Since the 1970s, their populations have declined by 70%. Lake-wide declines in prey fish may be limiting natural food sources for Pukaskwa gulls. In the southern section of the park there's little access to human sources of food. In the northern section of the park, impacts of food declines may be buffered as birds can obtain anthropogenic food from nearby dumps. To assess regional differences, Herring Gull eggs were collected from northern and southern PNP. Markers of diet composition, stable isotopes of nitrogen and carbon, fatty acids, were measured in the eggs. Analysis supports the hypothesis that gulls from the southern PNP rely to a greater extent on natural foods. Understanding the degree to which anthropogenic food supports Gull populations is critical when utilizing gulls as indicators of ecological integrity in PNP.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Science (M.Sc.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Biology
    Date Created:
    2018

  • On characteristics and dynamics of water-rock glacier interactions in mountain areas (Western Italian Alps)

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Colombo, Nicola
    Abstract:
    Permafrost degradation affects hydrochemistry of surface waters. In particular, evidence of modifications in water quality has been collected in mountain headwaters impacted by rock-glacier thawing. Rock glaciers are slowly flowing mixtures of debris and ice-rich permafrost, and can represent a reservoir of water. Melting ice inside them has been reported to affect surface water hydrochemistry, in some cases causing ecological damages. Investigating the mechanisms for this, however, requires understanding how, where and when rock glaciers and water bodies interact. Moreover, it is necessary to understand how atmospheric forcing can affect the export of physicochemical fluxes from rock glaciers. Different hypotheses have been proposed to explain the main driving weather-climate processes, nevertheless, they are still unclear.With these goals, hydrology and structural setting of a rock glacier-pond system located in the NW Italian Alps were elucidated using waterborne geophysics (ground penetrating radar, electrical resistivity tomography and self-potential) and heat tracing. An integrated study of atmospheric parameters (air temperature, snow cover duration, rainfall) and physicochemical characteristics of water (water temperature as a proxy of rock-glacier discharge, stable water isotopes, major ions and trace elements) was also performed in the pond on a high-resolution temporal basis (weekly) for two consecutive ice-free seasons.The advancing movement of the investigated rock glacier has progressively filled the valley depression, creating a dam that could have modified the level of impounded water. A subsurface hydrological window connecting the rock glacier to the pond was also detected, where an inflow of cold underground waters from the rock glacier was observed. Here, greater water contribution from the rock glacier occurred following intense precipitation events during the ice-free season. An outflowing mechanism of the pond is hypothesised and might be associated with the presence of a subsurface seepage.An intra-seasonal behaviour of solute export from the rock glacier into the pond was found, with increasing solute export associated with higher rock-glacier hydrological contributions. The key finding was the rainfall (after snowmelt depletion) as primary driver of solute export from the rock glacier during the thawing season after warm atmospheric periods, with the flushing of solutes stored in the rock glacier.
    Thesis Degree:
    Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Geography
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Fire Resistance Quantification of Non-Loadbearing Masonry Walls –Numerical Study

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Keelson, Hannah Apomabea
    Abstract:
    Non-loadbearing masonry walls, have a considerable capacity, from the fire perspective, to isolate part of the building's interior from flames, heat and the effect of smoke. This research focuses on quantifying the fire resistance of non-loadbearing masonry walls subjected to elevated temperatures. Masonry walls constructed with different joint profiles, material properties as well as geometries have been considered. The fire resistance of the walls under each category has been analyzed using a finite element model and compared with experimental fire resistance tests. The numerical model correlates with the experimental tests results. In terms of concrete masonry, novel lightweight made of 45% recycled glass and 10% metakaolin produced the highest fire resistance of 172 minutes, approximately 27 and 50 minutes greater than conventional lightweight and normal weight concrete masonry respectively. Rock wool, used as an insert in conventional normal weight concrete masonry walls produced the highest fire resistance of 185 minutes
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Engineering, Civil
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Charged Particle Transport in Magnetic Fields in the EGSnrc Monte Carlo Code System

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Malkov, Victor
    Abstract:
    The advent of magnetic resonance guided radiation therapy provides a promising technology for dealing with tumour motion and anatomical variations during treatment. These machines possess a variety of beam energies, geometrical configurations, and different magnetic field strengths. Although photon beams do not directly experience the influence of the magnetic field, electrons set in motion will curve and impact dose distributions. Clinical reference dosimetry protocols rely on correction factors which account for the change in detector response for different beam qualities in the absence of a magnetic field. The effect of the magnetic field poses challenges for dosimetry, as ion chambers and solid state detectors respond disproportionately to the actual change in the dose to the media in the presence of the magnetic field. This necessitates an adaptation of current dosimetry protocols through calculation of high precision magnetic field and beam quality correction factors which account for detector response variation. In this work, charged particle transport in magnetic fields is implemented in EGSnrc and is shown to pass the Fano cavity test at the 0.1% level. Further good agreement with experimental ion chamber measurements is shown, and important effects such as air gaps and the unknown sensitive volume of the chamber are determined to cause several percent variation in the calculated ion chamber dose. Ion chamber magnetic field correction factors are then evaluated for over thirty cylindrical ionization chamber and a select number of parallel-plate chambers. Magnetic field correction factors for the majority of cylindrical chambers are within 1% of unity, while parallel-plate chambers require correction factors on the order of several percent and, unlike cylindrical chambers, no optimal orientation is available to reduce the effect of the magnetic field. The %dd(10)x beam-quality specifier is shown to have a strong dependence of the magnetic field strength, and the TPR(20,10) is determined to the optimal beam-quality specifier in magnetic fields. Collectively, this work contributes to the EGSnrc gold standard Monte Carlo code and to the evolving field of clinical reference dosimetry in magnetic fields.
    Thesis Degree:
    Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Physics
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Google, Grandfathers and God(s): Nietzsche and Plato on Ancestral Authority

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Freamo, Janice Lynn
    Abstract:
    The ever-changing technological landscape is shifting generational patterns of authority. Authority is grounded in knowledge. Knowledge—technical, moral, or otherwise— commonly proceeds from an older generation to a younger one. This is changing. Younger generations in the Western world are posing their questions to Google rather than Grandpa, or God. Such challenges to the hierarchy of generational knowledge are not entirely novel though. The history of Western political thought suggests that they are telling indicators of impending political change.The study engages two examples, one in Nietzsche ("Second Treatise" of On the Genealogy of Morality) and one in Plato ("Book One" of The Republic), wherein lapsed generational authority is discussed alongside the topic of justice. Both authors proceed from a definition of justice associated with ancestral authority and described in the language of debt and credit. Justice is what is owed to one's ancestors. Ancestral knowledge provides the first codification of duties. It is the first sense of law. It describes a clear division between the ruler (to whom one's obligations are due) and the ruled.To date, the vast literature on these authors has not yet considered how the precise concept of ancestral authority informs the political meaning of their works. This is particularly the case for Nietzsche. The contest that he invokes with Plato, his philosophical ancestor, requires meditation on the significance of this idea. This comparative analysis meets this objective in two ways. First, it analyzes the selections to understand what happens politically and philosophically when the primary direction of intergenerational education changes. Second, it proposes that Nietzsche's politics of cultural formation should be understood as a non-nostalgic recovery of ancestral authority. This concept is central in Nietzsche's understanding of the shift from kinship-based models of justice to what he calls in §12 of the Second Treatise, "misarchism" or the "democratic idiosyncrasy" of being against the idea of rule itself. His account of justice describes the theological conditions that informed the shift from tribalism to universalism in the West, and by this account, he forces an assessment of the limits of overwriting the grandfathers' generational knowledge.
    Thesis Degree:
    Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Political Science
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Trading Frames: Interface Operations and Social Exchanges in Video Games

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Benn, Adam Michael
    Abstract:
    This dissertation examines trade affordances across three different video games and one novel: The Realm Online (1995), World of Warcraft (2004), Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (2012), and Neal Stephenson's Reamde (2011). By trade affordances, I refer to those interfaces which facilitate the transition of digital items from one player to another. While the study of online economies has an established history, the broader social impact of trade affordances remains largely unexplored despite their ubiquity. I align these aforementioned video games with an increasing automation of trade practices within contemporary multi-user online games, as well as the growing relationship between online and offline economies. In order to demonstrate these connections, I provide a summary of early trade practices collected through blogs, playthroughs, developer notes, patches, and other ethnographic sources such as interviews and forum posts. After describing these trade practices, I survey key economic, ethical, political, and social theories relevant to the act of trading and consuming in online spaces. My critique is influenced by autonomist Marxist theory regarding the automation of work and the cycles of struggle central to the relationship between labour and capital. This positions my dissertation in relation to other game studies scholars who have assessed the relationship between play and labour in video games, such as Nick Dyer-Witherford, Alexander Galloway, and McKenzie Wark. I contend that trade in online games is an increasingly capitalized act reflective of conditions of capital outside the games. In order to demonstrate this phenomenon, I provide close readings of the previously mentioned video games and novel, as well as two single-player games that directly critique the relationship between trade, capital, and play.
    Thesis Degree:
    Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    English
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Improving Dialog Systems Using Knowledge Graph Embeddings

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Carignan, Brian
    Abstract:
    Dialog systems are systems or applications intended to converse with a human user. Recent dialog systems have employed the sequence-to-sequence framework to treat conversation as a translation problem, translating from question to answer in an open-domain. Knowledge graph embedding started as a way to scale question answering to a large, open-domain dataset without the use of hand-crafted rules. This thesis seeks to connect the two, by converting knowledge graph embeddings to word embeddings and evaluating the resulting dialog models.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Computer Science (M.C.S.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Computer Science
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Executive (In) Decision? Explaining Delays in Canada's Defence Procurement System, 2006-2015

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Collins, Jeffrey
    Abstract:
    This dissertation asks how delays in Canada's defence procurement system can be explained. In answering this question, the hypothesis tested is that of the 'political executive'; the political body composed of the prime minister, cabinet and their advisors who sit at the apex of the federal government. With final decision-making powers over defence policy and budgets, the political executive has been inferred in existing scholarship as a decisive factor in delaying Major Crown Projects (MCPs) from moving through the procurement process but this has never been the subject to a scholarly analysis. Three other independent variables commonly identified in the literature as causing procurement delays were tested alongside the political executive: (1) the defence procurement bureaucracy; (2) the defence industry; (3) and Canada's military alliances and involvement in the Afghanistan war (2001-2014). Delays are treated as the dependent variable and are defined as a MCP not meeting its original planned project milestone dates. The dissertation relied upon four case studies in performing this analysis: The Joint Support Ships, the Medium Support Vehicle System - Standard Military Patter trucks, the Fixed-Wing Search and Rescue aircraft, and the Halifax-class Modernization/Frigate Life Extension. All four trace their beginnings to the Liberal governments of Jean Chrétien (1993-2003) and Paul Martin (2003-2006), but it was under the Stephen Harper Conservative government (2006-2015) that all were adopted into that government's procurement plans and it is in this period where delays occurred, for the first three case studies, and where apparent success was established with the fourth, the Halifax-class Modernization. (The first three case studies all experienced delays and are anywhere from seven to fourteen years behind their original schedule.) Relying upon process-tracing and the bureaucratic politics framework, this research concluded with a hypothesis not completely proven: the political executive can partly account for delays by not establishing clear policy guidance and governance models before a MCP reaches the project definition stage; however, a complete accounting for procurement delays is not possible without factoring in at least one the three independent variables, especially the defence procurement bureaucracy.
    Thesis Degree:
    Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Political Science
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Tax Policy and Public Financial Management Architecture in Transitional States

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Khujamkulov, Ismoil
    Abstract:
    This dissertation explores three sets of relationships in the context of transitional states: (i) institutions and tax revenues, (ii) economic growth and tax structures, and (iii) the advice of international organizations and the implementation of PFM reform. It consists of three core chapters.Employing panel data, Chapter 2 addresses a central question: does the quality of institutions affect tax revenue in lower-middle income transition countries? It presents an analysis of the role of institutions, measured by shadow economy, corruption, regulatory quality, government effectiveness and rule of law in determining the level of tax effort, as measured by the tax-to-GDP ratio. By tracing the origins of the tax systems in targeted countries since the fall of the Berlin Wall, Chapter 2 analyses the available data and relates the results to recent literature. It finds that the most likely causes of insufficient tax revenue stem from the low-quality institutions, specifically, the increased share of the shadow economy and level of corruption.Chapter 3 employs panel data from a sample of transitional countries over the period 1991-2015. It finds that, in a particular transitional country, the higher the rate of economic growth, the higher the ratio of taxes to GDP. Moreover, economic growth, as measured by GDP per capita growth, among other pertinent variables, leads to changes in the tax structure. The findings also indicate that determining the causes of change in the composition of tax revenue during the course of economic development is helpful in creating a more effective tax revenue mix in transition economies.Chapter 4 suggests that while international organizations facilitate the process of PFM reform in context of a specific transition country, and seem to be credible partners of local government in pursuing such reform, not all their advice has been implemented or implemented successfully. It finds that with the pace of implementing reform being slow, borrowed institutions based on international best practice are not always effective in improving the country's PFM systems. These findings are built upon the evidences from a review of policy documents, results of the PEFA assessment, and a survey among practitioners, officials and donors.
    Thesis Degree:
    Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Public Policy
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Growth or Decay - Replacing Pickering's Aged Nuclear Reactors

