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- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Nagaraj, Shruthi
- Abstract:
- Application Programming Interface(API) form an important part of software development. Eye tracking is an interesting and emerging field which is gaining wide popularity. The goal of the thesis is to collect and utilize eye tracking data to better understand how software developers summarize code. We perform a study that measures the effects of complex information sources on summarization tasks. In this work, we conduct a controlled experiment with 12 professional and student software developers to better understand how they perform code summarization tasks. These tasks aimed at summarizing a set of APIs based on source code, Stack Overflow, Bugzilla, or a combination of them. We used iTrace, a plugin for Eclipse, to record the developers' eye movements.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Computer Science (M.C.S.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Computer Science
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
A role for LRRK2 and Neuroinflammatory Processes in Multi-Hit Toxicant Models of Parkinson’s Disease
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Rudyk, Christopher
- Abstract:
- Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterized by the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra (SNc) leading to a range of motor behavioral deficits. In addition to motor features, non-motor behaviors are also evident in many cases. Although it has been suggested that genetic mutations represent a cause or risk factor for the disease, there is evidence to suggest that PD arises as a result of the interaction between multiple factors. In the current dissertation, one overarching theme we were interested in was how the behavioral and neurochemical effects of the PD relevant herbicide paraquat might be impacted when combined with different stressors including psychological stress, immune stress, or age induced alterations. We were also highly interested in providing further understanding regarding the role of neuroinflammatory processes (as occurs in PD) in the paraquat induced death of SNc dopamine neurons. In these instances, we focused on the inflammatory regulatory gene (and number one gene implicated in PD), leucine rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2). Accordingly, in our study combining paraquat exposure with a chronic unpredictable stress regimen, we found that psychological stressor exposure did not influence the degeneration of midbrain dopamine neurons or accompanying microglia activation induced by the toxin; however, it did influence motor coordination. Conversely, exposure of the pesticide in combination with the inflammatory agent lipopolysaccharide (LPS) augmented SNc cell loss. In these studies using LPS, we found that knocking out LRRK2 protected against the loss of midbrain dopamine neurons and behavioral deficits, induced by LPS priming followed by paraquat exposure. In fact, knocking out LRRK2 altered the pro-inflammatory microglia phenotype that is typically induced by LPS exposure. Likewise, LRRK2 deficiency protected against the paraquat induced peripheral and central toxic effects in mice older than what we typically use. Taken together, our results support the hypothesis that the interaction between different stressors can impact behavioral and biological outcomes relevant for PD, and LRRK2 is important for the toxic effects of paraquat, and LPS priming with later paraquat exposure. The data presented herein may also provide important implications for the development of treatment strategies that target inflammatory processes in PD.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Neuroscience
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Farmer, Kyle
- Abstract:
- Parkinson's disease is an age related neurodegenerative disease. Current treatments do not reverse the degenerative course; rather they merely manage symptom severity. As such there is an urgent need to develop novel neuroprotective therapeutics. There is an additional need to stimulate and promote inherent neuro-recovery processes. Such processes could maximize the utilization of the existing dopamine neurons, and/or recruit alternate neuronal pathways to promote recovery. This thesis investigates the therapeutic potential of the mGluR5 negative allosteric modulator CTEP in a 6-hydroxydopamine mouse model of Parkinson's disease. We found that CTEP caused a modest reduction in the parkinsonian phenotype after only 1 week of treatment. When administered for 12 weeks, CTEP was able to completely reverse any parkinsonian behaviours and resulted in full dopaminergic striatal terminal re-innervation. Furthermore, restoration of the striatal terminals resulted in normalization of hyperactive neurons in both the striatum and the motor cortex. The beneficial effects within the striatum were associated with an increase activation of mTOR and p70s6K activity. Accordingly, the beneficial effects of CTEP can be blocked if co-administered with the mTOR complex 1 inhibitor, rapamycin. In contrast, CTEP had differential effect in the motor cortex, promoting ERK1/2 and CaMKIIα instead of mTOR. Together these data suggest that modulating mGluR5 with CTEP may have clinical significance in treating Parkinson's disease. In addition to the CTEP work, extensive appendices are included in this thesis outlining the optimization of animal models and tools used in the present thesis, as well as other potential therapeutic avenues.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Neuroscience
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Brumar, Daniel Sebastian
- Abstract:
- Found in cannabis, cannabidiol (CBD) holds promise as a nonpsychoactive cannabinoid in treating a number of conditions, including anxiety, schizophrenia, and some forms of epilepsy. However, large scale studies on the therapeutic use of CBD are lacking, and more research is needed to precisely establish its safety and efficacy. Extraction of CBD from cannabis is challenging, and past methods of synthesizing CBD have suffered from at least one of the following: poor selectivity, low yields, complex and laborious reaction sequences, or unavailable starting materials. We report here a concise approach to CBD synthesis from readily available nerol. This route uses directed orthometallation to regioselectively allylate olivetol dimethyl ether, followed by a biomimetic oxidative cyclization with Mn(III) to cleanly generate dimethyl CBD in low yield. We also demonstrate that using cationic polyene cyclization as the key ring-forming step produces a similar yield of dimethyl CBD in a complex mixture of isomers.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Chemistry
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Hunt, Vernon
- Abstract:
- Aptamers designed to target α-synuclein, a protein implicated in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease due to its propensity to aggregate, were investigated to probe their affinity for the protein as well as their ability to hinder the aggregation of the proteinin vitro. Aggregation assays have proven that the presence of the aptamer candidates targeting monomeric α-synuclein stunt the formation of protein fibrils. One promising aptamer from the research, a-syn-1, was successfully packaged into a liposome vesicle modified to cross the blood-brain barrier and used in in vivo applications. Analysis of the liposomes used for the packaging and delivery of the aptamer has provided insight into the loading efficiency and production efficiency of liposome batches.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Chemistry
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Guzman Nieto, Michelle
- Abstract:
- The current state-of-the-art design optimization of airframes is tightly wounded to its loads analyses as the process is usually conducted employing a deterministic set of critical load cases. The sheer number of scenarios required to estimate the critical loading conditions prevent these two processes from integrating. In this thesis, we address the problem of an efficient estimation of critical dynamic aeroelastic loads. The method is based on the Kriging metamodeling technique and the Expected Improvement Function, known formally as the Efficient Global Optimization (EGO) algorithm. Furthermore, different inexpensive metrics, based on the concept of Modal Contribution Factors, are investigated as indicators to determine if a substantial change in the loads has occurred during the design optimization, triggering the re-exploration of the design space. A case study is presented to evaluate the performance of the proposed methodology, where a reduction of 84 percent in the total time of execution was achieved.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Aerospace
