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- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Gupta, Aakriti
- Abstract:
- Wood frogs (Rana sylvatica) are a well-studied vertebrate model of natural freeze tolerance, surviving several months of winter subzero temperatures with 65-70% of total body water frozen as extracellular ice. Freezing halts blood circulation, heartbeat and breathing, restricting oxygen availability throughout the body and requiring a switch to anaerobic glycolysis for energy production, with its much lower ATP yield. To survive, wood frogs suppress their metabolic rate by about 90% to match ATP availability from glycolysis alone. Multiple cellular processes are regulated and suppressed, sustaining only pro-survival pathways until thawing occurs. Episodes of anoxia/reoxygenation also elevate reactive oxygen species (ROS) production that can surpass the antioxidant capacity of cells causing oxidative stress and tissue damage. This thesis examined a network of stress-responsive transcription factors (NRF2, OCT1, OCT4, YAP/TEAD, and RBPJ) and their associated pathways to determine their response and regulation over the anoxia/reoxygenation cycle. Decreased binding of transcriptional complexes to the promoter regions of target genes indicated a global reduction in transcription/translation processes. The data show also "functional switching" of OCT1, OCT4, and MAML while selectively upregulating antioxidants in a stress/organ specific manner. The present studies also shed new light on tissue repair mechanisms by demonstrating upregulation of selected pathway proteins. An increase in AHCY levels in liver also suggests maintenance of redox control, and elevated JMJD2C, TAZ, and MAML in skeletal and cardiac muscles indicates a potential increase in the expression of MyoD for muscle regeneration. Overall, the findings of this thesis document a complex yet coordinated network of transcriptional factors that support metabolic rate depression during freezing, combat oxidative stress, and initiate tissue repair mechanisms to endure prolonged anoxia and maintain cellular homeostasis in frozen wood frogs.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Biology
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Tovar Hidalgo, Maria Alejandra
- Abstract:
- This thesis aims to systematically examine the patterns of, and factors associated with, dental utilization among rural Ontario residents by collating, integrating, and interpreting data from the Canadian Community Health Survey. A scoping review across three high-income countries was also undertaken to determine which interventions are most efficient in closing the gaps in dental utilization previously identified in the CCHS data analysis and identify possible barriers and facilitators. This thesis provides evidence that oral health is influenced by geographical factors, socioeconomic status, and self-reported health behaviours. Equity in dental care was also influenced by structural factors like insurance and dental coverage. Rural Ontario residents visit their dentists less frequently and have more problem-oriented dental visits. The oral healthcare sector has experienced significant improvements in recent years through different oral health promotion and prevention programs, educational interventions, alternative delivery models and greater community and public health partnerships.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Health Sciences
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Newton, Luke Antony Ashley
- Abstract:
- Early security considerations are essential to ensuring a system is adequately protected, but their ever-growing size and complexity often leaves full comprehension of a system's interconnections out of reach. This gives rise to implicit interactions. These unplanned or unforeseen communication sequences between components are security vulnerabilities that can be exploited to mount a cyberattack. Existing design-phase formal methods-based approaches exist to identify implicit interactions, but formal methods see limited adoption and the root cause of implicit interactions is not well understood. In this work, we extend the existing formal approach to suggest areas of a system to focus redesign efforts, while also providing alternative approaches that do not require formal expertise. These focus on graph-based measurements and providing a set of properties, quality attributes, and design principles with goals in line with the reduction of the prevalence of implicit interactions within a system design.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Electrical and Computer
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Zahran, Heba Hegazy Abdelzaher
- Abstract:
- Understanding customer behaviour is a challenging problem. While the customer produces a large amount of data with each touch point, most of the proposed models focus on one data source in their predictive analysis approaches. This research proposes a customer profile model based on 360 customer view. To this end, we first model a simplified data model and the basic entities based on the existing models. Then, we perform extensive feature engineering techniques, including extracting new features and transforming features to enhance their behaviour in the predictive model. Through the experimentations, we show that the models based on graphs achieve good performance. To this end, we propose a graph-based neural network capable of multitasking without sacrificing the task's performance. We examine three tasks to predict customer intentions. The final results reveal that the set of features with customer information from different data sources positively influences the predictive algorithms' performance.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Information Technology (M.I.T.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Digital Media
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Twardek, William Milan
- Abstract:
- Migration allows animals to exploit conditions across distinct habitats to maximize their potential fitness. These movements are dependent on connectivity between habitats that make it possible for animals to move unencumbered. In freshwater ecosystems, dams and other barriers can compromise connectivity and restrict the movement of migrating fish (among other organisms). The central objective of this thesis was to evaluate the consequences of physical barriers on fish during long-distance upstream migrations through rivers. This thesis generates multiple lines of evidence to evaluate that objective, including a literature synthesis, as well as ecological, social science, and physiological data, with much of this research focusing on Chinook salmon of the upper Yukon River that undertake one of the world's longest inland salmon migrations. First, I conducted a synthesis to identify the broad scale impacts of hydropower barriers on inland fish. Next, I evaluated the potential for a fishway to restore connectivity for upper Yukon River Chinook salmon beyond a hydropower barrier situated in a terminal reach of their migration. I then considered how the knowledge developed in the preceding chapters can inform the practice of fish passage by surveying fish passage engineers and scientists on the state of collaboration and knowledge dissemination in the field. Finally, I assessed the efficacy of an ex-situ approach to off-setting the impacts of barriers - hatchery production. This research revealed that the impacts of barriers on long-distance fish migrations (and the broader ecosystem) can be severe, but that approaches can be taken to minimize these impacts (Chapter 2). Fishways are one such approach, but they are not always effective for long-distance migrants like the upper Yukon River Chinook salmon (Chapters 3-5). Part of the solution may be more frequent collaboration and knowledge dissemination amongst fish passage professionals to enhance the effectiveness of fish passage facilities (Chapter 6). Hatcheries may complement fish passage efforts, though the physiological differences between hatchery and wild fish should be considered (Chapter 7). Findings from this thesis highlight the importance of maintaining connectivity for migratory fish to the benefit of the ecosystems and people that depend on them.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Biology
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Rehbein, Christina K.
- Abstract:
- Biodiversity is in severe decline globally, attributed in a large part to anthropogenic land use change. The conservation literature refers to the landscape scale as important in mediating biodiversity. However, environmental impact assessment (EIA), a prevalent tool to inform decision-making with respect to ecological considerations such as biodiversity impacts, rarely takes a landscape perspective. Decisions are often made for individual projects, at local scales, with little attention paid to landscape contexts. The cumulative impact of project-by-project decision-making all too often results in alteration of ecological networks in the landscape with associated losses in biodiversity. A disconnect is apparent between scales of analysis for biodiversity conservation and those used for impact assessment. Landscape ecology studies landscape patterns and processes at a range of scales and has potential to bridge this disconnect. This thesis examines the potential to improve biodiversity conservation by better incorporating landscape ecology-based analysis into project EIA. The mixed-methods research follows three lines: (1) identifying gaps between the science of landscape ecology and the practice of EIA, (2) examining the challenges faced by EIA practitioners when considering broader-scale analysis in EIA and associated opportunities for overcoming them, and (3) testing an accessible approach to landscape analysis that incorporates a scenario-based simulation model of cumulative project decision-making. Research was focused on Ontario, Canada, and its multi-jurisdictional EIA regime. Results revealed gaps in how landscape context was considered in EIA, such as the ability of the whole landscape to support species movement and dispersal, and in comparing project-induced land use change to landscape-based ecological targets and thresholds. Quantitative and spatial analyses were infrequently used to assess landscape composition and configuration. Challenges exacerbating these gaps are both policy- and science-based. Weak policy and guidance for broader-scale analysis and a lack of multi-level policy support undermine practitioners' ability to incorporate landscape analysis into EIA. Better multi-jurisdictional data and data management systems are recommended, as well as increasing knowledge of ecological thresholds within the science-practitioner communities. If these challenges can be overcome, the modelling exercise demonstrated that incorporating even simple landscape considerations in project-based decision-making can have a positive effect on biodiversity indicators.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Geography
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Abdolahnejad Bahramabadi, Mahla
- Abstract:
- Among the different categories of natural images, face images are very important because of the role they play in human social interactions. It is recognised that despite all the recent advances of artificial intelligence using deep neural networks, computers are still struggling at achieving a rich and flexible understanding of face images comparable to humans' face perception abilities. This thesis aims at finding fully unsupervised ways for learning a transformation from face images pixel space to a representation space in which the underlying facial concepts are captured and disentangled. We propose that it is possible to utilize clues from the real 3D world in order to guide the representation learner in the direction of disentangling facial concepts. We conduct two studies in order to test this hypothesis. First, we propose a deep autoencoder model for extracting facial concepts based on their scales. We introduce an adaptive resolution reconstruction loss inspired by the fact that different categories of concepts are encoded in (and can be captured from) different resolutions of face images. With the help of this new reconstruction loss, the deep autoencoder model is able to receive a real face image and compute its representation vector, which not only makes it possible to reconstruct the input image faithfully, but also separates the concepts related to specific scales. Second, we introduce a new scheme to enable generative adversarial networks to learn a representation for face images which is composed of the representations for smaller facial components. This is inspired by the fact that all face images display the same underlying structure. As a result, a face image can be divided into parts with fixed positions each containing specific facial components only. Learning a separate distribution for each of these parts is equivalent to disentangling these components in the representation space.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Electrical and Computer
- Date Created:
- 2022
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- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Thompson, Michelle
- Abstract:
- Since the 1950s, a new wave of music festivals has emerged in North America in response to the systematic exclusion and cultural gatekeeping cultural organizations have historically conducted. This has created a more inclusive space for marginalized artists and communities in which political discourse and anti-discrimination movements have become the focus (Getz, 2010; Duffy & Mair, 2021; Quinn, 2005; Li, Moore & Smythe, 2018; Wilson, Arshed, Shaw & Pret, 2016; Bekenshtein, 2020; Fernandez, 2006). This study highlights some of Canada's diversity-focused festivals, which are founded on the principles of multiculturalism and support the national narrative of a welcoming nation. However, these events sometimes reproduce existing societal conditions that position racially marginalized people as the "Other". The study applies a digital ethnography (DE) methodology (Pink, 2012, 2013, Postill, 2008, 2010a, 2010b, 2011) to investigate the promotional activities festivals and marginalized music artists conduct as they negotiate existing power imbalances, cultural hegemony, and language hierarchies. Between July and November 2019, I carried out field visits to five Canadian festivals that focus on diversity and multiculturalism. I collected field notes, photos, videos, and audio recordings, and captured 1083 Facebook posts from the events and the artists who performed there. Through digital content analysis and ethnographic inquiry, the data revealed that racially marginalized francophone music artists express fluid and hybrid identities constructed by multilingualism, geographic mobility, and their musical influences. These identities are evident in the music styles artists express, the languages they use, and the symbolic meaning of their Facebook content. The findings show that festivals are largely apolitical and focused on the commodification of diversity and multiculturalism. This commodification can nationalize, fetishize, exotify, and culturally appropriate the identities of marginalized communities. As a result, festivals can reproduce difference rather than create the social cohesion they aspire to. Music artists use strategies like hashtag activism, code-switching, music remix, public speaking, and content curation to negotiate these social constraints. In doing so, they challenge the compartmentalization of the music industry and introduce positive representations of marginalized communities.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Canadian Studies
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Almhairat, Saif
- Abstract:
- Supportive smart home systems show the potential to enable older adults to age-in-place. However, research has not considered the communication challenge accompanied by wide-scale use. This thesis provides insight into supportive home systems' network traffic, identifies the impact of network impairments on a mechanism aimed to reduce network traffic, and develops a solution to ensure robustness of the traffic reduction mechanism to network impairments. Network traffic for two smart home systems and bed sensors was analyzed for 57 days. Results indicated a 10-fold difference in traffic between similar systems and the predominance of small packets which consume the network. Dual Machine Learning was implemented to reduce network traffic and, under simulated network impairments, yielded inaccuracies in cloud-recorded data. A solution was developed to mitigate the impact of network impairments, whereby accuracy increased from 71.4% to 94.6% for latency, 64.1% to 90.3% for jitter, and 61.6% to 78.9% for packet loss.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Electrical and Computer
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Stanford-Toonen, Ashley
- Abstract:
- Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a complex disorder with high morbidity and mortality. Given that multi-modal rehabilitation programs are the only effective AN treatment, the discovery of new drug treatments is essential. Core to researching new treatment options for AN is the use of animal models, specifically, activity-based anorexia (ABA). ABA reproduces three of the core symptoms of AN: caloric restriction, increased exercise, and rapid weight loss. Flibanserin is a drug that increases sexual activity in women, and we hypothesized that it might increase another rewarding motivated activity, eating, in juvenile female ABA rats. Our findings indicate that flibanserin treatment reduced weight loss by decreasing hyperactivity and increasing food intake. Further examination of the complex pharmacological profile of FLIB is required to understand the pharmacological mode of action underlying the behavioral changes in ABA, however this research provides clinically relevant evidence that flibanserin may be effective in combatting ABA symptoms.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Neuroscience
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Ghandeharian, Sacha
- Abstract:
- This dissertation argues that a feminist critical theory of event provides the political tradition of contemporary critical theory with important theoretical tools for the continued interrogation of our dominant socio-symbolic order as characterized by its prevailing structures, institutions and discourses. These discussions are oriented by an exploration of the antinomy between universality and contingency in efforts to theorize subjectivity and ethics in contemporary critical theory. Chapter One explores the role of antihumanism in contemporary critical theory as dramatized by the Foucault-Habermas debate. Chapter Two argues that narrative theories of self are constitutive of an attempt to reconcile universality and contingency by trying to incorporate contingency within an account of narrative coherence and agency which remains formal and universalistic. With the introduction of the notion of 'Event' in Chapter Three, we begin to more fully realize the potential of thinking of universality and contingency as co-constitutive theoretical and transformative practices. In light of the tendency in traditional theories of event to foreground the element of deconstruction over and against the productive, as well as the overly formal nature of theorizing the event, Chapter Four and Five rethink the notion of event from the perspective of feminist critical theory (e.g. Butler, Irigaray and care ethics). A feminist critical theory of event, with a theory of relational subjectivity at its core, becomes a means through which to conceptualize subjectivity in a way that recognizes both its formal and contextual dimensions. A feminist critical theory of event is able to theorize the formal characteristics of relational subjectivity as shared vulnerability, as well as how said vulnerability becomes shaped in particular ways depending on one's position within structures and relations of power. Such a conceptualization of event is best suited to understanding and critiquing the dominant socio-symbolic order of our time.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Political Science
- Date Created:
- 2020
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Horsey, Emily Anne
- Abstract:
- There is a large body of literature exploring early-life-seizures (ELS), however, much of this research focuses on whole brain regions. This thesis aims to understand the characteristics of ELS-sensitive neurones and their role in future seizure pathology. Using c-Fos-GFP/c-Fos-tTA based transgenic mice, we found that at P10 ~18% of pyramidal neurones are activated in the CA1 pyramidal layer of the hippocampus in response to a kainic acid (KA) seizure. Electrophysiology recordings of ELS-sensitive neurones found a decrease in spontaneous GABA activity. Using c-Fos-GFP/c-Fos-tTA/TRE-hM3Dq mice, which flags ELS-sensitive neurones with the excitatory DREADD hM3Dq, we found that reactivating ELS-sensitive neurones is sufficient to evoke seizures. Finally, using c-Fos-GFP/c-Fos-tTA/TRE-hM4Di mice with the inhibitory DREADD hM4Di, we found that suppressing ELS-sensitive neurones after a seizure recovers the increase in excitability. These results indicate that ELS-sensitive neurones play a crucial role in future seizure pathology and pose a unique target for further research.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Neuroscience
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Jarkas, Dana Abdulaziz
- Abstract:
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a multifaceted mental health disorder characterized by diverse clinical and biological profiles. Participants in the current study comprised individuals with PTSD who had military experience and healthy controls. All participants completed questionnaires assessing mental health symptoms and provided saliva and blood samples for cortisol and inflammatory marker determination. The dissociative PTSD group displayed the highest symptom severity, reflecting a high degree of comorbidity, in addition to elevated traumatic life encounters, including experiences of childhood abuse. Individuals with dissociative PTSD had elevated nighttime cortisol, whereas the non-dissociative PTSD group did not differ from controls, while both PTSD groups showed elevated cortisol awakening response. Inflammatory levels were associated with clinical symptomatology and childhood traumatic experiences. This suggests that PTSD subtypes may be differentiated on a clinical and neurobiological level. Further delineation of the biological underpinnings of these subtypes can inform personalized treatment strategies for individuals with PTSD.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Neuroscience
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Leblanc, Corey
- Abstract:
- The current research aims to describe general scheduling tendencies, evaluate the impact considering task end-times have on scheduling tendencies, and to assess links between scheduling tendencies and productivity. Throughout four studies, findings indicated that participants consistently preferred to schedule tasks on-the-hour (e.g., 9:00 or 10:00 vs. 9:15 or 10:30). When considering task end-times, this tendency for on-the-hour scheduling was reduced, especially when participants had five tasks or more to schedule. On-the-hour scheduling is likely a form of intermittent scheduling, which has been detrimentally associated with productivity. Although some correlational evidence was uncovered to support the notion that on-the-hour scheduling would be detrimentally linked to productivity (Study 2), replications showed no association between the variables (Study 3). These findings provide valuable information regarding scheduling tendencies, as well as the impact considering task end-times have on scheduling. However, more research is needed to examine links between on-the-hour task scheduling and productivity.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Psychology