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Hann, Kelly Alexander
    Abstract:
    Nuclear power plants have existed for around 60 years. Even now, following the Fukushima Daiichi Plant meltdown, they continue to be constructed; leading to the possibility of further nuclear calamity. In the event of a disaster, the resulting nuclear fallout zone can span distances of more than 30 km; but what happens to the facilities that are lucky enough to reach the end of their lifespan? What will become of all the aged nuclear facilities? As the world begins to understand the importance of looking towards renewable energy sources, there are still those that cling to the idea that nuclear energy is the answer, even here in Canada.How can decommissioned nuclear power plants provide opportunities for renewable growth?
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Architecture (M.Arch.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Architecture
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Alkylresorcinol in Portulaca Oleracea (Purslane) Seeds as a New Source of Dietary Phenolic Lipid

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Behzad-Poor, Diba
    Abstract:
    This study identified, quantified and optimized extraction of alkylresorcinol within Portulaca oleracea (purslane) seeds. Supercritical fluid extraction yielded the highest amount of alkylresorcinols at 577.9mg/100g of DM. ORAC, TPC and DPPH inhibition assays assessed antioxidant capacity resulting in values of 136.1 8.72 μmol TE/g, 7.67 0.64 mg GAE/g and 14.5 1.02 %, respectively. Rancimat analysis of purslane-enhanced margarine increased induction time from 1.18h to 2.00h while various alkylresorcinol homologues performed at 10.98 - 12.80h. Microscopy and HPLC analysis revealed homologue C17 to exhibit the highest percent incorporation within a polycarbonate membrane (23.2%) and C19 exhibited the highest percent permeability (95.8%). Microscopy revealed formation of crystal structures in margarine and chocolate supplemented with alkylresorcinol and purslane seed extract. These findings confer alkylresorcinol and purslane seeds as valuable compounds that may be used as a nutraceutical, natural preservative and source of crystalline structure in manufactured food.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Science (M.Sc.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Chemistry
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Rob "Fresh I.E." Wilson: A Socio-analysis of Musical Self-Transformation

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Klassen, Aaron
    Abstract:
    Music is a self-transformative process, practice and ethic. The co-mediation of music and the self represents an assemblage of distinct yet simultaneously occurring parts where contradictions can exist alongside their more pragmatic uses. In this dissertation, I note such an assemblage in the case of Rob "Fresh I.E." Wilson. Wilson's case provides a striking example of musical self-transformation in that his biography follows a trajectory from abusive conditions in Winnipeg's infamous North End during the 1970s, and a life centered around drugs and pimping in the 1990s, to its lyrical renunciation according to his newfound beliefs as he converted his hip-hop to Christianity and joined the ranks of Grammy nominees in 2003 and 2005. Yet music was not all good for Rob. Despite fame and influence, by the end of the decade, he was overwhelmed by the demands of a grueling tour schedule and the pressure to remain relevant. His rising self-doubt pushed him to suicidal ideation. And yet, despite successfully restructuring his musical practice, now independent of the music industry, Rob's Christian-themed hip-hop still situates him between the rock of the institutional church and the hard place of having to constantly build a following. The constantly evolving nature of the contemporary Christian music industry and hip-hop's unique conditions in Canada, combined with the church's refusal to accept hip-hop as a legitimate mode of worship and Rob's refusal to leave, creates a distinct set of challenges.In this dissertation, I use ethnographic research methods to explore the ways in which Wilson negotiates such challenges. I employ biographical methods to trace his present practice to the conditions of his formative and educational years. Not to limit this study to my case's word alone, I use historical methods to trace the trans-national links between Rob and hip-hop as it has become institutionalized, and before that, to its roots in African American religious musical practices since modern slavery. Finally, I use critical social theory to assess the significance of Rob's musical self-practice to himself and his scene, within the whole of the cultural realm.
    Thesis Degree:
    Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Sociology
    Date Created:
    2018

  • The Role of First Language (L1) in the Second Language (L2) Classroom: The Case of Jordanian Public Schools

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Algazo, Muath
    Abstract:
    This exploratory sequential mixed methods study sheds light on the role of first language (L1) in the second language (L2) classroom. The study explored Jordanian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers' (N=7) attitudes toward using Arabic (L1) to teach English (L2) and the perceived functions and/or negative ramifications of such use. It additionally investigated 104 Grades 10 and 11 students' beliefs regarding their teachers' use of L1. The study found that EFL teachers were aware of the importance of minimizing the amount of L1 use which was influenced by the type of lesson and the proficiency level of students. The study suggests that teachers used L1 to achieve six functions in the classroom, but they also believed that L1 overuse may limit L2 development, and it may also have negative affective ramifications. The students' beliefs regarding their teachers' reasons for using the L1 were in line with the teachers'.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Arts (M.A.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Applied Linguistics and Discourse Studies
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Centrifuge Modeling of Lateral-Axial Oblique Loading on Buried Pipelines in Cohesionless Soil

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Marcotte, Gabrielle
    Abstract:
    A series of reduced scale physical tests to investigate oblique load effects, in the lateral-axial plane, on a buried pipe in cohesionless soil were completed with a rigid 46 mm diameter pipe. The pipe was buried at two burial depths, H/D of 2 and 4, and was tests at 5 different angles between 0 degrees (pure axial) and 90 degrees (pure lateral). The shallow pipe modeled a 304mm pipeline and the deeper pipe modeled a 609.5 mm pipeline. Failure surfaces for the yield load and mobilization distances were established and compared with previous physical tests and numerical simulations of oblique loading events. It was found that the results were in line with previous reduced scale tests but closer to the results expected based on the ALA guidelines.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Engineering, Civil
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Testing the Boundaries of Employer-Driven Agricultural Migration: Privatization and the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, 2002-2011

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Miller, Christopher
    Abstract:
    The recent growth of Canada's Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) parallels the international trend toward the revival of guestworker programs. This growth, however, is simply the most visible sign of a fundamental restructuring of the institutional framework that governs the program. This shift is rooted in a broader transformation of the political economy of the Canadian state that has resulted in a new form of migration control, one which embodies the logic and practices of neoliberalism - a paradigm revolving around the privatization and retrenchment of certain state functions, the globalization of markets, and the construction of economically-competitive individuals. In the context of the TFWP, this has resulted in an "offloading" of administrative functions from the federal government to third party actors, as well as the creation of a more employer-driven TFWP that is sensitive to businesses' demands for a flexible and reliable labour pool. This thesis employs a case study of the TFWP's agricultural components during the period of 2002 until 2011, drawing in large part on federal ministerial documentation obtained through the Access to Information Act. It questions why this era of increasing privatization reversed course and culminated in the creation of a new government program, the Agricultural Stream. The analysis pursued in this study indicates that while there are certain roles and functions concerning the recruitment of migrant labour that the Canadian state has undoubtedly vacated, it has nevertheless adopted a new, active role that involves mitigating the unintended consequences of privatized migration control as a means of supporting the continued viability of the TFWP. This effort drove the creation of Agricultural Stream, which replaced a legally-embattled "privatized" guestworker program developed by the International Organization for Migration on behalf of the Quebec growers' association FERME and the government of Guatemala. This countertrend should caution against conflating neoliberalism and privatization or accepting the two as necessarily harmonious, suggesting that movements towards privatization become vulnerable and subject to reversal should they pose complications for employers. This in turn stresses a reading of both the "ideal" and "practice" of neoliberalism as it concerns privatized migration control.
    Thesis Degree:
    Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Political Science
    Date Created:
    2018

  • A Character Formula for the Sidelnikov-Lempel-Cohn-Eastman Sequences

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Millar, Goldwyn
    Abstract:
    We obtain a formula expressing the character values of the almost difference sets associated with the Sidelnikov-Lempel-Cohn-Eastman (SLCE) sequences in terms of certain Jacobi sums. As a result, we are able to obtain new insight into the pseudo-randomness properties of the SLCE sequences.We consider the problem of determining maximal sets of shift-inequivalent decimations of SLCE sequences, or rather the equivalent problem of determining the multiplier groups of the SLCE almost difference sets. Using our character formula in conjunction with some tools from algebraic number theory (such as Stickelberger's Theorem) we obtain a numerical necessary condition for a residue to be a multiplier of an SLCE almost difference set. We use this necessary condition to prove that if p is a prime congruent to 3 modulo 4, the multiplier group of an SLCE almost difference set over the prime field of order p must be trivial. Consequently, we obtain families of shift-inequivalent decimations of SLCE sequences.We also consider the problem of determining the linear complexity of the SLCE sequences. Due to certain technical considerations, this problem is rather difficult and has resisted the efforts of a number of mathematicians over the past 15 years. Making use of our character formula together with explicit evaluations of Jacobi sums in the pure and small index cases, we obtain new upper bounds on the linear complexity of these sequences.
    Thesis Degree:
    Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Mathematics
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Organizing Aid: Exploring Aid Agency Structure and Change Across OECD-DAC Donors

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Calleja, Rachael M.
    Abstract:
    This study provides the first systematic inquiry into the determinants of aid agency structure and change across the five organizational models used by OECD-DAC donors from 1962-2015. In recent years, several donors have reorganized their bilateral aid agencies, sparking debate on the efficacy of different organizational models. Despite such interest, little is known about aid agency structure and the reasons why donors adopt various organizational models and engage in organizational change.This study develops a multidisciplinary theoretical framework for understanding the factors that contribute to the choice of aid agency structure and change. Using a mixed-method, sequential explanatory research design, this framework is tested in two parts. First, this study conducts a multinomial logit and rare-events logit estimation to identify the main determinants of aid agency structure and change across all OECD-DAC donors since the emergence of aid programs. Using a unique dataset, I find that the purpose of aid programs, political ideology of donor governments, size and structural factors contribute to the choice of aid agency structure, while changes in ODA budget size and structural changes within donors typically precede organizational change. Second, findings from the quantitative analysis are supplemented with six in-depth case studies, which explore organizational choices and changes in Ireland, Iceland, the Netherlands, Australia, Japan and Germany. Building on results from the prior section, the case studies highlight the importance of political factors, administrative efficiency, and substantive purposes as determinants of structural choice and change.A key finding from this thesis is that the size of aid agencies influences structural choice and change through efficiency, showing that smaller donors have tended to adopt, and may be better suited, to merged organizational models. This finding represents a first step towards identifying optimal organizational models based on donor characteristics and has the potential to inform the organizational decisions of new and current OECD-DAC members. Overall, this study sheds light on the concept of aid agency structure and provides a starting point for future analysis.
    Thesis Degree:
    Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    International Affairs
    Date Created:
    2018

  • The Role of Background Bacteria in Preventing the Isolation and Detection of Shigella and STEC in Foods and Novel MuSIC ddPCR Method to Improve STEC Detection in the Presence of Background Bacteria

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    McMahon, Tanis
    Abstract:
    Foodborne illness caused by Enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) and Shigella remain a public health issue in developed countries. The current microbiological methods for detecting EHEC and Shigella typically involve an enrichment step that aims to amplify the pathogenic organisms relative to the background bacteria flora present in foods. Following enrichment, there is a screening step to identify pathogens based on presence of virulence genes (ex. stx and eae for EHEC). False-positive detection of EHEC can occur if virulence targets are present within the population of bacteria found in foods, but not in any single organism. In this study, a Multiplexed Single Intact Cell ddPCR (MuSIC ddPCR) was developed to reduce the false-positives in the EHEC method. During enrichment, EHEC and Shigella are often outcompeted by non-target bacteria. The role of microbial antagonism of non-target bacteria in preventing growth of EHEC and Shigella in enrichment culture was also investigated.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Science (M.Sc.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Biology
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Photographs in Two Works of Life Writing: L’Afrique fantôme by Michel Leiris and L’Africain by J.-M.G Le Clezio