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Abu-AlHawa, Maha
- Abstract:
- In Multiple Sclerosis (MS), cognition is directly affected by neural integrity and secondary disease characteristics (anxiety, depression and fatigue). Mesenchymal stem cell therapy (MSCT) has been recently studied due to its potential for neural repair in MS. It is hypothesized that cognitive improvement will be seen after MSCT. The change in cognition is expected to be correlated with changes in secondary disease characteristics and neurophysiological measures (neural conduction time). Ten participants received MSCT. Cognition, secondary disease characteristics, and conduction time were evaluated pre- and post- (12 month) therapy. Eight participants demonstrated cognitive improvement in at least one test. Secondary disease characteristics and conduction time were not associated with cognition in our sample. In conclusion, MSCT appears to be safe with regards to cognition and does not worsen secondary disease characteristics. Future efficacy studies have the potential to show greater cognitive improvement than the current preliminary study.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Cognitive Science (M.Cog.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Cognitive Science
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Dunford, Matthew Gordon
- Abstract:
- The DEAP-3600 Dark Matter detector, located 2 km underground at SNOLAB, uses up to 3600 kg of natural atmospheric argon as its detection medium. The isotopes 36Ar and 39Ar are present in small quantities in argon found in the atmosphere, and so are present within DEAP-3600. These isotopes can be examined in data collected for a Dark Matter search. 36Ar could undergo an exotic decay process called neutrinoless double electron capture. This decay violates lepton number conservation and its observation would provide a clear indication of physics beyond the Standard Model of Particle Physics. Three modes of this decay with different final states could be detected with DEAP-3600 if they occur. A search for this decay was performed on an isotopic exposure of 6.67 kg-years with the DEAP-3600 detector. A fit to this data has yielded lower limits on the half-life of 36Ar of T > 4.78e20 years. 39Ar is a beta-emitting isotope and is a major background for DEAP-3600 and other argon-based dark matter experiments. A measurement of the specific activity of 39Ar in natural atmospheric argon has been performed on a total argon mass exposure of 2200 kg-years taken over a period of 12 months; 185 individual measurements were made. The specific activity is determined to be (0.953 +/- 0.028)Bq/kg, corresponding to a concentration of (7.6 +/- 0.2)e-16 g(39Ar)/g(atmAr).
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Physics
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Hassan, Oluwasegun Abayomi
- Abstract:
- A growing desire for granular network control, automation, virtualization and much more, has contributed to the emergence of Software Defined Networking (SDN) as a prominent research area. Though originally developed for wired networks, benefits of the centralized routing approach are now being leveraged for wireless network applications. These include SDN-based Multi-hop Wireless Networks (MWNs), as potential alternatives to traditional MWNs. This thesis presents a Software Defined Multi-hop Wireless Network (SDMWN) solution, with standard centralized routing characteristics and full mobility capabilities, evaluated against distributed routing in an equivalent traditional MWN architecture. Our emulation results, obtained with Mininet-WiFi, demonstrate a good degree of potential for SDMWN, when operating under controlled (mobile) network conditions. By guaranteeing the availability of potential links between every node, SDMWN outperforms the traditional MWN, by about 15% and 65 ms, for Ping Success Rate and Round-Trip Time respectively. However, this comes at a relatively high cost of overhead.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Electrical and Computer
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Mattice, Christopher Matthew Colin
- Abstract:
- The ability of an aptamer to catalyze a chemical reaction under selective conditions presents a novel avenue for the exploration of biosensors and molecular payload delivery. To date, limited research exists for pairing oligonucleotide-templated reactions with the selective nature of DNA aptamers. A system can be designed wherein the conformational change in aptamer structure associated with target binding brings two previously spatially isolated reactants into proximity, thereby catalyzing their reaction through an increase in effective molarity. A rationally designed aptamer-mediated SN2 displacement of a sulfonyl-based fluorescence-quencher resulted in an effective increase in fluorescence upon mixing of the aptamer with two appropriately modified complementary oligonucleotides. This increased fluorescence could be slowed by the presence of the aptamer target, permitting the development of an aptamer-based sensor for ochratoxin A with a linear dynamic range of 100 μM to 100 pM and a limit of detection of 1.5 pM.Similar aptamer-based sensor systems were also developed that could take advantage of the fluorogenic copper catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloadditions between two labelled probes controlled by the aptamer target. This has been demonstrated using the thrombin structure switching aptamer to produce a linear response to thrombin between 100 nM and 10 pM with a limit of detection of 3.9 fM. These fluorogenic click modifiers were also incorporated directly into a structure switching thrombin aptamer such that the G-quadruplex formed upon thrombin binding brings the two modifiers into proximity. This constitutes a turn-on sensor for thrombin, with detection of thrombin between 1 μM and 1 nM possible.As a final proof of concept, the fluorogenic azide and alkyne modifiers were incorporated on either side of a split aptamer for cocaine, such that the presence of cocaine will result in a detectable fluorescent signal from ligation of the split aptamer sequences. Using this system, a qualitative cocaine sensor in the range of 100 μM to 10 pM was established. This project has demonstrated the first steps towards controlling chemical reactions using DNA aptamers. Having demonstrated preliminary functionality through these applications, future applications in drug delivery, enhanced sensors, and selective chemical synthesis constitute intriguing new avenues in aptamer research.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Chemistry
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Okunrounmu, Oluwadamilola
- Abstract:
- The effect of air pressure on the expansion ratio of the foam was investigated with a range of parameters such as varied foam concentrate, hose lengths of 1-m to 3-m and pressure ranges of 2.42 bar to 5.52 bar. The foam characteristics at various operating conditions were determined. Discharge range tests and flow rate test indicated a linear progression with increasing pressure. Overall, all the tested foams met the requirements of the CAN/ULC-S508 standard. The drainage characteristics of foams, with and without thermal radiation, were investigated. The tested foams exhibited a similar drainage pattern, in terms of foam mass loss and temperature profiles of foams exposed to thermal radiation, at different drainage rates. However, the time to half mass loss decreased with increase in foam expansion ratio and heat flux. Lastly, the extinguishment capability of the portable system on pool fires and wood crib fires were investigated.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Civil
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Bergin, Christopher
- Abstract:
- Plants have evolved multiple layers of defense to ward off pathogens. Pathogen-associated molecular pattern (PAMPs)-triggered immunity (PTI) is the most ancient and basal form of plant defense. BLADE-ON-PETIOLE1/2 (BOP1/2) are members of an evolutionarily conserved subclade of BTB-ankyrin proteins that control plant development within the NON-EXPRESSOR OF PATHOGENESIS-RELATED GENES1 (NPR1) family of plant defense regulators that control systemic acquired resistance. I analyzed the transcriptome of BOP1 overexpressing plants to find a previously undiscovered role for BOPs in plant defense. Gene Ontology analysis revealed that 35% of upregulated genes belong to plant defense pathways with PTI forming the largest group. Among these PTI genes were clade I TGA factors, also essential for BOP-mediated developmental processes. Data validation and direct pathogen testing support the model that BOPs and clade I TGAs co-regulate a subset of genes involved in PTI. These data uncover dual role for Arabidopsis BOPs in development and defense.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Biology
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Li, Zhi
- Abstract:
- Surface roughness is a critical indicator of the health of turbine blades, due to its implications on blade surface heat transfer and structural integrity. The present work proposes a physics-based online assessment framework for industrial gas turbine engines (GTE), in order to assess the blade surface roughness in a high-pressure turbine without engine shutdown. The framework consolidates gas path analysis (GPA) based performance monitoring models and meanline turbomachinery analysis using a novel GPA-meanline matching process. This extracts meaningful performance deviation trends from GPA, while resolving the uncertainties associated with the measurements and modeling. To relate efficiency loss to surface roughness severity, a meanline-based system-identification process has been developed to establish the meanline representation of the turbine stage and to incorporate an empirical surface roughness loss correlation system.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Mechanical
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Eng, Stephanie Lianne
- Abstract:
- Balance Aid aims to enhance balance by detecting unstable postures and providing feedback to prevent a fall. This thesis presents the development of a shoe sensor, a method to detect anomalous gait behaviours, and a measure of dynamic balance.Ground reaction sensors must avoid disturbing natural gait. A lightweight, compliant, wearable shoe sensor was developed that measures ground reaction in real-time and can be used in fall detection and prevention. Falls can be prevented by reducing risk factors. An anomalous gait behaviour detection system was developed to detect fatigue, eyes-closed, and cluttered gait using force plates and the ground reaction sensors. In addition to reducing risky behaviours. Traditional measures of balance do not apply well to human gait and detect steps as falls. An angular momentum based measurement was found to be a dynamic measure of balance that is able to differentiate between a fall and a step.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Mechanical
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- McClelland, John
- Abstract:
- Past Virtual Reality (VR) research shows that haptic feedback increases presence and improves users' task performance. However, providing haptic feedback for multiple virtual objects usually requires complex, immobile systems, or multiple haptic props. We present a new approach that applies deformable, shape-changing devices to VR haptics, leveraging the dominance of human vision in VR to provide realistic haptic feedback with physical shape approximations. Our first study evaluates our HaptoBend prototype through an elicitation study. Results support the use of physical shape approximations and reveal important user preferences. We translate these results and past work into a Design Criteria to inform our second prototype, Adaptic. In our second study, we compare docking performance and adherence to our Design Criteria with Adaptic, a Razor Hydra Controller, and haptic props. We found Adaptic did well in satisfying our Design Criteria and had little difference in performance compared to the other haptic approaches.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Information Technology (M.I.T.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Digital Media
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Khedr, Aly Ahmed
- Abstract:
- Raman spectroscopy has been promoted as a non-invasive diagnostic technique capable of distinguishing molecular changes in biological samples. The quantification of spectra is limited by physical, high frequency cosmic spikes, and broader fluorescence background artifacts.Current preprocessing techniques eliminate artifacts but also distort Raman spectral bands in the process. The preprocessing techniques depend on many parameters that are difficult to optimize and rely on signal characteristics such as background shape and spectral and cosmic spike widths. This thesis presents an algorithm to remove cosmic spikes based on the principles of empirical mode decomposition and energy detection, and two algorithms for background fluorescence noise rejection by applying the principles of asymmetric penalized least squares minimization using non-quadratic cost functions. Performance analysis using simulated datasets show that the proposed algorithms outperform the state-of-the-art in both artifact suppression and Raman band preservation. This thesis also shows the importance of preprocessing Raman Spectra on classification.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Biomedical
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Quiquero, Hailey Brianna
- Abstract:
- Increased environmental conscientiousness and the abundance of timber in Canada has lead to the desire for more timber construction. To increase opportunity for timber products in construction, novel building systems including Post-Tensioned (PT) timber are required. A numerical model was developed and validated in FEM software Abaqus to model PT timber in fire conditions, with highly promising results. Beam failure times were modelled within 5%, and load-deflection behaviour and failure mechanisms were accurately demonstrated. Additionally, the performance of timber adhesives after fire damage was examined. Based on the experimental results, additional zero-strength layer thicknesses were estimated conservatively to be 23 mm beyond the char front (95th percentile) to account for the loss of strength (subject to various limitations). It is recommended that a new standardized test be developed for timber adhesives which quantifies the performance beyond the char layer in burnt engineered timber so that individual adhesives may be evaluated.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Civil
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Nasir, Tashia
- Abstract:
- We developed a scheme for the dynamic volumetric 3D reconstruction of human figures. We aimed at achieving three key objectives that were accuracy, real-time acquisition of partial view 3D data followed by fast processing of data to produce a complete 3D model, and cost-effectiveness of the process. The research problems we encountered were the selection of appropriate camera technology and capturing environment to carry out the reconstruction. We designed a setup that consisted of multiple depth cameras placed around the object of interest at a fixed distance. We proposed and implemented a complete methodology where the reconstruction was accurate and fast conforming to our research goals. We also analyzed the effect of initial orientation and overlap between multiple partial view 3D scans on the accuracy of the final reconstruction. We achieved the minimum error percentage of 4.67% in our final reconstructed 3D model.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Human-Computer Interaction
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Corrigan, Laura
- Abstract:
- The shedding, or abscission, of plant organs occurs in four stages at specialized junctions in the plant called abscission zones (AZs). Premature abscission can pose a problem for farmers by reducing crop yield. Studies in Arabidopsis thaliana have identified organ boundary genes BLADE-ON-PETIOLE1/2 (BOP1/2) as essential for the formation of AZs. However, downstream effectors of BOP1/2 in this process are unknown. To execute developmental programs in inflorescences, BOP1/2 require TGA basic leucine zipper transcription factors for recruitment to DNA and TALE homeodomain proteins ATH1 and KNAT6 for boundary patterning. How these factors contribute to abscission is unclear. Here, I show that TGA and TALE transcription factors contribute to BOP-dependent formation of AZs. I also begin to explore a role for this module in organ separation. Collectively, my work reveals a role for boundary genes at different steps of abscission for potential application in crops.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Biology