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Carnrite, Kendra Dawn
- Abstract:
- The present study examined whether using alcohol versus cannabis first when simultaneously using predicts levels of alcohol consumption on a given day, while focusing on daily levels of coping and enhancement motives for simultaneous alcohol and cannabis (SAM) use. Undergraduate student drinkers (n=370) participated in a 14-weekend diary study in Fall 2021, completing surveys on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday mornings (n=2,826 responses) assessing their SAM use, alcohol consumption, and motives for SAM use the previous day. Findings from multilevel models showed that students consumed a greater number of drinks on SAM use days than alcohol-only. Students reported consuming less alcohol on SAM use days when they used cannabis versus alcohol first, and no moderating effects of daily coping or enhancement motives were found. Results suggest that college and university students may not drink heavily on all SAM use days, and students may strategically use cannabis first to reduce their drinking.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Psychology
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Wong, Vicki
- Abstract:
- Introduction: Sport-related concussions are recognized in all types of sports in athletes of all ages. While concussion presentation involves transient symptoms, some may have prolonged symptoms that linger past the typical 2-week recovery time for adults. These prolonged symptoms can affect physical, emotional, cognitive, and sleep domains. Research Significance: This thesis examined adult athletes who experience prolonged symptoms of sport-related concussion to further our understanding of the type of symptoms that are common in an understudied population. Many of the psychological and sociological deficits are not evaluated in preparation for return to sport, but the aim of the thesis is to show their need to be included. Links between psychosocial and physical impairments can drive decisions regarding return to sport. Methods: Based on the biopsychosocial model, 3 cross-sectional studies assessed which symptom domains were clinically relevant, influenced disability, and related to each other. The studies included several clinical outcome measures delivered in online format such as the concussion symptoms, fear avoidance, sleep changes, cogniphobia, pain catastrophizing, and disability post-concussion. The last study included a small sample of participants doing a qualitative interview to confirm objective findings. They were asked to reflect on mental health, sociological impacts, and physical symptoms. Results: The concussion groups showed clinically relevant levels of concussion symptoms, mental health distress, and fear avoidance behaviour. The athletes also presented with significant changes in their abilities of daily activities. Episodic memory was also found to be a deficit for this study. Athlete interviews had statements about fear, loss of self, acceptance, and emotional regulation. Limitations included changing to online formats due to Covid-19, small sample sizes, and utilization of new outcome measures. Future work would expand on the emotional and sociological findings and address cognitive tasks for adults with prolonged symptoms. Evaluation in conjunction with physical activity or training helps an athlete return to sport. Conclusions: Adult athletes with prolonged symptoms of sport-related concussion live with many physical, emotional, and sociological impairments. It is a population that needs further research to focus on their impact and future intervention plans.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Neuroscience
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Heydari Dastjerdi, Mohammad Mahdi
- Abstract:
- The goal of this thesis is to automate converting 2D plots including to tactile format. We defined the problem as an image-to-image translation where the source domain belongs to 2D plots and the target domain is the tactile equivalent of the input plot. The proposed method is based on the pix2pix architecture using UNet++ as the generator. We also propose to use gradient penalty and perceptual loss to further enhance the results. To achieve editable outputs, we propose two approaches. One aims to generate RGB outputs. The other aims to generate multichannel outputs where each channel is associated with a component of the 2D plot. We evaluate the proposed models quantitatively and qualitatively. For RGB outputs we use foreground MSE, background MSE, precision, and recall. On the other hand, we use pixel accuracy, Dice coefficient, and Jaccard index to evaluate our channelwise model.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Computer Science (M.C.S.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Computer Science
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Bossom, Isabella Rose Ludvig
- Abstract:
- Behaviour change is motivated by a sense of self-discontinuity with the pre-addicted self because self-discontinuity elicits nostalgic reverie for life before the addiction. To date, these associations have only been tested among people attempting to initiate behaviour change. Herein, I examined whether eating disorder recovery is hindered by feeling that the recovery process has fundamentally altered one's sense of self (i.e., self-discontinuity), thus eliciting nostalgic reverie for the eating disorder. In Study 1, among people in eating disorder recovery, self-discontinuity was negatively associated with subjective recovery and mediated by nostalgia for the perceived benefits of the eating disorder. In Study 2, I manipulated self-discontinuity and then measured nostalgic reverie for the perceived benefits of the eating disorder and subjective recovery. Contrary to predictions, participants manipulated to feel self-continuous (versus self-discontinuous) felt earlier in their subjective recovery via nostalgia for the perceived benefits of the past eating disorder self.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Psychology
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Aubrey, Scott Bryce
- Abstract:
- Civil-military relations (CMR) theory often holds that internal threat reduces civil control. However, this is not always the case: Turkey, which faced constant internal threats between 1980 and 2016, saw several periods of increasing civil control, particularly under President Özal (1989-1993) and the AKP after 2002. This study proposes that 'competitive securitization' between civil and military authorities explains these disparities in civil-military outcomes. In this framework, internal threat itself does not decreases civil control. Rather, civilian and military agents each 'securitize' internal threats, legitimizing measures that shift the civil-military balance-of-power in their favour. Where military securitization is more successful, civil control decreases, and vice-versa for civilians. This study applies this framework to eight key periods in Turkish CMR between 1980 and 2016. It finds that, with the exception of the early 2000s when EU accession dominated CMR dynamics, 'competitive securitization' provides a strong explanation for changes in Turkey's civil-military balance-of-power.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- International Affairs
- Date Created:
- 2019
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Quintero, Romeo Joe Linao
- Abstract:
- This master's thesis project, involving three months of ethnographic fieldwork using decolonial Filipino methodology and methods, is an exploration of armed conflict induced displacement in Zamboanga City (Mindanao, Philippines). The stories shared by eleven research participants from four barangays, interrogate the dominant representations of internally displaced persons (IDPs) as voiceless victims in need of rescue and reliant on humanitarian assistance. Using bahala na or agency specific to the Filipino cultural context, IDP women and gender diverse individuals challenged the conventional understandings of agency to recognize decision-making beyond individual choices. The findings highlight that the enactment of agency by Filipino IDPs in southern Philippines is shaped by class and ethno-religious-linguistic identities, revealing the inherently unequal and unruly patterns of mobility.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Women's and Gender Studies
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Jardine, Alexander Michael
- Abstract:
- As the threat of plastic pollution continues to loom heavily over the global environment, the Arctic has drawn increasing research interest as a potential sink for debris. More specific to the Canadian Arctic, it is unclear whether marine mammals accumulate microplastics (MPs: 5mm). Pinnipeds, like walrus (Odobenus rosmarus) and ringed seals (Pusa hispida), are both ecologically and culturally significant, which poses a risk to northern food security. Here, I present the first assessment of MPs in Canadian walrus by examining the stomachs of 36 animals from Nunavut. Additionally, I expand on existing literature by evaluating the stomachs of 10 ringed seals from the Northwest Territories, Canada. I detected no MPs ≥ 80µm in any of the animals. This result suggests that walrus and seals in the Canadian Arctic either do not retain MPs or are not exposed to them, which is consistent with studies from similar regions.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Geography
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Meister, Curtis Harrison
- Abstract:
- Seasonal thermal energy storage (STES) could allow solar energy to offset the majority of building energy loads in cold climates. This thesis outlines one of the first long-term, full-scale experimental studies on seasonal storage at the single-detached home scale. A solar thermal system couples a large evacuated tube solar array to both short term thermal storage tanks and a 36m^3 buried water tank used for seasonal storage. Solar heat stored in these water tanks provides space heating (SH) and domestic hot water (DHW) to an energy-efficient two-storey research house in Ottawa, Canada. Long term experiments are described, including a one-year cycle of the system and long term heat loss monitoring. Results show that the as-built system can meet the majority of the building's SH and DHW loads, achieving a solar fraction of 68%. However, experiments revealed several areas of underperformance. Most prominently, faulty solar collectors limited the system's potential. To assess the true potential of the system, detailed energy models were developed and validated against experimental data. Simulated free of faults and underperforming components, the system has a predicted solar fraction of over 90%. Building simulation is further used to explore improved control and sizing of STES systems for single-detached homes. Control methods and decisions such as variable speed pumping, radiant floor supply temperature modulation, and storage setpoints are explored, among others. In regard to sizing, for the house under study, it is shown that solar fractions over 90% require relatively large (and potentially costly) STES tanks (30m^3). However, a moderately lower solar fraction of 70-80% may be obtained even with significantly smaller tanks (10m^3), provided an "oversized" solar thermal array is utilized, which may come at a significantly lower investment cost.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Mechanical
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Voshtani, Seyyedsina
- Abstract:
- Atmospheric methane is a potent greenhouse gas (GHG) and the second-largest contributor to anthropogenic climate forcing. After stabilizing in the early 2000s, the global methane concentration has sharply risen since 2007, mainly due to human-related activities. Curbing the rise of methane concentrations entails identifying and reducing methane emissions, which may otherwise significantly impact climate and air quality. Due to their near-continuous global coverage, satellite observations of methane are often combined with chemical transport models (CTMs) to improve model concentrations and emissions estimates. Previous methane studies are still faced with significant gaps and challenges such that considerable discrepancies among their results have been reported consistently. On the estimation side, most studies assumed that the model is perfect and characterization of uncertainties is already optimal. Obtaining information on methane uncertainties using conventional approaches requires extensive computational resources compared to model integration. Furthermore, there is a lack of independent and objective evaluation of those estimated uncertainties. The first thesis objective is to develop a novel cost-efficient data assimilation framework capable of estimating error statistics using a CTM. This method is referred to as parametric variance Kalman filter (PvKF), which relies on continuous formulation of error covariance propagation without making the perfect model assumption. We test the validity of our assumptions and the performance of the PvKF assimilation using simulated GOSAT observations. Our next goal is to conduct near-optimal assimilation to represent the true methane field. Cross-validation offers an objective manner to characterize the success of the method. We extend that method to the satellite observations and multiple covariance parameter estimations. Using estimated error statistics and GOSAT observations, we found that the quality of the analysis substantially depends on the optimality of those error covariances. Lastly, we evaluate the use of PvKF assimilation in a source inversion context in comparison with a traditional 4D-Var inversion. Using Observing System Simulation Experiments (OSSEs), we verify the ability of our new inversion framework to recover a distribution of known emissions. Our results indicate that both the analysis field and its error covariance exert a tangible influence in lowering the bias and variance of the recovered emissions.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Environmental
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Crosby, Andrew Alan
- Abstract:
- The aim of this dissertation is to investigate the social relations of rule and resistance surrounding gentrification, eviction, and the financialization of rental housing. Contributing to scholarship in critical urban sociology, this research troubles the notion of urban liveability by examining socio-spatial processes of home unmaking at a key site of revitalization and redevelopment in the City of Ottawa. Heron Gate is a large rental neighbourhood owned by one real estate investment firm. Around 800 people—predominantly lower-income, racialized households—have been evicted and displaced from the neighbourhood since 2016, leading to the emergence of the Herongate Tenant Coalition to fight the evictions and confront the landlord-developer. Two theoretical threads guide this research project: settler colonial property relations and domicide, the deliberate destruction of home. Within the context of the City of Ottawa aspiration to be North America's most liveable mid-sized city, this research interrogates how discourses of improvement are mobilized alongside practices of home unmaking in the development of settler colonial cities, as well as how domicide is resisted. This project engages from the standpoint of political activist ethnography, a methodological approach that aims to produce knowledge from an activist perspective and that is useful for social movement struggles. Through the Heron Gate case study and engagement with the Herongate Tenant Coalition, this research sheds light on the investment strategies of apartment investors—including demoviction and intensification—as well as tactics that they deploy to attempt to demobilize tenant opposition. The research further demonstrates the role of municipal governance actors in facilitating gentrification initiatives, and how gentrification is produced through discourses of improvement—such as liveability, revitalization, and community wellbeing—that work to unmake homes, communities, and homelands for some (marginalized, racialized, and Indigenous populations), and remake homes, communities, and homelands for others (affluent, white, settler populations), contributing to how we understand the evolution of racialized property relations in settler society. The significance of this research is that it informs a broader understanding of the financialization of rental housing, larger impacts on affordable housing, and the role that grassroots tenant movements can play in defending their buildings and neighbourhoods.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Sociology
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Laarakker, Christy Grace
- Abstract:
- Subjective time is the time humans perceive within their internal experiences and is therefore described as "inner time" or "internal time" (Fuchs, 2001). Objective time is a way humans measure time independent of their subjective personal time, also known as "outer time" or "external time" (Northoff et al., 2018). These two forms of time interact with each other when we listen to music. The goal of this study is to investigate the difference between internally and externally oriented perception of music. Using two different music data sets, we measure internal and external time perception through specifically developed visual analogue scales (VAS) with ten questions for each dimension. Results show differences in internally oriented and externally oriented perception during different music pieces. Together our results show the importance of distinguishing externally oriented and internally oriented perception during music listening.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Cognitive Science (M.Cog.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Cognitive Science
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Politis, Diego Andreas
- Abstract:
- The mean linear intercept (MLI) score is a useful and common approach for quantifying lung structure in histopathological images. This thesis describes a system developed to calculate the MLI score in a fully automated manner. The system was tested using 20 WSIs from mice. The root-mean-squared deviation between the MLI score of the proposed method and a human rater was 5.73 (standard deviation 5.65), and there was a very strong correlation (r=0.9931). Biases for the indirect method of MLI scoring are examined and shown to account for the differences with the direct MLI scores. Results suggest that shorter guideline length and smaller number of accepted FOV images have a higher standard error when estimating the MLI score when compared to longer guideline lengths and higher number of accepted FOV images. The proposed automated system provides an efficient, accurate, and accessible method that could replace current manual and semi-automated techniques.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Biomedical
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Elfazani, Hayat Husein Mohamed
- Abstract:
- The objective of this research is to examine the design, qualification, and performance of additive manufactured (AM) parts made using ABS-P430 polymer material. A group of tensile and fatigue coupons were designed and manufactured using two fused deposition additive manufacturing machines, Stratasys SST 1200es and Creality CR-10. The AM parts were built on flat and on edge side at different build orientations. The influence of the manufacturing parameters on the mechanical properties of AM components were investigated. This includes the variation in building orientations, layer thickness and the distribution of air gaps. Tensile tests were performed to ascertain the tensile properties of the AM polymer parts. Full field strain measurements were obtained using 2D digital image correlation (2D-DIC). ANOVA statistical results showed that building orientations influenced the ultimate tensile strength and Young's modulus. There are slightly difference in the tensile properties with the variation in building orientation that is probably not statistically significant. The uncertainty propagation in tensile properties associated with the measuring instruments was calculated using the Guide of Uncertainty Measurement (GUM). The effect of build orientation on constant amplitude fatigue performance at initiation, propagation and overall fatigue life was investigated. The 2D-DIC method was successfully used to non-invasively measure the fatigue crack length. Fatigue cracks were measured during tests with frequent pauses, less frequent pauses and no pauses to identify the possible influence of test method on measured fatigue life. It was determined that the stress relaxation happening during the pauses had significant impact on measured fatigue life. The optical analysis was conducted to examine the link between process parameters and part defects. The fracture surface morphology analysis revealed that the void formation between deposited filaments affected the fracture surface. The void fraction percentage was estimated using optical methods. Specimens with more voids as measured by SEM had lower mechanical properties. Micro-CT analysis was selected to investigate the internal geometry of AM parts made from ABS polymer material. Also, Micro-CT was used to study the effect of contour width to total width ratio and contour area to total area ratio on the fatigue life of AM parts.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Aerospace
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- King, Alexander Mackenzie
- Abstract:
- This thesis historicizes the case of White working-class support for Donald Trump. The debate focuses on three major tropes that recurred throughout Trump's speeches and campaign materials: an ongoing attack on a nebulous group of "special interests," an attendant demand for a return to "law and order," and a celebratory appeal to an undefined "silent majority". Using Laclau's theorization of "floating signifiers" to frame my debate, this thesis analyzes campaign materials, polling evidence, and secondary sources to judge how said populist tropes gravitated away from their progressive connotations of class warfare during the latter half of the 20th century. The following project finds that Trump and his reactionary forebearers used these formerly progressive signifiers to channel post-Civil Rights White backlash towards a conspiratorial "special interest" network of liberal Washington elites that had overlooked a victimized "silent majority" of workers in favor of racially marginalized citizens through an "unfair" tax-and-spend agenda.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Political Economy
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Barclay, Isaac James
- Abstract:
- The salmon fishing industry in Port Hardy, British Columbia is on the brink of change. New policies, the instability of boom-and-bust economic development, and climate change threaten the capture salmon fishing industry and aquaculture industries in rural British Columbia. I used a series of semi-structured interviews to examine the complexities behind the impact of climate change on fishing communities. I found that anticipating new industries, or the revitalization of old industries, leaves rural communities trapped in the cycle of resource dependency.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Anthropology
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Glasser, Laura Silva
- Abstract:
- While Western society views Josef Stalin as a tyrant, in many post-Soviet countries, that is not the case. Russia and Georgia, the centre of the former Soviet Union and Stalin's home country, respectively, are notable examples. This work will determine the roles of citizens and social media sites in interpreting Stalin's legacy and serve as an initial piece of research into the intersection of memory politics, social media, and post-Soviet states. I compare social media posts with each country's official narrative toward Stalin and determine that Russian and Georgian governments approach him differently, with Russia presenting him positively, and Georgia not having a cohesive official narrative. Findings were that both countries support the War Hero narrative, Georgians are proud of being from Stalin's home country, and youth are becoming indifferent towards him. This work will help outline the extent to which the Soviet era still influences the modern day.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- European, Russian and Eurasian Studies