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Rushton, Matthew Daniel
    Abstract:
    This dissertation looks at the role of photographs in two works of autobiographical, travel-based life writing. Michel Leiris' 1934 travel diary, L'Afrique fantôme features 31 ethnographic photographs taken during a French ethnographic expedition that crossed sub-Saharan Africa at the beginning of the 1930s. J.-M.G. Le Clézio's 2004 memoir L'Africain includes 15 photographs taken by his father, a British medical doctor stationed in remote areas of Cameroon and Nigeria in the 1930s and 1940s. What brings these works together in this research has surprisingly little to do with the readily apparent commonalities in subject matter between the two photo sets—peoples and places of the African continent during the high colonial period. Rather, we focus here on text-image relationships, examining how, in each case, the photographs aremade to be autobiographical. Taking an intermedial approach to literary studies that raises the photographs up from a subordinate illustrative function, we consider the primarily textual operations that, in plays of meaning and intention, work to appropriate and incorporate into these texts photographs that can be resistant or disruptive to those efforts. Our readings of these works contribute new insight into the use and function of photographs in life writing.
    Thesis Degree:
    Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Cultural Mediations
    Date Created:
    2018

  • An Emerging, Post-Neoliberal Power: The Practice of Brazilian South-South Cooperation in Haiti

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Pickup, Megan
    Abstract:
    This study examines the practice of Brazil's humanitarian and development cooperation with Haiti. Brazil is one of several "emerging donors" to have significantly increased their provision of development cooperation over the past decade as part of broader shifts in global political economy, raising questions as to how cooperation functions in terms of these powers' broader foreign policy objectives. The dissertation situates the question in literature that asks why states are motivated to provide development cooperation, how cooperation impacts recipient states, and expectations for the foreign policy behaviour of emerging countries in general, and for Brazil specifically. The project is based on extensive fieldwork carried out in Brazil and Haiti with 57 individuals and groups in Portuguese, French, and English, as well as Kreyól (with the assistance of an interpreter).In contrast to the current treatment of the objectives of a state in providing development cooperation, which remains focused on Western powers, I demonstrate empirically how cooperation has supported Brazil as a specifically "post-neoliberal" emerging power (meaning an interventionist state committed to balancing market concerns with other social, political and economic objectives). I argue that Brazilian cooperation has been positively received by Haitian authorities, resulting in clear (albeit short-term) political gains, mainly because of Brazil's commitment to capacity-building through direct engagement with Haitian officials. However, in approaching aid as a practice, I further conclude that the features of cooperation and the Haitian state's response are inexplicable without a post-colonial interpretation that recognizes Brazil's desire to position itself as an alternative to the West and Haiti's consistent and problematic treatment as "fragile" in its traditional aid relations. I develop the concept of "post-colonial practice" to acknowledge how emergent forms of South-South cooperation occur in this broader, post-colonial context. This approach forges links between material and ideational contributions in IR, especially from critical political economy and post-colonial work (as well as post-development).
    Thesis Degree:
    Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Political Science
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Stratigraphy, Sedimentology, and Diagenesis of Ordovician Outliers, Northern Ottawa–Bonnechere Graben, Central Ontario

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Kang, He
    Abstract:
    Several Ordovician outliers along or near the northern Ottawa-Bonnechere graben are bounded by Precambrian rocks of the Canadian Shield; however, they are remnants of a once expansive Late Ordovician phase of the St. Lawrence Platform extending into the craton interior. Integrating litho-, bio-, and chemostratigraphic evidence, four outliers (Deux Rivières, Brent Crater, Cedar Lake, and Manitou Islands) preserve Turinian strata, whereas Owen Quarry outlier preserves lower Chatfieldian strata. Each outlier documents a unique depositional succession but commonly records shallow-water depositional environments during net transgression. Limestone diagenesis occurs in the surface marine, shallow-burial, and deep-burial zones. Dolomite shows basement-related, stratabound, and fault/fracture-related spatial distributions. Combining petrological and isotopic (C, O, Sr) evidence, early-stage dolomitization may be related to Mg derived from marine or meteoric waters whereas late-stage dolomitization, including hydrothermal saddle dolomite, likely involves brines that migrated along Paleozoic-Precambrian boundary, then refocused along vertical faults and fractures.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Science (M.Sc.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Earth Sciences
    Date Created:
    2018

  • A CNN Based Method for Brain Tumor Detection

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Wang, Heng
    Abstract:
    The thesis presents a new method of brain tumor detection and localization by using image segmentation and convolution neural network. In order to ensure the quality of the medical images, there are several image preprocessing techniques applied, which include the procedure of removing the noise and non-brain tissue and enhancing the contrast. By using active contour for segmentation, the tumor area is separated from the image as its energy appears different in pixels and the feature extraction reveals the mathematical properties of the tumor.After the tumor localization, the target regions are imported into to the CNN and CNN classifies them into categories based on the training results from the learning procedure. This thesis uses the 4-fold cross validation for result testing. With over 80% accuracy, the CNN shows great potential in tumor detection. In addition, this thesis covers the section of how parameter settings influencing the CNN performance.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Engineering, Electrical and Computer
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Government Structure and Equity in Access to Psychotherapy: A Study of Canada, with Comparisons to Australia and the United Kingdom

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Bartram, Mary Holliday
    Abstract:
    Gaps in mental health funding and insurance coverage have resulted in significant unmet need and inequities in access. Both Australia and the United Kingdom have expanded public funding for psychotherapy over the past decade, and it remains to be seen how far the new federal transfer of $5 billion over ten years will go toward improving equity in access in Canada.This four-paper dissertation examines how the exclusion of psychotherapy came about in Canada and why it has persisted, the extent to which access currently depends on how rich or poor you are, and what could be done to change this in the Canadian context in light of lessons learned from Australia and the United Kingdom.The first paper analyses parliamentary debates to trace the role of Canada's decentralized government structure in constraining federal transfers. The evidence suggests that Canada's decentralized form of government has been at the heart of its inability thus far to introduce significant reforms. The primary contribution of other factors (such as stigma and cost) has been their influence over whether or not mental health has been enough of a national priority to warrant the use of federal spending power.The second and third papers are large-N studies using data from Canadian and Australia population health surveys to measure the extent to which access to psychotherapy and other mental health services varies by income. Income-based inequities in utilization and unmet need are found to be significant problems in Canada, particularly for psychologist services. In Australia, inequities in utilization is found to be less of a concern than in Canada, but unmet need for psychotherapy is more inequitable, suggesting a possible backlog effect with the expansion of public funding in 2006.The fourth paper uses interviews with key informants in Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada to delve more deeply into the relationship between government structure, service system design and equity in access to psychotherapy. The key finding is that, while more centralized governments have greater capacity for reform, achieving equity in access requires explicit focus regardless of government structure, service system design or social insurance model.
    Thesis Degree:
    Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Public Policy
    Date Created:
    2018

  • "Pin the Macho on the Man": Mediations of Gay Male Masculinity in 'The Body Politic', 1971-1987

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Hrynyk, Nicholas
    Abstract:
    As the largest Canadian gay and lesbian newspaper from 1971 to 1987, The Body Politic not only shaped the political landscape of gay liberation but also mediated understandings and assumptions around gay male masculinity. The editorial collective behind The Body Politic addressed masculinity in myriad ways, sometimes directly in editorials on gender and sexuality, but more often indirectly as part of discussions around race, desire, the body, space, and HIV/AIDS. In doing so, The Body Politic served an important role in mediating the gendered, racial, sexual, and spatial politics of desire and identity in Toronto's gay male community. The newspaper was an important interactive platform for collective members and readers alike to explore and express apprehensions around heteronormative, ableist, and racial influences on gay male masculinity as a performative style.This dissertation thematically examines masculinity in The Body Politic. Each chapter focuses on a different topic: pornography and visual culture, the hypersexualized white able-bodied "macho clone," the navigation of space and place, the inscription of colonial values of effeminancy or hypermasculinity on racialized bodies, and the marginalization of disabled bodies and bodies debilitated by AIDS that did not "perform" a sexualized idea of masculinity. By visualizing gay masculinity in particular and often contradictory ways, The Body Politic reinforced and challenged the self-regulation of hegemonic masculinity in gay male culture. My analysis of The Body Politic reveals that not only were the aesthetics of gay male masculinity fundamental to the politics of desire and liberation within the gay male community, but that the newspaper played an important part in legitimizing and destabilizing these desires.
    Thesis Degree:
    Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    History
    Date Created:
    2018

  • A Nation Sings Itself: São Paulo Voices and the Canons of Brazilian Song

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Beausoleil-Morrison, Rachel Chantal
    Abstract:
    A Nation Sings Itself: São Paulo voices and the canons of Brazilian song Música popular brasileira (or MPB) is a category of music that holds a particular stature in Brazilian culture, between pop and classical. Although the criteria and definition of MPB have changed since the first use of the term in the 1960s, there nevertheless remains a set of core values that pertain to this music. MPB is foremost a national category of urban popular music that is said to be 'of quality' (i.e. has artistic value), and not primarily motivated by commercial interests. It includes many genres and musical movements, most of which consist of singing with accompaniment; for instance bossa nova, samba, jovem guarda (young guard), Vanguarda paulista (São Paulo Vanguard) can now all be considered MPB. This dissertation focuses on the intérpretes, or the vocal component, of the composer- centred practice of MPB, addressing questions of subjectivity and authorship. This leads us to examine pertinent issues that permeate the topic, such as gendering, racialization and class distinctions. A vast majority of singers in MPB are women, while composers are mostly men. Focusing on the lead singing role affords us the opportunity to highlight the creative input of intérpretes, as co-creators in the realm of Brazilian song, and to explore the ways in which the Canon of Brazilian popular music is constructed. It also allows us to call attention to the criteria, or canons, that comprise this music. This interdisciplinary ethnographic study of São Paulo MPB singers shows that there is no singular 'way' that can be called 'Brazilian singing', but rather ways that are associated with different cultural groups within Brazil. The roles in MPB are largely siloed along gendered and racialized lines. My analysis concludes that MPB is a middle-brow concert music that is mapped as national, providing a symbol of national identity that is passed to subsequent generations via various canonizing forces, especially the educational system.
    Thesis Degree:
    Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Cultural Mediations
    Date Created:
    2018

  • The Pains of Jail Imprisonment: Experiences at The Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    McKendy, Laura
    Abstract:
    Canadian jails are increasingly being used to hold pre-trial rather than sentenced prisoners. In fact, a growing number of individuals are serving a significant portion of their sentence by way of banked remand credit (Deshman and Myers 2014). This temporal reconfiguration has important implications for the very nature of 'punishment,' yet studies of jail experiences remain scarce within penal scholarship (Irwin 1985; Welch 1999; Walker 2014; Griffin 2006). This dissertation explores the experiences of men and women who spent time as a pre-trial and/or sentenced prisoner at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre (OCDC), a notorious jail located in Canada's capital city. Employing Sexton's 'subjective' conceptualization of punishment, and drawing on interviews conducted with 33 participants, I consider how prisoners define, perceive and respond to conditions at OCDC. Prisoners' accounts reveal that much of what is experienced as 'punishment' in the jail context relates to unintended yet profound forms of physical and symbolic harm (Sexton 2015). Central to prisoners' accounts were the pains of 'warehouse' living, guard-prisoner dynamics, medical mistreatment and health damage. The emphasis on such pains illustrates not only the salience of 'unintended' harms (Sexton 2015), but the extent to which the body remains implicated in the experience of punishment. Interestingly, these pains were not necessarily ameliorated by the social world produced by prisoners, as Sykes (1958) observed in his classic study. Instead, the institutional dynamics of the jail gave way to a culture marked by tension, mistrust and violence, while also impairing the ability of individuals to imbue the carceral experience with counter-punitive meaning. Prisoners' resistant efforts both in and outside of the jail walls, however, point the dialectical nature of power, or the ways in which objects of power can react in ways that undermine its purported objectives (Foucault 1977).
    Thesis Degree:
    Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Sociology
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Improving Real Time Tuning on YARN