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Allen, Christian Harry
- Abstract:
- Recent studies indicate that ionizing radiation (IR) induced opacification in the lens of the eye occurs at lower doses (< 2Gy) than past protection guidelines had assumed. Research is currently focused on identifying early signs of the lens degradation that leads to cataract formation, and in developing non-invasive assays capable of detecting low dose exposures to the lens of the eye. Raman spectroscopy (RS) is a non-invasive, vibrational spectroscopic technique based on the inelastic scattering of light by molecular vibrations. It is capable of providing information on the molecular makeup of biological samples that can be used for classification purposes. This work focuses on the application of RS combined with multivariate statistical analysis to detect IR induced changes in vitro within human lens epithelial (HLE) cells exposed to a broad dose-range (0.01-5 Gy). The development of a new Raman microscope which will increase data acquisition throughput is also discussed.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Physics
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Daher, Ali
- Abstract:
- Missing data are common in many clinical studies. In this thesis, we review methods for analyzing incomplete data using generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs). GLMMs are widely used in clustered and longitudinal data analyses, where random effects are used to model subject or cluster specific effects. We review algorithms for finding the ML estimators in GLMMs with nonignorable missing responses. We present an application of the GLMM using actual data from a clinical study. We also conduct a simulation study to assess the performance of the ML method in the presence of nonignorable missing responses. The simulation results indicate that under misspecified missing data models one can observe systemic bias in the regression estimators and also poor coverage probabilities from the confidence intervals. We conclude that when analyzing incomplete data with nonignorable missing responses, it is necessary to incorporate a suitable missing data model into the observed data likelihood function in order to obtain unbiased and efficient estimators of the model parameters.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Statistics
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Dhillon, Amarjit Singh
- Abstract:
- Complex Event Processing (CEP) on sensor-based systems often uses a mobile gateway agent to forward raw sensor data streams to a remote back-end server. Complex events that are triggered by multiple raw events are then detected at the back-end server. This approach relies on a persistent network connection between the back-end server and the mobile device.This thesis proposes an edge computing-based mobile CEP technique in which CEP is performed on the mobile edge device using an embedded CEP engine and the detected complex events are sent to the back-end server for further processing. A proof-of-concept prototype for this system has been built using a Siddhi CEP engine and a WSO2 server. A thorough performance analysis is performed for comparing the proposed system with the back-end server-based system. The proposed system can handle intermittent network disconnections and leads to reduced user cost and energy consumption for the mobile device.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Electrical and Computer
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Singh, Jasmeet
- Abstract:
- This thesis proposes an adaptive system to allocate virtual machines in a cloud environment to reduce clients' waiting time while reducing the idle resources for the service provider. Further, the thesis demonstrates the viability of the proposed system via a prototype built using the Citrix XenServer and a machine learning algorithm which makes the system capable of working with minimum human interactions. The proposed architecture is designed in collaboration with and based on the requirements of DLS Technology so that they can migrate their flagship product (vKey) to a cloud environment keeping security and performance as a priority. The incoming requests from clients are handled by a pool manager which takes smart decisions thus making the user experience seamless. A performance analysis of the prototype is carried out to prove the effectiveness of the proposed strategies.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Electrical and Computer
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Tokarski, Derek Stuart
- Abstract:
- Basin-wide snow water equivalent (SWE) is an important hydrologic variable. For large basins, SWE is often estimated using a sparse network of sites. In this study, historical snow surveys (1978-2017) conducted across the 13,700 km2 Snare River basin near Yellowknife, NWT, were analyzed to identify local and regional scales of variability as well as temporal trends. Two field seasons of enhanced surveys (2016/17) were conducted. Snow regimes were found to differ significantly between sites north and south of treeline. No statistically significant temporal trends in SWE were detected but snow depth was found to be increasing while snow density was decreasing. Surveys on lakes showed consistently lower SWE than in adjacent uplands by approximately 23%. North of treeline sites consistently contributed much greater error to basin-wide SWE estimates than sites to the south. The consistent regional differences were used to inform sampling strategies for each region.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Geography
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Khattak, Muhammad Hissan
- Abstract:
- Morphological information is extracted from different images using a sequence of image processing techniques, designed by trial and error to produce repeatable information for the studied material, flocculated fluid fine tailings (FFT). The designed image processing method produces binary images defining pore-space and solid particles (solid grains or flocs). The binary images are then analyzed using a software, primarily "Fiji-Image J" for quantitative analysis of the image for tends in pore and particle size distributions. The samples that were imaged were obtained from amended FFT dewatering experiments, comprising many replicates of 0.10 m high columns that were sampled over months. The tailings were dosed with a high molecular anionic polymer at two doses (600 and 800 ppm polymer per dry tailings). Columns either had one way or two-way drainage. The most dramatic observation was the increase in floc size over 48 hours using optical microscopy.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Civil
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Alshareef, Zynab
- Abstract:
- Let $q=p^e$ be a power of prime number $p$ and $\fq$ be a finite field with $q$ elements. Let $\Phi_n$ be the $nth$ cyclotomic polynomial over $\fq$ such that $q$ is congruent to $\pm 1$ modulo each prime divisor of $n$. We use composed products to obtain an explicit factorization of $\Phi_n$ over the finite field $\fq$.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Pure Mathematics
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Wilson, Meaghan Alycia Marie
- Abstract:
- This thesis proposes a mountainside housing ensemble as counterpoint to the Erickson-designed monumental Simon Fraser University campus atop Burnaby Mountain. Simon Fraser's resolutely horizontal Brutalist architecture comprises a constructed landscape and an architecture of finality. Might the flanks of Burnaby Mountain welcome an architecture of un-finality, adjustability, and change, as balancing counterpoint to the formal campus? Availing itself of an armature and modular building system, Mountainside Housing imagines a student village that will evolve over time. Premised on the idea of a Gondola station to connect Burnaby Mountain with the Vancouver Lower Mainland, the settlement will provide flexible and affordable student housing. Inspired by the treehouse dwellings students have built in the woods on Burnaby Mountain and by Erickson and Jeffrey Lindsay's tensegrity structure at Convocation Mall, the architecture reconciles finality and ephemerality while constructing the space generated by the slope's falling ground plane, between ground and sky.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Architecture (M.Arch.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Architecture