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Parnell, Jessica Marie
- Abstract:
- Preclinical and clinical evidence suggests that cannabis, a potent cannabinoid, has potential analgesic properties. However, there is a gap in the literature in respect to cannabinoid receptor expression and localization in the spinal cord across both sex and species, with almost nothing known in humans. We used immunohistochemistry and confocal imaging to investigate the differential expression of the cannabinoid type 1 receptor (CB1R) across dorsal horn laminae and cell populations in male and female adult rats and humans. Qualitatively, we observed increased neuropil immunostaining in the SDH of rats and humans, and somatic staining in deeper laminae. Quantitative results indicated a significant increase in CB1R immunoreactivity in the SDH when compared to the deeper dorsal horn laminae of male and female rat and humans. The preferential expression of CB1Rs in the SDH across both sex and species has significant implications for both the understanding and treatment of pain.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Neuroscience
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Capy, Vanessa Anita
- Abstract:
- In the Rideau Canal Waterway, residents are required to obtain permits from Parks Canada for macrophyte removal in front of their property for recreational purposes. This thesis aims to determine the strongest environmental predictors of permit number and density in the Rideau Waterway to promote sustainable management of this system. Multiple linear regression models indicated that the best predictors of permit number were percent crop and pasture in the catchment, Secchi depth, algal blooms, catchment area, and total phosphorus (adjusted R2 value of 0.94 and p-value of 1.952e-05). The strongest predictors of permit density are percent crop and pasture, deviation from circle, status of lakes, chloride, catchment area, and catchment to lake volume (adjusted R2 value of 0.779 and p-value of 0.006). The results of this thesis indicate that macrophyte removal permits are issued most often in nutrient rich lakes with greater crop and pasture in their catchments.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Geography
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Chopra, Maya Alisha
- Abstract:
- This thesis examines how dominant and exclusionary design practices operate within systems of power, how these maintain experiences of privilege and oppression, and how these might be challenged through a systematic implementation of intersectional feminist thought in design processes. A three-phased qualitative study was conducted. Phase 1 involves a critical literature review of intersectionality and how forms of dominant design operate, including the Double Diamond model. Phase 2 includes an analysis of three design approaches, Design Justice, Data Feminism and Towards an Intentional Intersectional Practice to assess the implementation of intersectionality in the design process. Phase 3 synthesizes the findings and discusses how intersectional thinking may counteract dominant design. It was discovered that emerging intersectional feminist design approaches contribute to counteracting dominant design. This work is fledgling and further study is required to systematically implement intersectional feminist thought in design processes. This thesis offers insight regarding how to do so.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Design (M.Des.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Industrial Design
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Jackson, Erin Kaitlyn
- Abstract:
- Long-distance migratory species often cross a range of human-modified landscapes. A key question is how animal populations are responding to these human-induced changes. Here, we use community science data to model the spring migration dynamics of 63 bird species in North America with the goal of understanding how migration is associated with variation in human population density (HPOP). We find that most migrating bird species demonstrate a negative navigational response to HPOP, yet nearly all bird species experience much greater HPOP during migration as compared to breeding. We show that species differ repeatably in their navigational response to HPOP, and that this variation can be explained by variation in breeding ecology and the pace of migration. These findings underscore how birds may be particularly vulnerable to the effects of HPOP during migration, as the average level of HPOP experienced during migration is 2.7-fold greater than that of breeding.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Biology
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Burtt, Damon
- Abstract:
- Flaring of gas at upstream oil and gas facilities is a globally significant problem with uncertain emissions. This thesis details a methodology to quantify flare carbon conversion efficiency and emission rates of flares subjected to turbulent crosswind within quantified uncertainties using a closed-loop wind tunnel. Experiments were performed on 1-inch to 4-inch diameter pipe flares burning methane-dominated flare gas mixtures at exit velocities of 0.5-2 m/s in turbulent winds of 2-10 m/s. Flare efficiency was modestly dependent on flare diameter and exit velocity, and highly sensitive to wind speed and flare gas composition. The strong sensitivity to gas composition, even among similar methane-dominated alkane mixtures, is surprising and confounds simple, predictive emissions models. However, the data in this thesis give new insight into emissions of flares subjected to turbulent crosswinds, and developed simple empirical models offer a first-order means to quantifying flare emissions and developing greenhouse gas inventories.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Mechanical
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Chowdhury, Shamarukh Farhana
- Abstract:
- The goal of this research is to examine self-regulation failure in procrastination through affect (i.e., mood-repair process) and maladaptive cognitions (i.e., irrational beliefs). Using Personal Project Analysis (PPA), specific affective and cognitive dimensions of PPA were selected from previous studies to examine mood-repair process and irrational beliefs. My dissertation research consisted of six studies that were quantitative (self-report questionnaires) and qualitative (interviews) in nature. In the first two studies, I examined the underlying factors of emotions associated with procrastination using a principal component analysis (Study 1a) and a confirmatory factor analysis (Study 1b). Results revealed a 3-factor solution consisting of a single factor of positive affect (e.g., happy, content), and two factors of negative emotions namely frustration intolerance (e.g., frustration, resentment) and fear of failure (e.g., stress, fear of failure). Using these three factors of emotions, I examined two time segments of procrastination in the subsequent studies - the procrastination episodes (i.e., episodes when they needlessly delayed their academic task) and the last-minute effort episodes (i.e., episodes when they started working on their academic task). In Study 2, I took a dual-process perspective to examine the interplay of emotions and cognitions during the procrastination episodes. Results of the quantitative (Study 2a) and qualitative (Study 2b) revealed strong support for the temporal mood-repair model of procrastination, and the idea that mood-repair and irrational justifications is associated with the delay of academic tasks. In Study 3, I investigated preference reversal, that is, why students move from not taking actions on their academic task during the procrastination episodes to taking actions near the deadlines, through the lens of emotions. Results of the quantitative (Study 3a) and qualitative (Study 3b) uncovered that procrastinating students perceive their academic deadlines as signalling a threat when the deadlines are looming and as such, students chose to complete the academic tasks near the deadline. Together, the present results indicate the need for an emotion-cognitive model of procrastination given that both affective and cognitive processes are intertwined in shaping procrastination experiences.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Psychology
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Varga, Atilla Christopher
- Abstract:
- 3D printed Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) and Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) polymer structures were coated and infiltrated with alumina (Al2O3) using the trimethylaluminum(III) (TMA) and water ALD process. Coating studies on ABS were carried out at 80˚C, which resulted in a 203 nm thin film with a 1.35 Å growth per cycle (GPC). The thin film was a well-adhered protective overcoating which prevented the reaction with acetone vapors in solvent resistance experiments. Infiltration studies on ABS and PVA structures were preformed at 130˚C and 80˚C respectively, to alter their physical properties. Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) was used to determine the Glass Transition Temperature (Tg) of the polymers pre- and post-deposition after varying the number of ALD cycles, resulting in a change of ~ 9˚C and ~ 27˚C for ABS and PVA, respectively. After one heat cycle the post-deposition Tg reverted back to its pre-disposition point indicating reversibility of the deposition effects.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Chemistry
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Bronipolsky, Andrei
- Abstract:
- This study focuses on the aerodynamic interaction of a strut and a row of guide-vanes located in the inter-turbine duct (ITD) of a typical turbofan gas-turbine engine in the context of optimizing their relative positioning to minimize the total profile loss. The study was intended to use numerical analysis to determine promising axial and pitchwise positions of the strut relative to the guide-vane row to create a test matrix for further experimental study. For this analysis, the Baseline (BSL) Reynolds-stress turbulence model was used in a series of benchmarking exercises using published and experimental low-speed wind-tunnel data. The BSL model was found to be limited in its ability to accurately generate the flow physics in a free-shear layer despite being capable of approximating the momentum thickness in the wake of a strut and guide-vane row in tandem configuration and the mixing-layer growth rate of a planar turbulent free-shear layer.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Mechanical
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Salojin, Alexander
- Abstract:
- This thesis argues that social network sites (SNS) do not just reflect already existing patterns of offline political engagement among youth networks, but also transform and augment these patterns, creating patterns that are wholly unique to youth networks operating through SNS. Political socialization through SNS can partly explain the shift in citizenship norms seen among Russian youth, in turn motivating youth toward networked activism aimed at issues of a highly localized and personalized nature. Russian state demobilization efforts have forced opposition networks to reshape and restructure their political engagement so that the political acts are declaratively "apolitical" or so those political acts that may have taken place "in real life" can only be observed online, thereby decreasing likelihood of persecution. Although a direct causal link between SNS usage and anti-regime youth alternative political engagement cannot be drawn, this type of political engagement in Russia is only possible thanks to SNS.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- European, Russian and Eurasian Studies