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Navarro Belmonte, Victor Pablo
    Abstract:
    Big data is becoming a significant part of the operations of modern organizations. Performing analysis of large amounts of data requires computer clusters to run the calculations and analysis. YARN is an internal framework that is responsible for coordinating big data jobs for some popular distributed storage and processing frameworks like Hadoop and Spark. Running YARN with the correct configuration parameters is critical for the good performance of a cluster. KERMIT is an online tuner of YARN configuration parameters that aims to improve cluster performance. The first KERMIT implementation proved the feasibility of the concept. In this study we modified the tuning algorithms inside the KERMIT components; by doing so, we achieved a reduction in the execution time as compared to industry benchmarks for a shallow tuning technique. We also verified that KERMIT can tune Spark; this suggests that Kermit could be used in other YARN-based frameworks.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Computer Science (M.C.S.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Computer Science
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Simple Cross-Layer Network Utility Maximization Framework for Multiflow Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Alhosainy, Ammar Mottie
    Abstract:
    Efficiently using the network resources of Mobile Ad-hoc NETworks (MANETs) is challenging. The absence of a centralized administration leads to a congestion problem (Transport layer). The flows are usually routed through shortest routes, typically through the same central part of the network (Network layer). Communicating via shared wireless links raises a contention problem (MAC layer). Multi-hop transmissions cause flows not only to interfere with each other, but also with themselves.We focus on jointly solving the contention and congestion distributed control problem in a bounded queue MANETs. The resulting flow rates satisfy fairness criteria according to a given Network Utility Maximization (NUM) function. In recent years a number of papers have presented solutions to the same problem based on NUM algorithms. However, this work typically necessitates either complex computations, heavy signaling/control overhead, and/or approximated sub-optimal results. In this work, we employ and adapt the IEEE 802.11 protocol in the NUM with a simple and efficient queue management mechanism. Unlike the majority of the published work in this area, we focus on the feasibility of the proposed solution in case of random static and mobile networks considering the overheads and the signaling methods.We propose a novel algorithm that jointly solves the congestion, multipath routing, and contention distributed control problem for MANETs. The objective is to find the end-to-end optimal source rates at the transport layer, sub-flow rates for each path of the multipath sessions at the network layer, and persistence probability at the MAC layer. The primal problem formulation is a non-convex, non-separable NUM optimization. By introducing new variables, applying certain transformations, and using an analogy based on Ohm's law, we develop a distributed algorithm that can find the optimal solution for general concave utility functions.The algorithms are implemented in NS-3 and evaluated against non-idealistic scenarios, i.e. link failures, message losses, asynchronous updates, and with the presence of inaccurate topology information. We evaluate the overhead and signaling associated with the algorithms quantitatively and qualitatively and provide absolute gain values. The results show that the proposed algorithms significantly outperforms layered approaches, using standard protocols such as TFRC.
    Thesis Degree:
    Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Engineering, Electrical and Computer
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Pursuing Equity to Combat Fragmentation in the Home Care Sector: A Study of Using Integrated Care Programs to Deliver Health and Social Care to Elderly Persons Living at Home

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Kehoe MacLeod, Krystal J.
    Abstract:
    Integrated care programs (ICPs) deliver care that is coordinated across carers, care sites, and support systems; continuous over time and between visits; tailored to clients' expressed needs and preferences; and based on shared responsibility for optimizing health among clients, carers, and the state. This research asks how ICPs combat issues of fragmentation in a home care sector fundamentally reshaped by neoliberalism. Using a post-positivist epistemological approach, I collect and analyze data from government documents, NGO reports, scholarly literature, and 117 interviews with program administrators, paid and unpaid carers, and elderly clients in five Canadian ICPs working in the home care sector. These include Aging in Place in Ottawa, Ontario; SMILE in South Eastern Ontario; Carefirst in Scarborough, Ontario; CHOICE in Edmonton, Alberta; and Hope Home Health in Hope, British Columbia. My central argument is that ICPs are most useful as a policy solution to fragmented home care when they use policy techniques that promote equitable processes and outcomes as opposed to focusing on enhancing cost-efficiencies for the state. To understand the interrelations among fragmentation, efficiency, equality, and equity, I use a Feminist Political Economy theoretical framework to assess the gendered, classed and racialized impacts of the policy techniques used by ICPs. By looking at which groups are affected through their involvement in ICPs, in what ways, and under what conditions, I find that policy techniques aimed at achieving cost savings for the state often increase inequality/inequity between, and among, clients and carers. Increasing inequality/inequity increases fragmentation. In contrast, ICPs that use policy techniques that challenge neoliberal ways of working often promote equality/equity as their primary policy goal. These techniques help mitigate fragmentation. Understanding if, how and why ICPs meet the expressed needs of clients and carers in different contexts is essential for program administrators looking to improve their programs, as well as for the clients and carers involved in the daily relations of home care. Knowing that ICPs are most useful as a policy solution to fragmented home care when they promote equitable processes and outcomes gives a clear direction for future reforms that can benefit clients and carers alike.
    Thesis Degree:
    Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Public Policy
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Painting Pasts and Futures: Transitional Justice, Museums, and Aesthetic Interruptions

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    MacLellan, Tiffany
    Abstract:
    Stories about political transformation often suggest that a political community must acknowledge and grapple with its difficult past in order to move on to a sunnier future. This thesis explores the problems and possibilities of this narrative as projected in both transitional justice theory and the museum.Several theorists in the field of transitional justice, like Ruti Teitel, Mark Osiel, and Kathryn Sikkink, organize moments of mass atrocity, transition, and the future into finite, bounded moments. By neatly confining "violence" to the past and "peace" to the future, these narratives conceptualize political communities on a clean trajectory of evolution towards democracy. As such, these theorists position criminal prosecutions, a central transitional justice mechanism, as a means through which a political community can return to, grapple with, and over-come a violent past. Here, post-war trials are figured as devices that deliver political community to a democratic order.Political and cultural theorist, Walter Benjamin, describes discursive projections premised on notions of progress as a system that restrains, disciplines, and guides political transformation. Benjamin and Jacques Derrida claim that the violence of law's imposition and conservation is obscured by these very notions of sequential temporality which establish law as the means to projected and affective ends. I take inspiration from these thinkers and argue that transitional justice theory's "ends-oriented" rhetoric permits political communities and correlative state institutions to narrate themselves away from legacies of violence, and responsibility. Further, they attempt to foreclose the notion that political transformation is infinitely on-going.Aesthetics sites, like the museum, may reaffirm the worlds crafted through transitional justice theory's organization of bounded time. As such, I examine three museum exhibitions in order to show how museums similarly organize time in a manner that confines periods of violence, transition, and democracy into bounded temporalities: "Memorium Nuremberg Trials" (Nuremberg, Germany); "The Nuremberg Trials: What is Justice?" The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (Washington DC, US), and; "On Trial: Auschwitz/Majdanek," Jewish Museum (Berlin, Germany). Yet the time of transitional justice projected in these exhibitions is not totalizing, and is infinitely vulnerable to spatial, material, and aesthetic disruption.
    Thesis Degree:
    Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Legal Studies
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Youth Clubs as Men/Women Caves: Exploring an Emerging Muslim Youth Subculture Creating a New Canadian Religious Identity

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Mohammadi, Fatemeh
    Abstract:
    Second-generation immigrants in Canada are torn between different identities. Young Canadian Muslims on the one hand need to deal with their Islamic culture and on the other hand they are in constant interaction with Canadian culture. My doctoral research focuses on religious identities of second-generation Muslim youth living in Canada. I explore the understudied issue of intergenerational divide within the Muslim community. The intergenerational divide becomes obvious in the recent development of Muslim Canadian youth clubs, which are founded, and run by youths themselves. I examine the cultural, social and religious characteristics or drivers that are creating these kinds of formal/informal institutions as well as the challenges that these youths face in running independent programs. I participated in the programs of three of these clubs, one in Montreal and two in Ottawa, as well as conducting semi-structured interviews. By using ethnographic research, I compare and contrast the various social, cultural, institutional and financial factors associated with the clubs. This thesis examines youth clubs based on youth subcultural theories. I employ Steve Redhead's post-subcultural theory that focuses on subcultures shifting from political dimensions towards leisure. I also draw on Birmingham school's concept of resistance. I argue that in many cases Islamic centers, which have been formed and are currently run by first-generation Muslim immigrants, are not well suited to address the needs of second-generation Muslims. My research has indicated that this is one of the primary reasons for the rise of Muslim youth clubs in Canadian cities. Religious activities in the youth clubs are somehow different from the religious centers of their parents, exposing this divide in the Muslim community as never before. This dissertation examines how youth clubs are a major protective factor for youth and argues that a 'new religious youth subculture', which has its own type of style, resistance and religiosity, is emerging among second-generation Muslim youth. My ethnographic study provides insights on the subculture of these youth. Such an understanding is particularly necessary in current circumstances where intense debates concerning second-generation Muslims are arising in Canada, especially in the political sphere.
    Thesis Degree:
    Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Anthropology
    Date Created:
    2018

  • The Hidden Price Tag of “Free” Rewards: Encouraging Mundane Surveillance through Canadian Loyalty Program Advertisements

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Brown, Jacqueline Holly
    Abstract:
    The popularity of digital loyalty programs in Canada signal their ubiquity as forms of advertising used by retailers to communicate with consumers. Traditional forms of loyalty programs consisted of collectible stamps that were redeemable for rewards and free merchandise. More recent programs rely on digitization, which changes the nature of their redemption and the associated consequences for consumers. Digital loyalty programs can best be understand through themes of advertising rewards, everyday surveillance, and profiling consumers that illustrate how loyalty programs are able to influence consumer behaviour. By promoting the use of digital loyalty programs alongside ordinary products, retailers are able to create associations between the retailer, their loyalty program and the rewards that are provided in exchange for personal information. Canadians were introduced to digital programs through subtle strategies that help to mask how consumers exchange information about themselves collected through consumer tracking processes for "free" rewards.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Arts (M.A.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Communication
    Date Created:
    2018

  • On the Planning and Design Problem of Fog Networks

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Haider, Faisal
    Abstract:
    In this thesis, we propose an exact model for the planning and design problem of fog networks. The model simultaneously determines the optimal location, the capacity and the number of fog node(s) as well as the interconnection between the installed fog nodes and the cloud, while minimizing the delay in the network and the amount of traffic going to the cloud. To address this multiobjective problem, three multiobjective optimization methods are evaluated. The CPLEX solver was used to optimize the model for the three methods with different problem sizes and the results are analyzed. The results show that, as the input size increases, the delay and the traffic also increase in a linear form; whereas the solution time increases in non-polynomial time. As the model considers realistic edge device traffic parameters and constraints, it can be helpful in deploying fog networks in the current cloud computing architecture.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Engineering, Electrical and Computer
    Date Created:
    2018

  • The Analysis of Panel Data with a Flexible Frailty

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Dehghani, Parvin
    Abstract:
    Analysis of panel data under the non-homogeneous Poisson mixed process is investigated. The ordinary Poisson process model is not suitable for the analysis of count data in the presence of overdispersion. For handling the overdispersion problem, a multiplicative finite mixture of gamma distributed random effects is assigned to each individual in the model which gives a non-homogeneous Poisson mixed model. The parameter of the mixed Poisson process (baseline intensity function) is modeled by using psplines and the parameters of the model are estimated by means of the iterative Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm. The statistical properties of the proposed count model are investigated through simulation study and the model is used to analyze the Cherry Bark Tortrix Moth data.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Science (M.Sc.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Probability and Statistics
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Three Essays on Gender and Education in Canada

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Bennet, Susan Marie
    Abstract:
    In the first chapter of this dissertation, I examine the gender gap in primary school academic performance. While boys and girls have similar cognitive abilities, they are systematically assigned to different performance categories. Hypothesizing that this may be due to differences in non-cognitive skills, I construct a measure of these skills based on self-regulation and hyperactivity. Boys are reported to have lower levels of these skills, by both parents and teachers. Notably, I find that even when I have controlled for all skills, both cognitive and non-cognitive, boys are still more likely to be assigned to a lower performance category than girls.In the second chapter, I estimate a production function for grade outcomes in the final year of high school, where boys continue to lag girls.. The focus of this essay is on the contribution of differences in non-cognitive skills in explaining this gap in grade outcomes. This research finds that, even controlling for the lower level of non-cognitive skills possessed by boys, gender still plays an important role in determining the overall grade in the final year of high school. By examining the production functions for girls and boys separately, it becomes apparent that much of the difference in grade outcomes can be attributed to the difference in the likelihood of academic advancement associated with increases in skills, particularly cognitive skills.The participation rate of boys in post-secondary education lags that of girls substantially. One important factor in explaining this gender gap is high school performance, where there is a significant gender gap. However, there is substantial heterogeneity by gender in PSE participation within high school grade categories. The final chapter of this dissertation examines the interplay of gender, aspirations and skills in determining participation in post-secondary education, at ages 19 and 25, conditional on academic achievement in high school. The results of this research indicate that gender influences post-secondary education participation through a number of channels beyond high school grade. Notably, even after accounting for skills, aspirations, and high school grades, this research finds that there remains a significant role for gender.
    Thesis Degree:
    Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Economics
    Date Created:
    2018

  • From All American Girl to Fresh Off the Boat: Exploring the Relationship Between Media Representations and Identity Formation

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Lim, Pamela
    Abstract:
    When ethnic and racial groups are absent from Hollywood narratives, the subtext is they don't matter. This thesis explores how images of Asian Americans and Canadians in media are decoded for meaning and the impact of this on identity. Employing a qualitative methodology, this thesis supports the idea that the media play a significant and influential role in identity development. The findings suggest that young adults: (1) rely on stereotypes to make sense of Asian representations in media; (2) downplay the influence of media by separating racial ideology from media production, content, and consumption; and (3) struggle to understand their ethnic, racial, and national identity in the context of Canadian multiculturalism. This thesis contributes to scholarship on race, media, and Asian identity by linking changes in the culture industries to the study of media effects among Asian Canadians and by expanding the relationship between multicultural discourse and Asian Canadian identity.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Arts (M.A.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Communication
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Evaluation of a Modern Implementation of Dynamic Conformal Arc Therapy