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Froude, Gregory
- Abstract:
- The response of the Polar Sea to Cretaceous carbon perturbations is poorly understood and palaeotemperature data from the Arctic are limited. To understand high latitude palaeoceanographic dynamics, dinocyst assemblages were collected from a composite Cenomanian to Campanian section from the Bastion Ridge and Kanguk formations within the Sverdrup Basin at Glacier Fiord, Axel Heiberg Island and Slidre Fiord, Ellesmere Island. Dinocyst assemblages were compared to carbon isotope and benthic foraminiferal age data indicating that age ranges for several Late Cretaceous dinocyst taxa need regional revision. At Glacier Fiord a turnover in dinocyst assemblages reveal a change from a brackish to marine palaeoenvironmental change before the onset of OAE 2. A correlation between δ13Corg, peridiniod dinoflagellate cysts and cooling global sea surface temperatures indicate an increase in palaeoproductivity during a Coniacian to Campanian cooling trend. Three dinocyst biozonations are proposed for the Sverdrup Basin.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Earth Sciences
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Wong, Jason Si Lok
- Abstract:
- Kyrgyzstan's pasture management policies have been challenged by the limited capacity of its nascent, village-level committees and pasture user groups. The collapse of supporting Soviet-era institutions that collected up-to-date information means policies have little connection with actual practice on the ground. As a result, rural Kyrgyz livelihoods have stagnated in Naryn province.A cybercartographic approach with user-generated data is implemented to visualize traditional practices on an online atlas. Both the produced atlas and the process of making the atlas are examined for their impact on pasture stakeholders' roles in pasture management.Spatial and interview results show spatially different representations of pastures by various groups and a dialogue-building effect of visualizing practices on an atlas. Demonstrating spatial and thematic linkages between groups offers new partnerships and deeper possible engagement of pasture users in managing pastures. These results are discussed in the context of informing a future pasture governance tool.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Geography
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
In Defence of Invisiblized Noncitizens: Seeking Justice in the Canadian Immigration Detention System
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Coligado, Marie Albert
- Abstract:
- The Canadian immigration detention system is indefinitely holding noncitizens embodying precarious statuses without setting time limits to their deprivation of liberty. Presided over by Immigration Division board members, detention review hearings are supposed to be a means through which they can seek release. This thesis demonstrates, however, that immigration detainees have severely limited access to justice through these quasi-judicial proceedings where the evidentiary burden is shifted on to them. They face overlapping challenges in seeking legal representation while held in immigration holding centres and provincial prisons, including lack of information on their right to counsel, limited Legal Aid funding, and language barriers. Using interviews with lawyers and former detainees, and non-participant observation of detention reviews, this thesis argues immigration detainees are largely invisiblized by their limited access to justice, which is fostered by the Canadian sovereign state and its highly securitized political context that is particularly wary of racialized noncitizens.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Sociology
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Hall, Teall
- Abstract:
- There is a long history in Canada of Indigenous peoples remaining on the outside of water governance, despite widespread agreement that environmental governance should include all affected parties. The importance of reconciling relationships with Indigenous peoples has launched a number of legislative attempts to improve their involvement in governance, however significant challenges remain. This is true for the Mackenzie River Basin, a transboundary watershed with a diverse and dispersed population. While water governance of the Basin has involved provincial and territorial jurisdictions, the extent of Indigenous participation has yet to be determined. Through a content analysis of the Master Agreement and the 2015 Bilateral between the NWT and Alberta and semi-structured interviews, this study investigates how Indigenous peoples and their perspectives have been represented in governance. Findings suggest that current governance continues to filter Indigenous perspectives through government and fail to achieve a nation-to-nation relationship.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Geography
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Luo, Siqi
- Abstract:
- I present a study comparing selection techniques for low-cost mobile VR devices, such as Google Cardboard. My objective was to assess if alternatives to common head-ray selection methods were feasible with current computer vision tracking approaches on the mobile. In the first experiment, I compared three selection techniques, air touch, head ray, and finger ray. Overall, hand-based selection technique (air touch) performed much worse than ray-based selection techniques. In the second experiment, I compared different combinations of selection techniques and selection activation methods. Results indicated that the built-in Cardboard button worked well with head ray and hand gesture with ray-based techniques can be an interaction potential on mobile VR. I concluded that camera-based ray selection techniques and hand-based activation mechanism are promising on Mobile VR in the future.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Computer Science (M.C.S.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Human-Computer Interaction
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Mareishi, Soraya
- Abstract:
- A dental implant is a biocompatible surgical component placed into the jawbone to support dental prosthesis including bridges, crowns, or denture replacements. Currently, dental implants are constructed employing solid materials, coated with biocompatible layers. Since bone is a living tissue that is constantly modified in response to external loading, redistributed mechanical loading might cause bone resorption and interface failure, all of which have been notable problems for orthopedic implants. To overcome these issues, we propose a new design for the dental implant structure that can simultaneously minimize bone loss and interface failure. Multiscale and multi-objective design optimization of dental implants employing lattice materials were performed by considering lattice structure in implant design. The proposed design was capable of reducing simultaneously the interface failure and bone loss, as well as implant weight
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Mechanical
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Alqarni, Sondos
- Abstract:
- We present data from localized heat inducement studies at both cellular and tissue levels along with a computational model built to predict the temperature increase and damage extent in tissues receiving hyperthermia treatment by a fiber-based active heater. This novel fiber-based active heater serves as a heat source and a temperature sensor. Five important insights are highlighted from this thesis work.First, heat-induced controlled cell deaths were observed experimentally in the three cell lines with MCF-10A being more susceptible to heat compared to HEK 293 and MCF7 cells. Second, comparison between the phantom tissue and ex vivo experimental and computational results shows a lesion size of 5×12 mm and 4.87×11.6 mm in the phantom tissue and 7×15 mm and 8.8×14.3 mm in the ex vivo studies at pumping power of 1.8 W for 10 minutes respectively. Thus, this computational model is able to provide information about the heat transfer characteristics caused by the active heater in living biological tissue.Third, under similar conditions of pumping power and heating time to that used in the ex vivo experiment, we found that the blood perfusion has a profound effect on the amount of induced heat at the active heater surface (or at the heat source). Because of the small dimension of lethal volume, heat dissipation by blood with a volumetric perfusion rate of 6.4×10-3 Kg/m3s in the liver tissues is very small.Forth, in all the experimental and computational studies, hyperthermia position and damage extent can be controlled by the active heater through managing the temperature increase and the power supply during heating, thereby avoiding the transient effect of heat outside of the target volume. Thus, this hybrid simulation/active heater approach may have the potential to provide reliable temperature increase information before and during a procedure in which controlled localized heating is required.Finally, we show that when packaged, the fiber-based active heater does not suffer from a significant reduction in heating efficiency. Hyperthermia-induced lesions by the packaged active heater were in order of 3.9×14.5 mm and 3.787×5.24 mm.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Electrical and Computer
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Na, Weicong
- Abstract:
- Neural-based modeling techniques have been recognized as important vehicles in the microwave computer-aided design (CAD) area in addressing the growing challenges of designing next generation microwave device, circuits and systems. The purpose of this thesis is to develop advanced neural-based model generation and extrapolation techniques for microwave applications. The proposed techniques take advantage of the high-efficiency of automated model generation algorithm, the cost-effective concept of knowledge-based neural network and the generalization capability of extrapolation techniques, to achieve reliable models for microwave applications. An automated knowledge-based neural network model generation method using a new adaptive sampling technique for microwave applications is firstly proposed. The proposed method integrates all the subtasks involved in knowledge-based neural modeling, thereby facilitating a more efficient and automated model development framework. The new adaptive sampling technique incorporates interpolation techniques to determine the additional training samples required and their location in model input space. In this way, the proposed method can improve the efficiency and reduce the expense of knowledge-based neural model development. We propose a unified automated model structure adaptation algorithm for knowledge-based modeling using l1 optimization to automatically determine the type and topology of the mapping structure in a knowledge-based model. A new unified knowledge-based model structure to encompass various types of mappings is proposed. Using the distinctive property for feature selection of l1 optimization, the proposed method can automatically distinguish whether a mapping is needed or not and whether a mapping is linear or nonlinear. It is a more flexible and systematic technique and can further speed up the knowledge-based neural model development. As a further advancement, we propose an advanced multi-dimensional extrapolation technique for neural-based microwave modeling to make the model can be more reliably used outside the training range. Grid formulation in the extrapolation region is introduced and the proposed extrapolation is performed over these grids. We present multi-dimensional cubic polynomial extrapolation formulation and propose to use optimization to obtain extrapolated values at grid points. The validity of the proposed extrapolation method is demonstrated by both EM optimization example and nonlinear microwave simulation examples.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Electrical and Computer
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Murray, Lauren Krystina
- Abstract:
- The cause of Parkinson's disease (PD) remains unknown. Environmental toxicants such as paraquat have been linked to the characteristic dopaminergic (DA) neurodegeneration in the substantia nigra (SN); nutrition may also play a role. A common polymorphism (677C>T) in methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR), a folic acid metabolism enzyme, is associated with increased PD incidence. Using a mouse model that mimics this polymorphism, this study aimed to determine whether MTHFR deficiency leads to enhanced degeneration in a paraquat PD model. Male 3-month-old Mthfr+/+ and Mthfr+/- mice received paraquat or saline injections. Mthfr+/- mice demonstrated motor and a trend for memory impairment compared to Mthfr+/+ mice. No differences in SN DA neuron numbers or antioxidant activity were seen, however, increased oxidative stress and antioxidant activity were observed within the dorsal striatum of Mthfr+/- mice. These results suggest potential enhanced vulnerability to paraquat due to MTHFR deficiency through changes in such processes within this region.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Neuroscience
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Zhang, Chao
- Abstract:
- Optimization and modeling techniques are the essential part of design process of microwave filters. Space mapping is a recognized method for speeding up electromagnetic (EM) optimization, and has been applied to microwave filter design. In the first part of this thesis, a cognition-driven formulation of space mapping method is proposed and applied to EM-based filter optimization to increase optimization efficiency and the ability to avoid being trapped in local minima. This new technique utilizes two sets of intermediate feature space parameters, including feature frequency parameters and ripple height parameters. The design variables are mapped to the feature frequency parameters, which are further mapped to the ripple height parameters. By formulating the cognition-driven optimization directly in the feature space, our method increases optimization efficiency and the ability to avoid being trapped in local minima. In the second part of this thesis, a multivalued neural network is proposed to solve the non-uniqueness (multivalued) problem in inverse modeling. Our proposed technique can be effectively applied to parameter extraction of microwave filters. We propose a multivalued neural network inverse modeling technique to associate a single set of electrical parameters with multiple sets of geometrical or physical parameters. One set of geometrical or physical parameters is called one value of our proposed inverse model. Our proposed multivalued neural network is structured to accommodate multiple values for the model output. We also propose a new training error function to focus on matching each training sample using only one value of our proposed inverse model, while other values are free and can be trained to match other contradictory samples. In this way, our proposed multivalued neural network can learn all the training data by automatically redirecting contradictory information into different values of the proposed inverse model. Therefore, our proposed technique can solve the non-uniqueness problem in a simpler and more automated way compared to existing ANN inverse modeling techniques. Both proposed techniques in this thesis are illustrated by several microwave filter examples. Our proposed techniques can be used in the design and tuning processes of microwave filters.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Electrical and Computer
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- St-Jacques, Maxime
- Abstract:
- This thesis aims to design a community energy system (CES) with controls optimizing for cost savings. This research treats electrical and thermal domains as an integrated system to find a global minimum cost of a community energy system. A proposed methodology to quantify an electric grid user's greenhouse gas (GHG) emission is presented and then demonstrated with a case study. Furthermore, an optimization methodology is presented to lower an electrical grid user's electrical bill through the implementation of a battery energy storage system. This cost optimization showcases with a case study demonstrating that optimizing to lower costs has an added benefit of lowering GHG emissions and removing peak demand capacity from the grid. This optimization methodology is than expanded to lowering a CES's electrical and gas bill by way of controlling an on-site generator, a battery energy storage system and a thermal energy storage system.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Mechanical
