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  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • Forced Retirement Risk and Portfolio Choice

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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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