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Venturina, Lorcel Ericka
    Abstract:
    Dynamic Conformal Arc Therapy (DCAT) is an external beam radiation therapy technique in which the cancer target is treated with the gantry head of the medical linear accelerator rotating around the patient while conforming the radiation beam to the target shape at each gantry angle. A modern implementation of DCAT (mDCAT) has recently been released, in which the dose rate can be varied and the beam can be modulated moderately. In this study, mDCAT was characterized, and its potential advantages over the most commonly used treatment techniques, namely 3DCRT and VMAT, were evaluated in terms of efficiency, quality, and robustness. Results show that plan optimization with mDCAT is two to three times more efficient than VMAT. mDCAT plan quality is midway between 3DCRT and VMAT for large targets, and is very comparable to VMAT for small targets. mDCAT and VMAT are equally robust against typical machine and patient uncertainties.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Science (M.Sc.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Physics
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Multi-Angle Spectroscopic Remote Sensing of Arctic Vegetation Biochemical and Biophysical Properties

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Kennedy, Blair Edward
    Abstract:
    Estimating the spatial distribution of foliar pigments and canopy structural components with remote sensing can serve as an important approach for monitoring plant community characteristics, as spatially explicit measurements of vegetation biochemical and biophysical variables can provide insight into ecosystem composition, processes, and/or disturbance caused by changing environmental conditions. Vegetation monitoring efforts in Arctic regions have been mostly accomplished with nadir-looking broadband instruments, thus leaving multi-angle, spectroscopic retrievals of vegetation biochemical and biophysical variables largely unexplored.Using field and spaceborne (CHRIS/PROBA) multi-angle spectroscopy, the performance of various modelling techniques was compared for retrieving biochemical and biophysical variables from tundra vegetation situated across a bioclimatic gradient in the Western Canadian Arctic. Specifically, empirically-based multi-band and predefined narrowband vegetation indices (VIs), a machine learning regression algorithm (Gaussian processes regression, GPR), and a physically-based radiative transfer model (PROSAIL) were compared for their capability of retrieving leaf chlorophyll content (LCC), plant area index (PAI), and canopy chlorophyll content (CCC) from multi-angle, multi-scale, high-resolution canopy reflectance data. Reference data for these variables were acquired through laboratory and field-scale leaf and canopy measurements.Iterative empirical models were the most effective for retrieving LCC, PAI, and CCC irrespective of view angle and spatial scale (p<0.05). GPR produced the best correlation-based modelling results (cross validated r2cv=0.59), however, a multi-band vegetation index (i.e. simple ratio, SR) was shown to provide statistically comparable results while providing a more simplistic methodological approach (r2cv=0.55). Furthermore, SR produced statistically superior (p<0.05) normalized prediction accuracies over GPR (NRMSE=0.13 vs. NRMSE=0.16). Empirically modelled band selections showed that variable covariation is an important consideration when constructing reflectance models used for vegetation variable retrievals in the Arctic, and thus it was concluded that spectroscopic remote sensing provides benefits for such tasks. The overall conclusion drawn from the compiled empirical and physical modelling results, when examined across the field and remote sensing scales, was that a multi-angle approach does not provide a statistically significant advantage over a nadir approach for retrieving LCC, PAI, or CCC in Arctic environments (p>0.05).
    Thesis Degree:
    Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Geography
    Date Created:
    2018

  • The Use of Distributed Acoustic Sensing for 4D Monitoring Using Vertical Seismic Profiles: Results from the Aquistore CO2 Storage Project

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Harris, Kyle D.
    Abstract:
    Distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) is a rapidly developing technology that employs optical fibers to detect acoustic disturbances in the subsurface. The Aquistore CO2 storage project uses time-lapse DAS VSP's to monitor injected CO2 in a deep geological reservoir (>3200 m) beneath the study site near Estevan, Saskatchewan, Canada. Reservoir monitoring is a crucial component to any geological storage project, and aims to ensure the safe and effective containment of the injected fluids, and evaluate the integrity of the storage and sealing units.An assessment of the ability of DAS VSP's to detect the CO2 response has been conducted for the Aquistore site. Prior to injection, fluid flow simulations were performed to predict CO2 distributions in the reservoir. These simulations were used to model the response of the CO2 plume in 2D time-lapse DAS VSP's. The expected responses were compared with estimates of time-lapse noise computed with field data from the baseline survey, and it was demonstrated that the plume would be visible in the reservoir after 27 kt of injection.After 36 kt of CO2 injection, the first monitor dataset was acquired. 4D VSP processing and imaging were applied to produce time-lapse difference volumes of the reservoir. Acceptable repeatability was attained, with normalized root-mean-square (nRMS) values less than 0.4 beneath the observation and injection wells. An anomaly in the lower part of the reservoir near the observation and injection wells was attributed to the replacement of brine with CO2.Updated fluid flow simulations were obtained that better replicated the injection parameters observed at the study site. Forward seismic modeling was then performed for 36 kt and 97 kt injection scenarios that reflected the 3D shot and receiver geometry in the field acquisitions. These data were processed using the same sequence applied to the field data to obtain comparable time-lapse difference volumes. Comparisons between the field and synthetic 36 kt anomalies were used to refine interpretations of the CO2 distribution in the reservoir. However, they also revealed the need to update the geological model to better reproduce the laterally asymmetric plume expansion.
    Thesis Degree:
    Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Earth Sciences
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Enhancing Energy and Spectral Efficiencies in Wireless Cellular Networks

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Sokun, Hamza
    Abstract:
    Today's wireless networks are facing crucial challenges, such as radio spectrum scarcity, and excessive energy consumption. The vision of next generation networks lies in overcoming these challenges, and providing seamless wireless communication. This thesis aims to contribute to shaping the vision of next generation networks. Specifically, the thesis investigates how to optimize various network functionalities to improve overall utilization of radio resources, and how to enhance practical significance of the radio resource allocation techniques proposed in academia.The thesis first focuses on enhancing network energy efficiency (EE) for downlink transmission of macro-only cellular networks. It develops a novel joint design that incorporates resource blocks (RBs) and discrete power levels allocations. Next, the thesis focuses on enhancing EE fairness (balancing) among individual users for uplink transmission of macro-only cellular networks. Particularly, in such networks, it considers a joint design of RBs and power levels allocations to maximize minimum individual EE. Unfortunately, both the downlink and uplink optimization problems arising from the joint designs are non-convex, and hence difficult to solve. To overcome this difficulty, the thesis reformulates the design problems in a form that is amenable to the standard semidefinite relaxation (SDR) with Gaussian randomization approach. This approach has a polynomial-time complexity, and yields a close-to-optimal performance.The thesis later shifts the focus to enhancing spectral efficiency in multi-tier heterogeneous cellular networks (HetNets). It investigates the problem of user-to-base station (BS) association in downlink transmission of HetNets. In its simplest form, this problem is nonconvex. Hence, the thesis uses the efficient two-stage SDR-based technique.The last part of the thesis considers a joint design of user-to-BS association, and RBs and power levels allocations in HetNets, allowing RBs to be reused opportunistically. The thesis discusses two network instances: with and without time-sharing. In the time-sharing case, user-to-BS association, RBs and power allocations are time-shared, and hence, not fixed throughout the signalling interval. In contrast, in the no time-sharing case, the network functionalities, once determined, are fixed throughout the signalling interval. The optimization problems in both instances are non-convex. To circumvent this difficulty, the thesis generates bounds on the solution of the original problems.
    Thesis Degree:
    Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Engineering, Electrical and Computer
    Date Created:
    2018

  • A New Variational Principle and Supercritical Semilinear Elliptic Problems

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Basiri, Maryam
    Abstract:
    Our objective in this thesis is to study semilinear elliptic partial differential equations when the nonlinearity may have supercritical Sobolev growth. We shall apply a new variational principle recently introduced in [25, 26] to prove the existence of solutions for such problems. We would like to emphasize that functionals that we are using in the new variational principle are different from the standard Euler-Lagrange functionals that are mostly used in the literature. The results in this thesis are twofold. Namely, we first prove the existence of a solution for the semilinear elliptic equations in the presence of a subsolution and a supersolution. Secondly, we consider the general case, and discuss the existence and smoothness of its solutions in a supercritcal case. We remark that the latter results are recently published in [9].
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Science (M.Sc.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Applied Mathematics
    Date Created:
    2018

  • The Complexities of Unknowns: Knowledge Contestations and Occupational Disease Recognition

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Pich, Christine
    Abstract:
    In decision-making processes, competing knowledge claims create tensions, contestations, and negotiations between various social actors in their efforts to reach a decision. While attention to questions of knowledge (such as how certain knowledge gains legitimacy and authority) are useful in examining the dimensions and stakes of knowledge contestations, broadening the analysis to consider the complex role of unknowns can provide fruitful and nuanced insights into these contestations. Through a qualitative methodological research design, in this dissertation I focus on knowledge contestations in relation to the challenges of recognizing occupational diseases in the context of the Ontario workers' compensation system. The research questions that drive this investigation are as follows: (1) how do unknowns complicate knowledge contestations, specifically those surrounding the recognition of occupational diseases; (2) how do various types of knowledges and unknowns become mobilized in these recognition processes; (3) what counts as evidence in recognition processes, and what role does evidence play in supporting various knowledge claims; and (4) how do social and political factors influence the recognition of occupational disease? In exploring these questions, I primarily draw on three theoretical resources: new materialism, sociology of knowledge, and ignorance studies. I find that multiple dimensions of unknowns play a pivotal role in knowledge contestations over occupational disease recognition. The forms that such unknowns tend to take complicate and obscure connections between occupational factors and the development of disease. The mobilization of unknowns in contestations over disease recognition presents further challenges due to conflicting economic and other interests of the various social actors involved in these decision-making processes, as well as the broader influence of the dominant biomedical model in knowledge about disease and the body.
    Thesis Degree:
    Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Sociology
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Effect of Wind in the Field of Play for Elite Sprint Kayakers

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Barber, Hali Lynn
    Abstract:
    The current thesis investigates the contribution of aerodynamic drag on a elite sprint kayakers as a factor in the outcome of a race. Field testing of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) velocity profile within the height of a kayaker is explained with results used to model ABL flow in a wind tunnel. The wind tunnel experiments measure aerodynamic drag on a 1/6 model kayaker for three inflow profiles which is then used to determine aerodynamic drag which includes the drag from non-uniform ABL winds. To evaluate the importance of aerodynamics for a K1 male kayaker, the contribution of aerodynamic drag for calm and headwind conditions is found as a percentage of overall drag. Drag coefficients, fontal area and speed profile for a specific kayaker are then used to determine a significant change in a 200 m race finish-time for changes in body-shape-driven drag coefficient and for the addition of headwinds.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Engineering, Mechanical
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Forgive Me Child for I Have Sinned: Anti-Vaxxer Folk Devil Mothers and Narratives of Redemption

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Pucci, Antonella
    Abstract:
    "Folk devils" is a term coined by Stanley Cohen (1972) to characterize social groups who come to be seen as threats to society. The concept has been theorized in many ways—from showcasing voiceless outsiders, to outspoken individuals defending themselves. The thesis troubles Cohen's original concept by showing an emerging folk devil narrative of redemption, examined through the case studies of two anti-vaxxer mothers who publically confess wrongdoing of their previous anti-vaccination stance in the media. Drawing from McAdams's (2006) theory of narrative identity, I pose critical questions of how redemption narratives not only challenge previous notions of folk devils, but also explore how they impact discourses of moral regulation. This study finds that folk devil redemption narratives illustrate identity reconstruction through the liminal state of exiting, imply self-policing mechanisms of conformity, and specifically with regard to the topic of the case studies, offer effective anecdotal strategies for vaccine promotion.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Arts (M.A.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Communication
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Local Government and Economic Development in Kazakhstan

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Junussova, Madina
    Abstract:
    The main objective of this dissertation is to understand the role of local government in economic development, with a focus on the cities and regions selected by the national government of Kazakhstan to be the drivers of national economic development by the Regional Development Program 2020. The dissertation presents three studies based on qualitative assessment of locally obtained evidence and locally produced data. The first essay examines administrative decentralization and studies how the Almaty city and Almaty region governments failed to use delegated urban planning for the management of urban development. The second essay challenges the fiscal system by exploring how the Almaty and Astana governments struggled to use national transfers provided for the implementation of national projects. The third essay focuses on political decentralization reforms and assesses the capabilities of elected representatives from Almaty, Astana, Shymkent and Aktobe city governments in managing urban transport based on public needs. Together, these three case studies provide a broader picture for understanding the productivity of the implemented administrative, fiscal and political reforms. It argues that the absence of a functioning decentralization strategy is leading to unexpected development outcomes and a lowering of public trust in local and national governments. The main contribution of the three studies is that they allow identification of key institutional weaknesses and obstacles faced by local governments in the management of local development in Kazakhstan.
    Thesis Degree:
    Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Public Policy
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Using Electrons and Photons to Estimate Passive Material Before the ATLAS Electromagnetic Calorimeter