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Bahry, David Nicholas
- Abstract:
- Senescence evolves because natural selection is less sensitive to late life than to early life. Hamilton formalized this as the sensitivities of fitness to small additive changes to age-specific mortality or fecundity; his framework has since been extended to alternative ecological and genetic assumptions. However, such forces of selection only explicitly model evolution in the short term; in the long term, as life histories evolve, their forces of selection evolve too. This thesis investigates long-term evolution of senescence by deriving conditions a population must satisfy in order to be in evolutionary equilibrium. It considers two models: a mutation-selection balance model; and an optimality model with a same-age log mortality cost of fecundity. The derived conditions are discussed, and heuristically compared to two species: Soay sheep, which senesce, and desert tortoises, which don't. Other, intermediate theoretical results are also given, including the force of selection on proportional hazards in stationary populations.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Biology
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Mohan, Ashna
- Abstract:
- It has been two decades since the Supreme Court rendered its decision in R v Gladue, and yet Indigenous over-incarceration continues unabatedly. This thesis is rooted in the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Inquiry and explores its recommendation for national standards surrounding Gladue reports in Canada. It has been suggested that national standards, particularly in the realm of Gladue training, Gladue reports and for Gladue report writers, may assist in bolstering the remedial potentials of the Gladue principles and ultimately reduce Indigenous incarceration rates across Canada. Following a thorough review of Gladue-relevant literature, it is apparent that we lack evidence to support the development of standards in these areas, and it is therefore necessary that further research be conducted to move forward.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Legal Studies
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Robichaud, Jessica Ann
- Abstract:
- Northern map turtles (Graptemys geographica) are a freshwater turtle species that spends months of the year overwintering submerged under ice. They are anoxia intolerant, making their ability to survive submerged without access to atmospheric oxygen physiologically impressive. Overwintering behaviour and physiology were examined to understand how this species survives the winter. Biologgers recorded locomotor activity, temperature, and depth throughout overwintering. Locomotor activity was continuous during the winter. The amount of movement differed between adult females, juvenile females, and adult males. Temperature preference for all groups was near 1°C and each moved progressively shallower as winter progressed. Respirometry was used to measure adult female standard metabolic rates at under-ice temperatures. Metabolism was lower at lower temperatures (i.e., 1°C versus 4°C), indicating considerable metabolic savings at 1°C. The behaviours observed likely reflect this species working to meet winter oxygen and energetic needs which differ based on size specific physiological needs.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Biology
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Mitchell-Dupuis, Andreane
- Abstract:
- Ancient mantle-derived rocks allow us to gain insights into the geochemical evolution of Earth's early mantle. We present a 176Lu-176Hf study of the Saglek-Hebron Complex (northern Labrador, Canada), which contains some of the oldest mafic and ultramafic rocks on the planet. Low-Fe ultramafic and basaltic metavolcanic rocks yield an isochron of 3934 ± 127 Ma with a suprachondritic initial epsHf=+8.9 ± 2.7. This value implies a highly incompatible-element depleted source for these rocks, which was more depleted than the Depleted Mantle estimates at the same age. Decoupled Sm-Nd and Lu-Hf systematics can be explained by ancient source depletion during a magma ocean in the garnet stability field. High-Fe ultramafic rocks yield an isochron corresponding to an age of 3405 ± 503 Ma. Mafic intrusions were age-dated at 3875 ± 454 Ma and at 2716 ± 370 Ma. The Saglek-Hebron Complex has recorded mantle-derived magmatism for over 1 billion years.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Earth Sciences
- Date Created:
- 2021
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Chackowicz, Zachary Alexander Cohen
- Abstract:
- The Irish government is attempting to use its diaspora and asylum policies to reterritorialise the Irish state into a diaspora nation. This strategy aims to police the boundaries of the Irish nation by incorporating members of the diaspora and emigrants (predominantly Irish Americans and the "undocumented Irish"), while at the same time excluding asylum seekers in Ireland. Through its diaspora policy, embodied by Global Irish, and asylum policies, represented by the Direct Provision system, the Irish government is attempting to blur the lines between state and nation by connecting the former's borders to the latter's bodies. This has produced a backlash amongst Irish citizens, who have sought to disentangle diasporic kinship from the rights of Irish citizenship by placing these communities into conversation with each other. This contrasts the state's attempt to reconfigure the same communities into markers of the borders of the Irish state and boundaries of the nation.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Migration and Diaspora Studies
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Rouhandeh, Kaveh
- Abstract:
- CNNs are the most common branch of Deep Neural Networks (DNNs), and they are structures with a strong capability for feature extraction. By using CNNs, a nonlinear model is trained to map an input space to a corresponding output space. These high-performance CNNs come with a high computational cost and the need for huge memory storage due to the chains of many Convolutional Layers (usually more than 50 layers). To address these issues, a variety of algorithms have been proposed in recent years. In this research, we present a solution that is a combination of several different approaches. and based on matrix optimization, parameters binary quantization, and data parallelism programming techniques. We show that our method significantly outperforms the current conventional PyTorch convolution operation with less memory usage and better computational budget when tested in different scenarios.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Electrical and Computer
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Layeghi, Mahsa
- Abstract:
- Recent years have seen a rapid evolution in multi-core processor architectures. However, programming multi-core processors efficiently is a challenging endeavor. Asynchronous Graph Programming is a novel parallel paradigm that is amenable to automated parallelization for multi-core processors. However, its semantics are both foreign to most programmers, and too low-level to support software development at scale. Thus, this thesis explores the development of a cross-paradigm compiler, that can translate code in an imperative language (C) to AGP, allowing existing code-bases to be re-deployed and automatically parallelized, despite the semantics of their original language being sequential. Towards this, we define semantic transformations from (a sub-set of) C to AGP, and demonstrate the implementation of a compiler that implements those transformations. Our results show that it is possible to transform C into AGP code, and that transformed parallel implementations running on a multi-core system, for a suite of testing benchmarks, outperform sequential code substantially.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Electrical and Computer
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Chokly, Kit
- Abstract:
- "Trans media" usually describes the representation of trans people in media. While trans media have garnered many important critiques for their representations, such analyses tend to overlook the problems of representation inherent to trans phenomena themselves: If "trans" describes movement, how can it be represented? And if trans media resist representation, what are trans media, and what else might they do? This thesis investigates these questions through the author's affective encounter with several media objects made by trans creatives, including an artificially intelligent image generator, a short experimental film, and a Twitterbot. Using a theoretical framework of trans embodiment and new materialist media theory, the author argues that the performative processes of mediation embodied by these media—termed trans*mediation—articulate trans experiences beyond the limitations of representation. Trans*mediation creates opportunities to communicate the experience of shifting subjectivity while skirting cisnormativity, offering novel possibilities for trans expression, recognition, pleasure, and community.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Communication
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Belyea, Lauren
- Abstract:
- Few studies have jointly examined the effects of perpetrator/victim race and provocation on observer perceptions of intimate partner violence (IPV), especially in the context of female perpetration. In the current study, 511 undergraduate students from a Canadian university were randomly assigned to one of eight vignette conditions wherein the race of the perpetrator (Black, White), victim (Black, White), and verbal victim provocation (present, absent) were varied in a scenario of female perpetrated IPV. A mixed-methods design was used to assess observer perceptions of incident seriousness and attributions of blame. Victim provocation was the most significant predictor across all perception models, accounting for 31% of the explained variance in the model of victim blame. Moreover, some observer effects were reduced to non-significance once a measure of racial bias was introduced as a control variable. Overall findings highlight the need for resources concerning IPV identification and other outreach services on university campuses.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Psychology
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Massicotte, Philippe Yvan
- Abstract:
- Binaural sound source localization is the determination of the position of a sound source based on two data sensors, microphones, mimicking the human auditory system. Many audio processing systems in our daily work and life rely on sound source localization, such as speech enhancement/recognition and human-robot interaction. However, the accuracy of sound source localization under adverse acoustic scenarios is still hard to ensure. This thesis proposes machine learning with feature extractions to estimate the sound source localization by manipulating and analyzing data collected by public Head Related Transfer Function databases. The two proposed methods are wavelet scattering long short-term memory and wavelet scattering convolutional neural network. These developed methods are studied in classification and regression approaches for different scenarios. The results demonstrate that the proposed methods achieve excellent performance in multiple noisy environments compared to recent literature, especially in regression binaural sound source localization.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Electrical and Computer
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Maynard, Ian Green
- Abstract:
- This thesis employs simulation and optimization to conduct a multi-scale investigation of the cost and performance of two hydrogen transition pathways. Chapter 2 simulates production pathways for green hydrogen in Canada's Atlantic Maritimes. Projects could be implemented by 2050 and at <2 $/kgH2 with aggressive growth rates, learning rates, and electrolyzer capital costs of 500 $/kW. Chapter 3 develops a method to estimate the thermal loads in remote and northern communities. It applies this method to 40 communities and develops a regression model that estimates thermal loads. Chapter 4 builds an optimization model that deploys wind turbines and reversible fuel cells to meet the electrical and thermal loads of those 40 communities. This model overbuilds wind capacity. Five communities have costs of avoided emissions of <200 CAD/tCO2, while 30 have costs of <500 CAD/tCO2.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Mechanical
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Naseri Joojili, Nader
- Abstract:
- No one conceals the popularity of Cryptocurrency. The challenging part is to predict the Bitcoin value more than its fluctuations using machine learning techniques related to improving its performance metrics. This study introduces a methodology to predict Bitcoin price in a dataset, including four intervals to evaluate the proposed method in different situations. The experimental results show that the GLM and (LSTM) were the best machine learning techniques. The proposed model outperforms the deep learning baseline model with about 18% and 20% relative improvement in MAE and MAPE, respectively. Deep learning approaches have achieved much better results than other approaches due to the automatic selection of features. Compared to the results reported in the literature, the 1D-CNN+IndRNN proposed approach has reached 81% accuracy, with an 18% improvement. In the proposed approach, 1D-CNN is responsible for feature extraction and IndRNN is responsible for learning features in the form of time series.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Information Technology (M.I.T.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Digital Media
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Surensoy, Rodi
- Abstract:
- The NRC primary standard water calorimeter is well-established for measuring dose to water in cobalt-60, linac photon beams and high-energy linac electron beams. However, for lower-energy electron beams, given the short range of electrons and the physical dimensions of the calorimeter, it is impossible to perform measurements at the reference depths in water. Extending the measurement of absorbed dose to lower energy electron beams requires an alternative system. The goal is to establish a hybrid absorbed-dose standard for linac electron beams by calibrating alanine against secondary standard ionization chambers, with calibrations traceable to primary standard water calorimeter measurements in high-energy electron beams, and subsequently using alanine in low-energy electron beams to determine absorbed dose. Ionization chambers calibrated against alanine in electron beams yield results for beam quality conversion factors that are in good agreement (within 0.68% uncertainty) with literature data for the five ionization chambers investigated in this work.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Physics
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Palmer, Matthew
- Abstract:
- Propeller design dramatically influences the performance of a drone and its ability to complete a mission. Operators in the field cannot carry the best propeller for any possible conditions, but with the advent of capable end-user 3D printers, may be able to manufacture them. This research assesses how non-planar model slicing and short-chopped carbon-fibre additives affect the mechanical performance of printed parts and viability of printed propellers. Creep testing simulating propeller thrust loading found coupons varied greatly in time to failure, although benefits of carbon-fibre additives were detected. Drop tests assessed impact behaviour, finding no link between material or slicing style and performance for a realistic propeller geometry. Simpler geometry resulted in both factors affecting performance, indicating possible benefits when applied in suitable situations. Results can be used to make informed selections of material and slicing type, also guiding future attempts at 3D-printing propellers.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Aerospace
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Agarwal, Ashi
- Abstract:
- According to study, the elderly's mobility habits are closely tied to cognitive decline and other age-related health problems. Regular gait analysis may help with the early detection of various disorders, but the gathering of daily ambient data is difficult with current technology. The potential of ambient sensors on the market for estimating gait speed is examined in this thesis. The thesis's first section analyses data gathered from four motion sensors that were arranged in a straight line on the ceiling as used in some wide scale studies. The findings of this work indicate that the communications protocol limits the accuracy of gait speed estimation, which prompted the investigation of AI-enabled privacy-respecting cameras. Initial results showed the camera performance was limited by low and asynchronous frame rate, which led to significant error margins. A method is proposed that reduces this to 6% using techniques based on regression and interpolation.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Electrical and Computer
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Zhang, Xiang
- Abstract:
- As COVID-19 spreads globally and becomes a pandemic disease, it has severely impacted the capital markets of major economies around the world, posing severe challenges to financial risk management. In this thesis, we study the ARIMA-GARCH model and the Markov switching GARCH model and its application in financial risk management. This thesis verifies and compares the predictive ability of ARIMA-GARCH models and Markov switching GARCH models on value at risk through empirical research. Especially incorporating the drastic fluctuations caused by the COVID-19 into the forecasting scope, we found that the ARIMA-GARCH model has basically no predictive ability, and the Markov switching GARCH model still has a good forecasting ability. Then we try to further improve the predictive power of the model by adding one additional regime. However, the performance of the model did not improve significantly. Key words: COVID-19, ARIMA-GARCH model, Markov switching GARCH model, value at risk, stock indexes
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Mathematics
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Chiarelli, Veronica Sheryl
- Abstract:
- Learning to program involves understanding how the computer executes programs. Code tracing is a simulation of the steps the computer takes to execute a program. The notional machine is an abstract representation of this process. Students form mental models of the notional machine when learning to code trace, but these mental models can be inaccurate or contain misconceptions. We experimentally investigated the effect on learning of using an explicit notional machine or not in a code-tracing lesson for novice programmers (N = 48). We created two versions of a tutoring system, one with a notional machine and one without, using the Cognitive Tutor Authoring Tools framework. The tutors included video lessons and self-explanation prompts to encourage participant engagement. We measured learning as the difference in scores from pretest to posttest, adjusted by prior knowledge. Learning increased overall, but there was no significant difference in learning between groups.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Cognitive Science (M.Cog.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Cognitive Science
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Aarma, Katlin
- Abstract:
- This two-phased study sought to understand the challenges Canadian immigrants faced in their workplace and intercultural adjustment as technology mentors and explore intercultural development interventions to address them. Drawing on sixteen qualitative interviews with ten Canadian immigrants and two co-founders of their non-profit employer, I found that technology mentors faced communication, technology, and personal challenges and were concerned with their intercultural and workplace adjustment as well as long term work integration. Clean spinning, a non-directive coaching intervention based on clean language and emergent knowledge principles, was used to facilitate perspective taking and support their intercultural development towards addressing their adjustment challenges. I found that clean spinning supported participants in finding resource(s) to address their topic or reframe the way they understood their topic and their relationship to it. These positive outcomes suggest the need for alternative types of intercultural development that support perspective-taking and self-reflection.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Management
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Gunn, Peter
- Abstract:
- This research investigates the thermal performance of a green roof in Ottawa, Canada. In chapter 1, the measured thermal performance of the green roof is defined as the percent reduction in total monthly heat exchange promoted by the green roof, relative to a conventional roof. Thermal performance ranged between 31.0 - 62.8% between May and September in 2016 and 2017, with reduced performance in the shoulder and winter seasons. In chapter 2, a resistor-capacitor (RC) and implicit finite difference (FD) model are developed, calibrated, and validated over the same period and are used to predict hourly rates of heat flux and thermal performance. Predicted heat flux exhibited a root-mean-square-error between 0.51 - 1.0 W/m2 and 0.41 - 0.81 W/m2 for the RC and FD models, respectively, in 2016.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Environmental
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Wait, Camille
- Abstract:
- Cities across Canada have responded to the opioid crisis in diverse ways. People who use drugs (PWUD) developed and administered unsanctioned services, including injection sites. Ottawa was host to an unsanctioned site run by Overdose Prevention Ottawa (OPO). This work is a case study on OPO's actions and rejections of medical practices. Through seven interviews with OPO organizers and managers of sanctioned sites, this project explores contestations of practices, knowledges, and logics governing substance use services. Analyses address contestations of practices from outside and inside the site, exploring visibility and invisibility of drug use and positioning of medical and experiential expertise. Care practices within the site highlight non-totalizing rejection of medical logics and practices, and articulate care on the fringes of these regimes. This is explored through a comparative analysis of sanctioned and unsanctioned replacement opioid programs. Ultimately this research investigates OPO's counter-conducts, highlighting alternative practices and logics of care.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Sociology
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Froome, Alyssa Anne
- Abstract:
- Male Gryllidae acoustic signaling behaviour varies between and within species and may be influenced by a variety of factors including age, condition, and parasitism. I investigated variation within and among male Gryllodes sigillatus' mate attraction signaling behaviour and examined how variation in signaling vigour was influenced by age. I found extensive variation in male signaling between and within individuals; males differed in signaling vigour and quality, and their signaling changed over time. I found that smaller males signaled more consistently throughout their lives while larger males rarely called when younger and increased signaling vigour with age. As males have often been found to honestly signal their body condition (i.e., body mass), parasites may influence a male's perceived attractiveness to potential mates. I therefore also investigated how signaling vigour was influenced by the ingestion of the long barbed hastisetae from a typical pest species, dermestid (Dermestes ater), that plagues rearing facilities.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Biology