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Rylska, Nataliya
- Abstract:
- The 21st century was marked by the "internal audit explosion" in all sectors of the global economy. However, very little is known about its origins, characteristics, scale and impact on public sectors. This thesis advances the emerging and poorly understood field of public-sector internal auditing (IA) by providing the first comprehensive examination of the public-sector reforms that led to IA explosion from the dynamic and comparative analytical perspectives.The thesis argues that public-sector IA explosion is a manifestation of a paradigmatic shift in the global IA profession, led by the global Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), and dubbed by the author as a "Value-Added Management Partner Paradigm" (VAMP). The methodology is based on the author's conceptual framework for the analysis of IA policy dynamics and variation, based on adaptation of Howlett and colleagues (2009) meta-theory of policy making as an over-arching research philosophy, and incorporating a range of mid-level theories, frameworks, and concepts from three fields of knowledge: public policy, business administration, and IA profession.The study produced several important findings. First, the source of VAMP genesis - the modern IA industry - went through three professional paradigms during 1941-2017, the last of which became a global best-practice blueprint for the IA activity and IA reforms. Second, VAMP was strongly recognized and advocated by the key supra-national institutions, because it fit with their international regimes and agendas. Third, there is strong evidence that over the last two decades a global adoption of the VAMP model of IA activity occurred in the public sectors across the world, leading to a high degree of convergence in the IA practices. Fourth, case studies on IA reforms in the national Westminster governments of the UK, Australia, and Canada as early adopters of VAMP, demonstrated that while the VAMP has taken the firm ground in the IA sectors there, the countries vary with respect to the established legislative and normative base and design of the IA governance regimes.The major implication is that VAMP-inspired public-sector IA reforms are still work-in-progress and their outcomes are difficult to assess.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Public Policy
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Samson, Cameron Laurier
- Abstract:
- Historical and predicted extreme streamflows were analysed for the Jock River watershed, using Generalized Extreme Values (GEV) and Streamflow Threshold Level (STL) methods. The historical streamflow shows earlier snow melt peaks (~10 days), decreased snow melt peaks, and decreases in consecutive drought days (CDD), whereas the summer-fall season peaks and mean annual streamflow (MAS) have been increasing. The Jock River Watershed Model (JRWM) was developed using the Raven modelling framework and achieved a Nash-Sutcliffe of 0.76 with reduced capacities to characterize low flows. Predicted streamflow changes from climate change scenarios include snow melt peaks decreased by 50% and shifted seven weeks earlier by 2099. GEV analysis showed that extremes are decreasing by ~10% for the snow melt peaks, while increases in MAS are continuing and the summer-fall peaks are increasing by ~30%. STL analysis for CDD shows the magnitude and number of CDD events are increasing by ~300%.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Geography
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Brereton, Carol Anne
- Abstract:
- Fugitive emissions, such as leaking components, are important sources of methane and other pollutants within the oil and gas sector. These gas emission sources are difficult to mitigate because their existence, location, and magnitude are unknown, especially within facilities which may have thousands of potential source components. Improving the speed at which these sources are characterized (located and quantified) can improve these mitigation efforts.Using sparse concentration information (from finite sensor locations) and estimated wind fields, a scalar transport adjoint-based optimization approach was developed to characterize both single and multiple simultaneous gas releases representative of the fugitive emissions problem. This approach was tested using data from an open-field gas release to determine a single source location within 5 m and source magnitude within 13%. Simulated simultaneous releases over a complex 3D geometry based on an Alberta gas plant were also characterized using both detailed transient wind and wind fields approximated with a series of steady-state wind simulations more readily implemented in a field application. Magnitudes were predicted within 10% and major regions located.By extending the method with a database of pre-computed retro-tracers generated on simplified steady-state wind fields, the required computational time for the solution optimization was reduced by a factor of 200-600, making computations feasible on a desktop machine and raising the possibility of near-continuous fugitive emissions quantification in the future. Major sources were successfully located, and magnitudes estimated within -75 to -32%, even with limited wind coverage (60° direction variation).Turbulent Schmidt number selection (which scales diffusivity) had little effect on estimated source locations, but strongly influenced estimated magnitudes. For a tested turbulent Schmidt number range of 0.33 (diffuse) to 2.0 (highly advective), the predicted emission rates for the open field release varied between -35 to +128% of actual. Buildings dampened this effect, suggesting that open-field estimates can act as an error bound.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Mechanical
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Barfoot, Laura May
- Abstract:
- 'Terrorism' has been a mainstream discussion since the early 2000s. Though much academic and government research has been produced on the subject, consistent and appropriate application of the term seems to be elusive. As a result, the modern incarnation of the word carries baggage of the event that inspired its political appropriation and relies on synonyms to maneuver the limitations of legal definitions. I use critical discourse analysis to explore how terrorism and terrorist identity have been discursively constructed in the 2017 Public Report on the Terrorist Threat to Canada and its predecessors. My analysis suggests that this series of reports strategically manipulates Canadian readers by artificially inflating the 'terrorist threat' and securitizing policies and Canadians themselves. The 'war on terror' narrative persists as the difference between 'political' and 'legal' terrorism becomes increasingly unclear. These findings indicate the need for further discursive analysis of the politicization of terror in Canada.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Applied Linguistics and Discourse Studies
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Luu, Bryan Edward Dinh
- Abstract:
- Whole-body dehydration in the African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis, increases hematocrit and blood viscosity, which restrains oxygen delivery. This causes the resting heart rate, differences in arterio-venous blood oxygen contents, and whole-animal lactate to increase.I hypothesized that dehydration involves changes in cellular signaling through alterations of protein posttranslational acetylation, which can increase antioxidants and regulate metabolism. Seven Sirtuin (Sirt) protein deacetylases were profiled at the mRNA level with RT-qPCR in 6 tissues (liver, muscle, heart, kidney, brain, and lung) of X. laevis under control versus dehydration conditions. At least some sirt transcripts increased in all tissues except for kidney and brain. Similarly, global Sirt activity assays found that Sirt deacetylase activity increased in liver, muscle, heart, and lung. Western blots revealed the relative levels of Ac-SOD2. Results showed that acetylated SOD2 decreased with whole-body dehydration in the lung, heart, and kidney, suggesting that Sirt3 deacetylase activity is triggered by dehydration to activate antioxidant activity in these tissues.Sirt/PGC-1α/FoxO-mediated upregulation of antioxidants was investigated in lung and brain of X. laevis. Results showed upregulations of these three controllers of antioxidants in lung (but not brain) during dehydration, as evidenced by analyses at the mRNA, protein, and phospho-protein levels. Results suggested that dehydration-induced antioxidant upregulation in X. laevis was mediated by Sirts, in addition to PGC-1a and the FoxO1/3 transcription factors in a tissue-specific manner. Antioxidant capacity assays showed that lung sustained a decrease in antioxidant capacity during dehydration, which suggests that the Sirt/PGC-1α/FoxO response may be a compensatory one to restore antioxidants levels.In the liver, muscle, and heart, PGC-1α and Hif-1α were assessed for their roles in activating ureagenesis, angiogenesis, and remodelling of the metabolism. MEF2-mediated PGC-1α upregulation occurred in the liver, but not the muscle or heart, whereas Hif-1α increased in all 3 tissues with dehydration. Relative mRNA levels of genes related to glucose metabolism, angiogenesis, ureagenesis and β-oxidation were found to be differentially regulated in response to dehydration. Together, the results suggest that PGC-1α and Hif-1α are modulating gene expression during dehydration to suppress β-oxidation in favour of glycolysis, while ureagenesis and angiogenesis are promoted in liver.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Biology
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Logan, Stephen
- Abstract:
- This thesis studies the utility of folding and how it could be a beneficial addition to structures with regards to responsiveness. Folding has been used previously as a design technique for architectural forms. The built forms, however, rarely fold themselves. This thesis explores the forms that can be created through folding structures and the potential opportunities for use that they present. The folding techniques were discovered primarily through drawings and models that developed into folding structures that are responsive to the environment around them and informational input. Three folding structures were developed as an exhibition of the folding methods and the ways in which they can be used. These three structures are sited through Ottawa, Canada and serve as both useful, interactive public infrastructures and an addition to making these public areas more dynamic.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Architecture (M.Arch.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Architecture
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Dasylva, Abel Clement
- Abstract:
- In official statistics record linkage is an important activity, which consists in identifying records from the same individual in one or many files. It is used to combine data sources including administrative, survey or big data sources. In practice, record link- age is subject to linkage errors when it relies on quasi-identifiers, such as names and demographic variables, which are non-unique and recorded with errors. Accounting for these errors is an important but challenging problem. In this work, two methods are described for the primary analysis of such data, i.e. an analysis by someone with unfettered access to all the related micro-data and project information. Both solutions are estimating equation methods, which explicitly account for the uncertainty about the match status of record pairs and require the marginal distribution of a pair agreement vector. The fifirst methodology is model-based and operates under the assumption of conditional independence between the pairs agreement vectors and the responses given the covariates. The second methodology uses a model-assisted estimating equation, which dispenses with the above assumption but requires reliable clerical-reviews.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Probability and Statistics
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Crump, Courteney Marie Brigitte
- Abstract:
- Traditionally, the realism and anti-realism debate within metaphysics has been restricted to a dichotomy between realism and anti-realism. This dichotomy trickles down to more specific areas within the debate. One of these areas effected by the traditional realism and anti-realism dichotomy is moral realism and moral anti-realism. This thesis focuses on moral realism and moral anti-realism, and shows that restricting the debate to only moral realism and moral anti-realism is a false dichotomy. It does this through providing an alternative option to the two traditionally given: Humean Scepticism. The goal of this thesis is to argue that Humean Scepticism is a viable third option in the moral realism and moral anti-realism debate. This thesis demonstrates that scepticism should sometimes be taken seriously and acknowledged in some debates that it has traditionally been excluded from.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Philosophy
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Hickey, Shanna
- Abstract:
- This project involves an exploratory, qualitative case study of one Canadian Child and Youth Advocacy Centre (CYAC). The purpose of the research was to examine how Child Advocacy Centres (CACs) and CYACs respond to the needs of victims and their families and what frameworks guide their responses. Since this research is exploratory, no hypotheses were developed. Method: Sixteen in-person semi-structured interviews were conducted, transcribed and analyzed using QSR NVivo 11 Pro. Results: Several themes were drawn from the interviews illustrating the diverse dynamics that CACs and CYACs face including collaborative tensions, mental health and the criminal justice system.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Legal Studies
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Bowden, James William John
- Abstract:
- The argument that the Crown's authority over dissolution gives the Prime Minister an "undemocratic" advantage and allows him to commit "abuses of power" fuelled the shift toward fixed-date elections in Canada and fixed-term parliaments in the United Kingdom. But that trend has manifested itself in different ways in each country. This thesis will explain why Canada and the United Kingdom have taken such divergent approaches to the same issue.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Political Science
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Wereley, Ian
- Abstract:
- This dissertation investigates the cultural history of oil in Britain over a seventy-year period, between 1865 and 1935. While much has been written about the economic, political, diplomatic, geopolitical, and military aspects of oil during this timeframe, there have been few investigations into the ways that cultural factors have shaped the history of oil in Britain, a gap in the literature that this study seeks to fill. Britain was one of the first industrialized nations to make the transition to oil and in the period under consideration, everyday consumption of the commodity increased dramatically, especially in the cities, where new oil technologies for heating, illumination, and transportation became commonplace conveniences. Using understudied sources such as public lectures, cartoons, advertisements, exhibitions, and architecture, the dissertation examines the discourses of transition that were created to help Britons navigate their changing energy landscapes. It maps the complexities, opportunities, and impasses that accompanied the historical rise of oil in Britain during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and argues that the system of things that brought oil from the wellhead to the consumer was predicated on a vast constellation of ideas.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- History
- Date Created:
- 2018
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Tuxanidy Torres, Aleksandr
- Abstract:
- This integrated thesis is dedicated to the study of polynomials over finite fields, notably permutation polynomials and their compositional inverses, existence of irreducible polynomials with prescribed coefficients, as well as ennumeration of N-free and primitive elements with prescribed trace.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Mathematics
- Date Created:
- 2018