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Hupé, André
    Abstract:
    The ATLAS detector is a large, general-purpose particle detector designed to observe high-energy particle collisions on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. This study uses electrons and photons from Run 2 proton-proton collision data (2015 - 2016) to check for differences between real and simulated detector material in the region before the first layer of the electromagnetic (EM) calorimeter. The main probe is the ratio of energies deposited in the first and second layers of the EM calorimeter.The measured material differences are compared against results from similar studies performed using Run 1 data. Deviations between Run 1 and Run 2 results are observed, primarily in regions where detector hardware was upgraded before Run 2. The material differences are well accounted for by combining the existing Run 1 material systematic uncertainties with additional Run 2 uncertainties related to the new inner tracking layer (the IBL) and the modified PP0 service region.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Science (M.Sc.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Physics
    Date Created:
    2018

  • The 1998 Canadian Bank Merger Decision and the 2008 Financial Crisis: Factual and Counterfactual Investigations

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Pringle, David John Gordon
    Abstract:
    The observed stability of large Canadian banks during the 2008 financial crisis, in contrast with several American and European counterparts, poses a puzzle. This puzzle is explored through three essays, each pursuing a question with a different method. Yet all three are linked to the historic interlude marked by the 1998 government rejection of proposed mergers of four large Canadian banks and by the 2008 crisis when the banks remained stable. Essay One is a historical essay that asks if the behavior of the Canadian banks themselves, above and beyond that required by regulation, played an important role in avoiding instability. A political economy framework is used to trace out the evolution of the Canadian banking order and describe the structural context in which Canadian banks behaved leading up to and during the crisis. An expectation-based relationship between the banks and the prudential regulator is found at the centre of this banking order, making it difficult to disentangle autonomous bank behavior from the regulatory relationship. This renders the essay's question indeterminate. Essay Two uses econometrics to analyze the financial characteristics of large banks and evaluate whether mergers of equals (the sort proposed by the Canadian banks in 1998) contribute to riskier behavior by the consolidated banks. While the evidence is ambiguous in its support of this hypothesis, it does show that both a bank's funding behavior and risk appetite are significant predictors of bank performance during the crisis. Essay Three tests a counterfactual hypothesis: if these four Canadian banks had merged in 1998, the resulting merged banks would have faced a greater risk of failure in 2008. The counterfactual framework applies synthetic data of two fictive merged banks in a stress test model simulating the 2008 crisis. The simulations describe conditions where the imagined merged banks would face greater insolvency risk. But when considering the conclusions of Essay One, these conditions would have been precluded by the regulatory relationship, suggesting the merged banks would not have faced a greater risk of failure in 2008.
    Thesis Degree:
    Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Public Policy
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Metal Transport near a Tailings Facility in the Alberta Oil Sands

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Roussel, Stephanie Ann
    Abstract:
    The main concern that surrounds the large-scale, industrial oil sands operations in the Alberta Oil Sands is the potential for oil sands process-affected water to leak from tailings facilities into the surrounding environments. Many parameters control trace metal migration as OSPW enters wetland environments that comprise approximately 30% of Northern Alberta, including pH, redox potential, temperature, organic matter, inorganic water chemistry, and hydrology. This study aims to quantify the control organometallic complexes exert on the mobility of trace metal loads where tailings facilities are adjacent to wetland environments. Geochemical modeling indicated that humic substances are the primary sorption phase, and likely dominate the chemical behavior of many metals, however, organometallic complexes are not currently taken into account in environmental monitoring programs. A refined understanding of the environmental and geochemical processes operating within this system is required to determine the potential risk OSPW leakage represents to these ecosystems.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Science (M.Sc.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Earth Sciences
    Date Created:
    2018

  • How do trees make sweet edible sap in spring?

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Young, Ross Noble
    Abstract:
    How do trees make sweet edible sap in spring? At the end of winter, sap of temperate broadleaf eudicot trees provides energy-rich sugars for animals and peoples of North America. Here, I conduct a multi-disciplinary synthesis to elucidate a theory of sap production and movement at a 'whole tree' level. I begin by contrasting settler knowledge to Indigenous knowledge of maples, and describe how "two-eyed seeing" may be used to address settler appropriation of maples and begin to decolonize maple provisions. Second, with a synthesis of scientific literature I show that sugars are not just byproducts of sap movement, but are signaling molecules that reveal a blurred functional distinction between xylem and phloem. I propose numerous predictions from my theory of sap movement. Finally, when testing whether spring xylem sap sugar concentration correlates with number of cells in the width of xylem rays I found significant positive correlation.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Science (M.Sc.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Biology
    Date Created:
    2018

  • On Two Problems Regarding Farthest Distances in Continuous Networks

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Grimm, Carsten Uwe
    Abstract:
    Consider the continuum of points along the edges of a network, i.e., a connected, undirected graph with positive edge weights. We measure the distance between these points in terms of the network distance, i.e., the weighted shortest path distance. The continuous diameter of a network is the largest network distance between any two points on the network. We study two intertwined problems within this metric space: The first problem is to minimize the continuous diameter of a geometric network by introducing one or more shortcuts that may connect any two points along the network. The second problem is to develop efficient data structures that support queries for the farthest points from a query point along a network.
    Thesis Degree:
    Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Computer Science
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Re-writing “the little coloured ball of earth entirely”: Language and Ecology in Gertrude Stein, H.D., and Virginia Woolf

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Sigouin, Kimberley
    Abstract:
    My dissertation investigates the relationship between experimental writing, bodies, and ecology in the work of modernist women writers. Specifically, I propose that the stylistic experiments of Gertrude Stein, H.D., and Virginia Woolf are inseparable from these authors' theorizations on the body and material environments. They examine how questions of language and the body are ecologically inflected. By "ecology," I do not simply refer to traditional representations of "green ecologies" that explore the human agent's place within balanced ecosystems consisting of plants and animals. Ecocritical readings of these modernist writers' works typically promote Stein's, H.D.'s, and Woolf's interest in restoring harmonious environments by emphasizing a return to serene and stable environments. As a result, the nonhuman world is cast as a pastoral, romantic, or distinctly feminine space of tranquility and restoration. In contrast, I examine precarious environments of which the body is not simply an integral component but indiscernible from the material composition of the nonhuman world. My dissertation builds upon but fundamentally reconceptualises a standard account of feminist modernisms' return to the body in light of the recent turn in both modernist scholarship and feminist studies towards ecocritical models of reading. My critique aligns with emerging conversations on the trans-corporeal body and agential materialism. Both Stacy Alaimo and Karen Barad reconsider how the body, materiality, and discursive processes are bound up in a material recreation of the world. These ideas are part of a larger conversation on the "narratives of matter" investigated by new material ecocriticism. I argue that as Stein, H.D., and Woolf examine the tension between the nonhuman world and socially constructed ideas of what is "natural," they suggest that nature is not a restorative space separate from cultural locales, but an unpredictable, volatile force central to their artistic projects. This rethinking of reductive readings of nature reveals how women writers and literary modernism move beyond discussions that focus on linguistic, historical, and cultural reconstructions of the self and the world, and instead considers how these discussions are imbricated in the ongoing performance of human and nonhuman matter.
    Thesis Degree:
    Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    English
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Evaluating the Thermal Resistance of a Vacuum Insulation Panel Wall Assembly Containing Thermal Bridges using Industry Standard Calculation Methods and Numerical Simulation Techniques

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Moore, Travis
    Abstract:
    This thesis investigates the accuracy of industry standard calculation methods, and two and three-dimensional numerical simulation techniques, to predict the thermal resistance of a wall assembly containing vacuum insulation panels (VIPs) and thermal bridges. The calculation methods and numerical simulations were used to predict the thermal resistance of a wall assembly that was tested in a guarded hot box. The calculation methods and two-dimensional simulation scenarios which did not include VIP edge thermal bridges resulted in a minimum overestimation of 38%. Accounting for the thermal bridges using the average joint width between panels reduced the minimum overestimation to 13% (modified zone calculation method) and 20% (two-dimensional simulations). The three-dimensional simulations overestimated the thermal resistance by 14%. Overall, the most reliable predictions of thermal resistance were determined through 3D simulations and the modified zone method in combination with the thermal bridge effect due to the average joint width between VIPs.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Engineering, Mechanical
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Sounding Rocket Roll Control Through DBD Plasma Actuator Boundary Layer Control

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Sumanik, Spencer
    Abstract:
    Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) plasma actuators alter the velocity of the air across control surfaces. The induced flow, directed tangential to the surface, inputs momentum to the boundary layer. This analysis examines the feasibility of a simplified boundary condition within computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations of a DBD plasma actuator mounted on a rocket fin. The simulations examine the location of the plasma actuator where the pressure differential is largest. Resulting in a plasma actuator location between 40\% and 45\% of the fin chord producing the most force. Secondly with the actuator at 50\% chord a velocity range between 10 and 90 m/s is tested. The highest normal force experienced by the fin due to plasma actuation is approximately 5.5 mN/m at a freestream 70 m/s decreasing as the rocket decelerates. This force and the resulting torque produces an angular velocity of 2.86 RPM of roll on a sounding rocket.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Engineering, Aerospace
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Fate of organophosphate esters (OPEs) in East Greenland polar bears and their ringed seal prey using in vitro lab- and field-based studies to investigate metabolism

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Strobel, Adelle
    Abstract:
    Arctic wildlife can be exposed to environmental chemical contamination due to long-range transport and subsequent deposition. Organophosphate esters (OPEs) are emerging chemicals of concern, found at high concentration in Arctic abiota but low levels in biota, including in polar bear and ringed seal adipose tissue currently under study. OPE metabolism was investigated in East Greenland polar bears and ringed seals using enzymatically-active liver microsomes. Organophosphate triester metabolism rate and extent were found to be greater in polar bears than ringed seals. Chemical structure and physical properties of OPEs affected metabolism; notably, bulkier, alkyl-substituted triphenyl phosphates had decreased metabolism in both species. The degradation of OPEs with aryl and alkyl substituents occurred at a greater rates in polar bears and ringed seals respectively. The structure-dependent metabolism of eleven OPEs have important implications for regulatory and risk assessments, as some compounds have little to no toxicokinetics data available in the current literature.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Science (M.Sc.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Biology
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Characterization of Stable-Health Older Drivers Using Low-Speed Driving Maneuvers From In-Vehicle Sensor Data

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Fung, Nathanael C.
    Abstract:
    The Candrive study aims to improve the current practices of screening elderly drivers in Canada by identifying predictors of motor vehicle collisions from monitoring their daily driving behaviours using in-vehicle sensors. The thesis objective was to characterize the baseline behaviour of stable-health older drivers by proposing parameters of interest for detecting changes in behaviour and methods to differentiate drivers using their maneuvers. The in-vehicle sensor data from 12 stable-health drivers were processed, and a turn-identification algorithm with 97.7% accuracy was created for extracting four maneuvers: accelerating from stop, decelerating to stop, right turns, and left turns on 40 to 60 km/h roadways. Most of the drivers exhibited relatively steady month-to-month acceleration behaviours and lower accelerations in adverse driving conditions, which represented their typical driving behaviours. Drivers can be differentiated by the driving patterns from their maneuvers using a multi-expert classifier, which may be applicable for detecting changes in driving behaviour.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Engineering, Biomedical
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Reaching Feasibility Quickly for Sets of Linear Constraints

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Brion, Vladislav
    Abstract:
    Finding a feasible solution for a set of linear constraints and bounds is an essential step in many problems, including linear programming. Many linear systems have large numbers of variables and constraints, and the computation time for finding a feasible point can be very large. This thesis proposes an improved projection method for finding a feasible point in linear systems. The method increases the acceleration and improves the direction of movement towards the feasible region. Multiple algorithms developed in this research apply various approaches for the movement acceleration. The thesis also develops an optimization model for finding an optimal set of algorithms having the highest performance in a concurrent implementation. A new presolving technique is introduced which simplifies a linear system before starting the main algorithms. Concurrent computing of the algorithms is proposed for finding a feasible point in large linear systems.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Engineering, Electrical and Computer
    Date Created:
    2018

  • The parasitoid community associated with the invasive leek moth, Acrolepiopsis assectella (Zeller) (Lepidoptera: Acrolepiidae): can conservation biological control benefit an introduced classical biological control agent in North America?

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Miall, Jacob
    Abstract:
    The leek moth is a European pest of Allium spp. established near Ottawa, Ontario, Canada in the early 1990's. Its spread throughout eastern Canada and into the northeastern United States represents the potential for significant economic losses to Allium growers. Using a life-table approach, we aimed to determine if resource supplementation would influence the species composition, relative abundance and host-killing ability of indigenous parasitic wasps in the leek moth system and the classical biological control agent, Diadromus pulchellus. In greenhouse cages, adding buckwheat to a sugar-deprived system increased the longevity, and parasitism levels of D. pulchellus; however, a similar effect was measured on the facultative hyperparasitoid, Conura albifrons. In the field, the parasitoid species composition was the same in both buckwheat-supplemented and standard leek plots; however, the parasitoid community differed between the standard and resource-enriched plots. These studies provide insight into how conservation biological control may affect classical biological control.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Science (M.Sc.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Biology
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Towards improved monitoring of changing permafrost by estimating soil characteristics from ground temperature time-series

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Brown, Nicholas
    Abstract:
    Knowledge of subsurface liquid water content is important in permafrost but continuous measurements are rarely collected at monitoring sites. Two parameter estimation methods are used to estimate soil thermal properties and freezing characteristic curves (SFCC) from temperature time series in order to calculate changes in ground liquid water content. Tests with synthetic data show that even with the addition of noise, estimated SFCCs are visually similar to their true shape. Overall, saturation water content and freezing temperature are easiest to estimate, whereas heat capacity and the van Genuchten n parameter, which controls the curvature of the SFCC, are more difficult. Different calibration periods may result in high variability for estimates of low sensitivity parameters. Weighting model error by ground energy content underestimates saturation water content, but provides good estimates of freezing point temperature. Applying these techniques at monitoring sites encounters challenges when model structure is not well chosen.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Science (M.Sc.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Geography
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Auctions and Finite Posted Prices in Online Markets

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Maslov, Alexander
    Abstract:
    The thesis presents a model of a competing mechanism allowing buyers already engaged in an auction to decide whether to stay in it or buy an object from a posted price outside.In the first chapter I describe the relevance of the studied problem to the real world online platforms and discuss how my research contributes to the existing literature. I analyze buyers' game and show that when the amount of goods outside is less than the number of buyers, the latter, with valuations higher than the posted price, prefer to leave the auction early and buy the good at the posted price.In the second chapter I analyze seller's revenues and show that contrary to the models with effectively infinite goods offered at posted prices and auctions simultaneously, using mixed mechanism may not always be a profit maximizing strategy on markets with one seller and limited supply of goods. When there is competition among sellers, mixed mechanism is the equilibrium. However, sellers do not use it to discriminate between low- and high-valuation buyers as in the models for unlimited supply of goods, but rather as the best response to hedge against the price undercutting by another seller.In the third chapter I present several extensions to the buyers' subgame equilibrium. I show that the timing of the decision to exit the auction early depends on the degree of risk aversion, number of bidders and the price outside. In addition, I show that the seller's revenues rise with buyers' risk aversion. Lastly, an increase in the number of buyers prompts the seller to use different selling mechanisms.
    Thesis Degree:
    Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Economics
    Date Created:
    2018

  • The Legitimacy of Transnational Startups: The Case of Canadian-Iranian Startups

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Tadjalli, Seyed Ayatollah
    Abstract:
    Building legitimacy is one of the main challenges of every entrepreneur, especially transnational ones. The study has employed a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods including grounded theory and Borda count method to capture the perception of new transnational ventures (NTVs) from the sources of legitimacy for financiers and grant providers and the most important challenges of NTVs. The results from studying six Canadian-Iranian NTVs show that the most important challenges face NTVs to obtain legitimacy are "Insufficient understanding of Canadian business environment and business language", "Procuring funding", and "Building a network" Also, the most important perceived criteria of legitimacy are "the amount of investment in the business", "experience and background of the founder and director", and "credit history" of the owner(s). The contribution of the research is providing an examination of the intersection of NTVs and legitimacy. NTVs may use the results to manage their legitimacy.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Engineering, Technology Innovation Management
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Segment Routing Green Spine Switch Management System for DCN

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Osamudiamen, Ose Micah
    Abstract:
    Abstract It is without a doubt that the data center is the core of most IT industries, providing services to billions of users today. Furthermore, due to the exponential increase of information and services from datacenters, it is projected that a 14.1 zeta bits of bandwidth would be needed to meet the current demands of data by the end of 2020 in USA data centers alone. This requires a tremendous amount of energy to run those data centers. To reduce the energy consumption of a data center, this thesis approaches this problem by utilizing Segment Routing and Traffic Engineering to have an efficient the bandwidth usage. The proposed approach makes it possible to deactivate spine switches and links on the data center networks, which results in energy savings. The experimental results yielded up approximately 78% energy savings, whilst maintaining an average similar traffic performance.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Engineering, Electrical and Computer
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Exact and Approximation Algorithms for the Planning and Design of Fog Networks

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Zhang, Decheng
    Abstract:
    Fog computing has attracted lots of attention from industry and research communities. However, due to the decentralized and heterogeneous nature of fog networks, planning a fog network can be challenging. To deal with this problem, we first propose a multi-objective mathematical model that simultaneously addresses the fog node placement, fog node dimensioning and demand routing. The model optimizes the tradeoff front (Pareto front) between capital expenditure and network delay in dual objective functions. Then, we analyze the performance of an exact algorithm (branch and bound) and two evolutionary algorithms (genetic algorithm and particle swarm algorithm) on this problem, showing that the evolutionary algorithms offer a good balance between the Pareto optimality and computation efficiency. Inspired by existing evolutionary algorithms, we proposed a new evolutionary algorithm (PSONSGA). Among the three evolutionary algorithms, PSONSGA gives the best solution and it can be a valuable planning tool for real-world fog network planning.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Engineering, Electrical and Computer
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Investigating the Role of Genetic Background and Niche of Origin in the Adaptation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Filipow, Nicole
    Abstract:
    Prolonged respiratory infection by the opportunistic pathogen, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, is the major contributor to early mortality in individuals with cystic fibrosis (CF). Patients often acquire their infections from the environment, however it is unknown whether all genotypes are capable of causing infection. To investigate this, we experimentally evolved 18 environmental and CF-clinical genotypes within synthetic CF lung sputum (SCFM), to identify any genotypic and/or prior niche constraints on trait evolution and pathoadaptation. We found that genotype significantly constrained evolution within SCFM, which was evidenced through phylogenetic signal in the change of both traits and fitness. We also found that environmental strains evolve differently in SCFM compared to their CF-clinical counterparts. Altogether our results suggest there is widespread variation in the adaptation of P. aeruginosa, which is in part constrained by both genetic background, and niche of origin.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Science (M.Sc.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Biology
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Ginawaydaganuc and the Circle of All Nations. The Remarkable Environmental Legacy of Elder William Commanda

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Thumbadoo, Romola Vasantha
    Abstract:
    Abstract This thesis is a case study analysis of the environmental work of the late 97 year old North American Indigenous elder William Commanda (11 November 1913 - 3 August 2011), a widely acknowledged public figure, guardian of three Algonquin wampum belts (sacred mnemonic record-keeping and governance devices including the Seven Fires Prophecy Belt, the Welcoming Belt, and Border Crossing Belt), Officer of the Order of Canada, and recipient of two honorary doctorate degrees.William Commanda's work was grounded in the fully inclusive concept of Ginawaydagunuc that All is Related in the cosmic world. When the idea of We Are All Connected as people is extrapolated from this Ginawaydaganuc representation or metaphor, the word Anicinabe (Anishinabe in contemporary usage) assumes primacy as the good or real human being, and as such then includes Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. Those who align with his energetic web contribute to animate William Commanda's informal global eco-peace Circle of All Nations community.I argue that the Circle of All Nations was conceptualized by William Commanda as a bridge-building mechanism and interface to speak to the incommensurability between Indigenous and non-Indigenous knowledge systems on environment, relationships and critical social justice and peace issues. The thesis incorporates and examines the pedagogical framework of this discourse.The focus of the study is both abstract (whether and how his discourse impacts approaches to environment and related socio-ecological issues); and action oriented (regarding the continued relevance, animation and emergence of the discourse); and it employs a medicine wheel conceptual framework, and four logics of inquiry: performance mapping, historical dialectical, phenomenological and cybercartographic.It explores how narrative, geo-narrative, critical reflexivity and graphic, cybercartographic geo-narrative, digital atlas and social media methodological tools can be justified and employed to support knowledge generation on environment, relationships and related matters in contemporary times. It also explores how such research and scholarship might impact social change and environmental studies.
    Thesis Degree:
    Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Geography
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Sex Differences in the Behavioural Response to FGF2 Administration

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Pepe, Andrea Maria
    Abstract:
    Anxiety is one of the most prevalent psychiatric disorders in Canada, but its etiology is not yet fully known. The current treatments for anxiety disorders have considerable limitations, making it necessary for research to explore new therapeutic targets and treatments. Recent research has identified the use of FGF2 as a potent endogenous anxiolytic factor. The present study examined a maternal separation rodent model of anxiety to mimic early life parental separation in humans. Following adult treatment with vehicle control or FGF2, rats were tested on depressive and anxiety-like behavioural measures. Results did not show an effect of maternal separation stress on anxiety; however, there was a sex-specific response to FGF2 in controls, such that females appeared to respond better to FGF2 administration than males. Future research will be needed to delineate these sex-specific differences in FGF2's anxiolytic potential in order to understand the generalizability of its therapeutic potential.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Science (M.Sc.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Neuroscience
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Analyzing the Performance of a Heat Pump Water Heater When Coupled with a Heat Recovery Ventilator for Heating Applications in Canada

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Smith, Patrick John Andre
    Abstract:
    The objective of this thesis is to determine the suitability of an air source heat pump water heater (HPWH) for Canadian climates. The performance of a commercially available HPWH was evaluated at a series of air temperature and humidity set-points representing outdoor conditions in Canadian climates. The resulting cost of energy in each climate was compared to the cost when using the unit with basement air and when using an electric water heater. A computer model was developed to simulate the annual performance of the unit when installed in a house and coupled with a heat recovery ventilator (HRV). The effects of the HRV on the performance of the HPWH were found to be negligible when the heating and cooling loads were taken into consideration. It was found that HPWHs have a lower cost of energy than electric water heaters in regions with time-of-use utility rates.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Engineering, Mechanical
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Fragility Assessment of Combined Heavy Timber-Steel Bracing System Through Hybrid Simulation

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Miller, Sean Patrick
    Abstract:
    This study performs a fragility assessment of a combined heavy timber-steel friction braced framing system through hybrid testing. In this study, one bottom storey bay of a 7 storey prototype structure is physically tested in the laboratory while the remaining lower bays and the upper 6 storeys are modeled numerically in OpenSees. One hundred and sixty five hybrid tests are performed through incremental dynamic analysis and fragility curves are developed to estimate the probability of damage at varying seismic intensities. The prototype structure is assessed at various performance levels including design and maximum credible hazard levels. The results from the hybrid test are compared with the results from the purely analytical simulation to assess the accuracy of the current finite element modeling techniques. Results show good agreement up to 2.0 percent maximum interstorey drift. The modeling system exhibits predictable behaviour and experimental results indicate the model is conservative.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Engineering, Civil
    Date Created:
    2018

  • An Experimental Evaluation on Air Conditioning Performance with Vairtex Air Director Applied on Residential Condenser Unit

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Nguyen, Ngoc Phuoc Vien
    Abstract:
    An experimental study was carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of the VairTEX Air Director device on a modified 1.5-ton air conditioner. The experiment was divided into two parts. The first part included thermodynamic performance evaluations at two refrigerant flow rates. As the air director was installed on the condenser unit, COP was improved by an appreciable amount of maximum 5% while the evaporator delivered cooler air at its exit by maximum 15%. Compressor power consumption was reduced by 4.5%. Three directional velocity measurements using six-orientation hot-wire technique was employed to characterize air flow discharge from the condenser with and without the device. The radial component was significantly reduced while axial flow was greatly improved, hence increased a volume flow rate by 48.7%. Tangential component at the Air Director exit resembled the profile found in cyclone devices. Heat transfer between ambient and refrigerant also increased. Thus, condenser performance was improved.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Engineering, Mechanical
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Knowledge Acquisition Methods and Their Role in Producer-Driven Collaborative Innovation Performance: A Dynamic Capabilities Perspective

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Helal, Robert Anthony
    Abstract:
    Innovation remains the lifeblood of today's organizations. With the increasing pace of business and shorter product life cycles, organizations are turning to new open innovation models and knowledge acquisition methods (KAMs) to access rich sources of expert knowledge and new resources beyond the traditional boundaries of the R&D functions. Firms look to develop and use KAMs and new capabilities that will contribute to their innovation objectives and competitive differentiation.While earlier research demonstrated the benefits of external market knowledge and collaboration on firm performance, studies have focused largely on the firm-level dynamics of co-creation of innovation activity. To date, little research has explored the elements of knowledge acquisition methods, the complexities of inter-firm and intra-firm co-creation interaction and processes, and the role that knowledge and firm capabilities play in collaborative innovation performance. There have been calls for new research towards filling this gap.This study examines the role of knowledge acquisition methods on co-creation of innovation and its impact on collaborative innovation performance. Through a cross-discipline theoretical lens (i.e., open innovation, co-creation of innovation, dynamic capabilities, knowledge management), an exploratory comparative cross-case analysis was conducted examining a First-of-a-Kind (FoaK) collaborative innovation program and performance across five co-creation of analytics innovation initiatives. This study is the first to apply a dynamic capabilities perspective, examining the role of knowledge capacities across the collaborative innovation process, and investigating the role of the KAM as a higher-order integrative dynamic capability.Findings from this research answer the call for greater insight into the inner workings and complexity of co-creation of innovation, detailing the observed indirect impact of the KAM on innovation performance. New initiative-level evidence describes the role of the KAM, stakeholder engagement, and the interaction of collaboration processes within and across the boundaries of the firm. In addition to highlighting the role of knowledge-based dynamic capabilities, the findings suggest that the development of knowledge capacities is multi-tiered across levels of the KAM program, initiatives, and the resource pool. The study presents first evidence that the knowledge acquisition method serves as a higher-order dynamic capability with its primary role being that of co-creation "orchestration."
    Thesis Degree:
    Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Management
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Experimental and Modeling Studies of Creep Performance of Modified 9Cr-1Mo Steels with or without Oxidation-Resistant Coating

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Zhang, Xiaozhou
    Abstract:
    This thesis presents experimental and modeling studies of creep performance of modified 9Cr-1Mo steel with and without an oxidation-resistant coating. A deformation-mechanism-based true-stress (DMTS) creep model is proposed for predicting creep rate and creep life of modified 9Cr-1Mo steels. The DMTS model considers three well-recognized deformation mechanisms: dislocation glide, dislocation climb, and grain boundary sliding. Constant-load creep testing is conducted on modified 9Cr-1Mo steel in forged form, F91 (9Cr-1Mo-V-Nb). The creep performance of three types of F91 coupons, pristine, coated, and aged coupons is studied. The creep data obtained in the present study and those reported from the literature are used to validate the DMTS model. Four major achievements are obtained from this study. (i) The creep rate behavior of nine modified 9Cr-1Mo steels in various product forms including tubes, pipes, plates, and forging is systematically characterized in terms of power-laws representing the above-identified deformation mechanisms; (ii) The creep strain-time behavior of the pristine and coated F91 steel is analyzed to verify the basic DMTS model and the modified DMTS model with consideration of oxidation, showing excellent agreement with the experimental observations; (iii) The effect of microstructural evolution is studied using aged F91 coupons, showing that Lave phase formation associated with grain boundary sliding is mostly responsible for the increased creep rate and shortening of creep life as compared to the pristine material; (iv) Last but not the least, long-term creep lives (>104 hours) of modified Grade 91steels are predicted using the modified DMTS model, showing pronounced improvement over the basic model, indicating that oxidation effect is significant in long-time creep, whereas direct extrapolation from short-term creep test data is not correct for modified 9Cr-1Mo steels, because short-term creep life does not include enough oxidation effect.
    Thesis Degree:
    Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Engineering, Mechanical
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Accelerated Transfer Learning for Protein-Protein Interaction Prediction

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Barnes, Bradley Dennis
    Abstract:
    This thesis explores issues arising when predicting protein-protein interactions (PPI) involving multiple species with the Protein-protein Interaction Prediction Engine (PIPE). When predicting one species' PPI from another's, we showed that prediction performance is inversely correlated to the evolutionary distance between training and testing species. With a change in the score calculation, we improved the area under the precision-recall curve by 45% when using seven well-studied species to predict an eighth. We then showed that PIPE was able to predict PPI between species by predicting 229 novel PPI between HIV and human at an estimated precision of 82% (100:1 class imbalance). By modifying a main data structure, we also improved the speed of the PIPE algorithm by a factor of 53x when predicting H. sapiens PPI. Using these best practices, we predicted all possible PPI between soybean and its costly pest, the Soybean Cyst Nematode, for our collaborators at Agriculture Canada.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Engineering, Biomedical
    Date Created:
    2018

  • A Cross-Cultural Examination of the Pathways to Mathematics Model in Adults

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Gu, Feng
    Abstract:
    The Pathways to Mathematics model demonstrated the relations among cognitive precursors and mathematical outcomes in children. In this study, I extended the model to adults and compared the model across cultures. Results showed similarities and differences in the model in relation to children. A major difference in the results for adults compared to children was that linguistic skill did not predict adults' performance on calculation, suggesting that linguistic ability is no longer related to symbolic number system knowledge in adults due to the developed ability of automatized number naming. Culture had a moderating effect on contribution of quantitative knowledge towards number line task performance, suggesting different strategy choices across culture. These findings indicate that the relative contributions of linguistic skill, quantitative knowledge, working memory, and spatial ability vary depending on the demands of specific task.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Arts (M.A.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Psychology
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Object Detection and Tracking for Creation of Interactive Videos

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Li, Jueya
    Abstract:
    Object detection is a fundamental approach in creating interactive videos. In this thesis, we propose a new method for object detection, combining object recognition with tracking in a neural network. Specifically, we use GoogLeNet as a feature extractor, and then apply a long short-term memory (LSTM) network to further adjust the feature vectors extracted by GoogLeNet according to the context of the feature vectors of the previous frame. We feed the output of the LSTM to a classifier and regressor as in the Overfeat network, to obtain predicted confidences and predicted bounding boxes. We pre-train the feature extractor on ImageNet datasets, then evaluate our network on OTB100 dataset. We compare our results to results obtained without tracking. Our model shows a better performance at predicting objects in frames where occlusion and background clutter appear, and results in more consistent object bounding boxes across frames.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Computer Science (M.C.S.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Computer Science
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Disabled Gamers: Accessibility in Video Games

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Liu, Yiyi
    Abstract:
    Video games have become an increasingly important cultural medium. At the same time, a significant portion of the population has a disability, which often leads to difficulties playing video games. Through the analysis of the disabled gaming community and a selection of mainstream computer games, we have uncovered several issues not previously noted by existing publications, either from within or without academia. Specialized alternative input devices, a commonly cited solution for gamers with mobility impairments, does not see widespread adoption, possibly due to the difficulty in obtaining them. Modern mainstream games, while cognizant of accessibility features, will only implement them so far as permitting basic gameplay, while leaving disabled gamers with a reduced gameplay experience. We have also uncovered issues that merit further investigation, such as that of digital game distribution platforms, such as Steam, and microtransaction games with revenue dependent upon player failure.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Computer Science (M.C.S.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Human-Computer Interaction
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Detecting Amino Acid Preference Shifts with Codon-Level Mixture Models

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Kazmi, Shan Omar
    Abstract:
    In recent years, increasing attention has been placed on the development of phylogeny-based statistical methodologies for uncovering site-specific changes in amino acid fitness profiles over time. The few available random-effects approaches, modelling across-site variation in amino acid profiles as random variables drawn from a statistical law, either lack a mechanistic codon-level formulation, or pose significant computational challenges. Here, we explore a simple and fast method based on a predefined finite mixture of amino acid profiles within a codon-level mutation-selection substitution model. Our study detects shifts of amino acid profiles over a known sub-clade of a tree, using simulations with and without shifts over the sub-clade to study the properties of the method. We apply the approach to a real data set, previously studied with other methods: lists of sites identified as having undergone a change in amino acid profile have obvious overlap between methods, while also showing notable differences.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Science (M.Sc.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Biology
    Date Created:
    2018

  • New Multi Sided Platform Operator Growth - Post Funding

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Gamage, Renuka
    Abstract:
    Most of the literature on multi-sided platforms (MSP) is descriptive and examines the mature or declining stage of the company life cycle. This thesis seeks to increase our understanding of MSP startups during the growth stage - defined to start when external funding is secured. Nineteen MSP startups that were launched and funded from 2012 to 2017 were examined against a model that is developed to interpret the mathematical formulations advanced in the literature to explain affiliations among independent suppliers, customers, and MSP operators. The results suggest that funded MSP startups affiliate with four agents: third-parties, catalysts, affiliates, and sides-on-demand to strengthen their affiliations with independent suppliers and customers. The results add knowledge to the theory of new firm growth and are relevant to founders and top management teams of MSP startups because affiliations with agents may increase their likelihood of attracting resources to grow and affect MSP startups outcomes.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Engineering, Technology Innovation Management
    Date Created:
    2018

  • The Effects of Visual-Spatial Distractor Task Paired Stability Training on Ankle Stability Following a Single Leg Lateral Ankle Inversion Sprain

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Chan, Simon Yingleung
    Abstract:
    Ankle sprains are a common injury with high rates of recurrence, even after discharge from rehabilitative therapy, likely the result of chronic ankle joint instability. Current rehabilitative training primarily consists of cognizant stabilization, where participants are instructed to specifically focus on stabilization of the ankle. This approach primarily utilizes the motor cortex and requires attentional resources. However, ankle joint stability is innately maintained by the cerebellum. We hypothesized that stability training paired with a visuospatial distractor task, leads to greater improvements in ankle stability. All participants were diagnosed with a single leg ankle inversion sprain and performed the same 4-week stability training, except the experimental group training was paired visuospatial distractor. Average muscle activity required to maintain ankle joint stability decreased 59% in the experimental group, compared to 4% in the control. This suggests a benefit in utilizing a paired distractor to improve ankle stability following an acute inversion sprain.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Science (M.Sc.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Biology
    Date Created:
    2018

  • Identification of Topics and Their Evolution in Management Science: Replicating and Extending an Expert Analysis Using Semi-Automated Methods

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Lance, Elizabeth
    Abstract:
    Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) is a popular generative probabilistic model that enables researchers to analyze large semantic datasets; however, few open-source software tools with Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) are available to researchers. This study identifies an open-source software tool that, in conjunction with a popular electronic spreadsheet software application, can be used to perform topic modeling. A process is developed and evaluated against a pre-existing expert review that examines work published in Management Science on the topics of technological innovation, product development, and entrepreneurship between 1954 and 2004 (Shane and Ulrich, 2004). The process is then replicated using an expanded corpus that includes all articles published in Management Science between 2005 and 2015. The discussion includes an analysis of the process and insights generated by using topic modeling. A replicable process for researchers and suggestions for practitioners are provided.
    Thesis Degree:
    Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Engineering, Technology Innovation Management
    Date Created:
    2018

  • SNR-Adaptive Constellation Design for Convolutional Codes

    Resource Type:
    Thesis
    Creator:
    Ilter, Mehmet Cagri
    Abstract:
    The development of 5G communication technology has introduced new families of applications and use cases during just its standardization and some of them have brought peculiar system requirements, where existing channel coding in its current form might suffer from tackling them. As an example of this, it can be shown that deploying one of the powerful channel coding techniques might suffer in tackling stringent delay requirements while sustaining higher reliability in some mission-critical applications due to iterative decoding structure. Besides, an error-floor region might prevent turbo-coded systems from deploying in certain use cases. From this perspective, a channel coding technique, while currently less popular than the others, might have considerable potential over 5G and beyond after optimizing its modules.Motivated by this fact, this thesis aims to present an SNR-adaptive convolutionally coded transmission model where the simplicity of a convolutional encoder has combined with current advanced optimization ability. Basically, the proposed transmission model combines one-shot decoding superiority of convolutional coder with the utilization of choosing an optimized group of symbol points, which are obtained specifically for a given convolutional encoder, channel characteristic and transmission model. The enabler of an SNR-adaptive optimization framework is the derivation of upper bound error performance expression by exploiting the product-state matrix technique, which is used in the calculation of generating function for a given convolutional encoder and it brings the superiority to work with any type of constellations. The importance of including fully arbitrary, irregular type, constellations in constellation search lies on that the uniform constellations can lead to suboptimal performance in many coded scenarios including bit-interleaved coded modulated and turbo-trellis coded modulations as already shown.As an initial step towards the proposed SNR-adaptive transmission model, a generalized error performance calculation was first presented. Once optimized symbol point locations via particle swarm constellation optimizer are found for each operating point, the performance comparison of the proposed SNR-adaptive convolutionally coded transmission model with SNR-independent counterparts is given in terms of BER and spectral efficiency. The superiority of the proposed transmission model, in terms of algorithmic complexity and decoding latency, is also presented.
    Thesis Degree:
    Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
    Thesis Degree Discipline:
    Engineering, Electrical and Computer
    Date Created:
    2018