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Mantle, Shana Ashley Elizabeth
- Abstract:
- Undergraduate neuroscience students must learn how to effectively produce discipline-specific genres. Evidence suggests research experience may help students learn to write for discipline-specific purposes; yet, a need exists for more available methods of research experience than lab experiments. As an investigation into a more available method, this thesis presents a case study of an experiential activity used in a neuroscience writing course at one medium-sized, Canadian university. Using rhetorical genre theory, this study investigated if and how this experiential activity, which took place outside of the lab, helped students discursively construct the social role of researcher and learn how to write for disciplinary purposes. An inductive, thematic analysis of in-class observations, interviews, and open-ended questionnaire responses suggests that the research experience provided by this activity may help neuroscience students bridge the roles of student and professional researcher to effectively write for their discipline, in both physical and virtual environments.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Applied Linguistics and Discourse Studies
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Maudlin, Taylor Brooke
- Abstract:
- The food service industry remains relatively understudied, especially in the Canadian context. However, many avenues of research exist on the labour performed by workers in this sector. In focusing on servers who rely on tips to supplement their income, this thesis explores how specific traits are commodified under management supervision to maximize corporate gain and consumer satisfaction. Utilizing aesthetic labour theory and feminist political economy with an intersectional lens, I argue that employers rely on attributes such as appearance and personality to sell the restaurant experience through the assignment of job requirements and duties. In doing so, servers become part of the product being sold. This has gendered and racialized implications. This thesis uses in-depth interviews to prioritize women servers' experiences negotiating their assigned job requirements and their observations of the gendered and racialized divisions in the food service industry.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Women's and Gender Studies
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Fu, Junwen
- Abstract:
- In this thesis, passengers' brain signals, including electroencephalography (EEG) and near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), were analyzed to extract road information to potentially prevent car accidents and provide public trust in high-level autonomous vehicles. For the EEG part, event-related potential (ERP) and machine learning techniques were used to analyze and classify the signals of two road events. Results show that the responses are 454 ± 234 ms before the reaction, and the average recognition accuracy of the regularized linear discriminant analysis (RLDA) classifier reached 95.81%. For the fNIRS part, a quantification method, which is based on cerebral oxygen exchange in the prefrontal cortex of passengers and a risk field is introduced. We also verified our findings in a real-car automatic emergency braking and cut-in experiment. Overall, the results illustrate that EEG-based human-centric assistant driving systems have the potential of being deployed in autonomous vehicles to enhance the safety of passengers.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Electrical and Computer
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Clifford, Joanne Elizabeth
- Abstract:
- Abstract In addition to the traditional goals of saving lives and diminishing suffering, contemporary humanitarianism demands that practitioners also incorporate social accountability practices into their humanitarian programming. In addition to accountability to affected populations, this requirement places an emphasis on capacity building and sustainability, affording primacy to local participation with the aim to empower—rather than disempower—aid recipients. While this evolution of expectations is clearly visible within the civilian humanitarian sphere, a similar evolution of expectations has also occurred in the joint civilian-military domain of United Nations peace operations. Unfortunately, these social accountability considerations have yet to be widely incorporated into Canadian military doctrine. Accordingly, contemporary Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) operations remain modeled upon the former traditional narrow definition of humanitarian action, simply to save lives and reduce suffering. Moreover, a secondary stated objective of Canadian military HADR operations is to promote a positive image of Canada abroad and at home, suggesting that military HADR is not premised exclusively upon humanitarianism, but that geopolitics and domestic public relations play a significant role. The CAF has been very successful in achieving this secondary objective, with the majority of Canadian citizens strongly supportive of military involvement in HADR. In this dissertation, I explore these theoretical and practical differences between civilian and Canadian military HADR doctrine and practice, with a focus on social accountability and empowerment. I suggest that the doctrinal differences between these two groups can, in large part, be attributed to their respective accountability constructs. The predominantly upwards-oriented vertical accountability model employed by the CAF stands in stark contrast to the downwards-oriented social accountability construct increasingly utilized in the humanitarian sphere. The CAF has not incorporated social accountability considerations into its current HADR doctrine or practice, which raises concerns regarding the potential dis-empowering effects of military HADR, and by extension, the legitimacy of military involvement in the HADR sphere. Accordingly, I suggest that the HADR model currently utilized by the CAF carries ethical risks, which due to the secondary utilization of HADR as a geopolitical and public relations instrument, may ultimately become political risks.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Ethics and Public Affairs
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Mcallister, Morgan Kaile
- Abstract:
- This thesis explores the experiences of fat women in Southern Ontario health care settings and their relationships with their bodies. It is an ethnography of thirteen women who identify as curvy or fat and currently use Canadian medical care. It shows how fat women's relationships with their bodies are multifaceted and shaped by external influences, and the ways they experience denial in their access to health care because of their body size. This thesis ultimately points to how historical and cultural constructions of body size ideologies, power relations, and understanding of the physical form as a determinant of "health" impact fat women's health and well-being through structural violence and biases in health care. It argues that there is a need for fat cultural safety programs, along with other changes to current practices to improve care, and, as a result, the health and well-being of people with larger body sizes.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Anthropology
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Bellman, Christopher
- Abstract:
- While Internet of Things (IoT) security best practices have recently attracted considerable attention from industry and governments, academic research has highlighted the failure of many IoT product manufacturers to follow accepted practices. We begin by investigating a surprising lack of consensus, and void in the literature, on what (generically) best practice means, and provide a technical examination of related terminology. We use iterative inducting coding to design an analysis methodology for categorizing security advice and measuring its actionability. We use this methodology to analyze three datasets: a set of 1013 IoT security best practices, recommendations, and guidelines, and two formally recommended IoT security advice documents. We find all three sets to be largely non-actionable. Through design and use of this methodology, we identify the characteristics of actionable security advice. We also analyze recent work on IoT device identification based on three identification objectives (distinguish device instances, distinguish device classes, and authenticate device identity), and the technical approaches by which they are reached: device fingerprinting, classification, and authentication. We differentiate the role of these objectives and approaches in IoT security, and develop a model relating them.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Computer Science
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Correa, Jeff Demian
- Abstract:
- Early life seizures (ELS) pose a significant threat to developing neurons and often result in later-life epilepsy and cognitive deficits, including social cognition deficits. Hippocampal CA2 has recently emerged as a critical region in processing social recognition memory. Little is known about the effects of ELS on CA2 pyramidal neurons in the developing hippocampus. Here, using established ELS models, we demonstrated that ELS impaired social recognition memory in mouse pups. We showed that unlike the adult CA2 neurons, ELS significantly activated CA2 neurons in p10 mice. Interestingly, ELS selectively enhanced AMPA receptor function in the activated CA2 neurons in the immature brain . Using a unique actviatiy-dependent labeling and manipulating system, c-Fos-GFP/c-Fos-tTA/TRE-hM4Di mouse model, we discovered that precisely suppressing ELS-activated neurons rescued ELS-induced AMPAR function enhancement in CA2 neurons and social recognition memory deficits. Our results identify the novel cellular target of ELS for potential intervention of ELS-induced cognitive deficits.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Neuroscience
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Czipf, Mathew Joseph
- Abstract:
- This thesis examines the KKK and its fascist friends from 1915-1945 as a means of analyzing the changing role of the Klan in a changing international order. The KKK claimed to be, the defender of nativism, keeper of racial purity, and the guardians of white American way of life, but as an organization it was less unified. Part of this can be attributed to decentralization across U.S. states. This thesis contends that there was a growing fascist affect economy, within the transatlantic Euromerican community. Even as it declined in organizational coherence in the 1930s, the Klan was involved in a larger conversation than simply American nativism. It came to identify with international fascist organizations and embrace terminology, and conspiracies, while always rejecting close comparisons. Its return to nativism during the Second World War allowed its survival, even while continuing to participate in the affective language it once shared with fascism.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- History
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Bolesnikov, Adrian
- Abstract:
- Queer identity research largely overlooks wearable technology. Most work exploring sociocultural considerations of wearable technology determines what is "socially acceptable" based on privileged bodies, excluding queer perspectives. We address this by establishing the foundations of a knowledge base for wearables that support queer expression. We conducted a two-phase qualitative study exploring queer expressive practices and wearable technologies through 16 semi-structured interviews and 15 body mapping workshops with the queer community. We observed themes framing the queer community's understanding of queer expression, wearable technology, and wearable technology for queer users. Providing discussions on current trends in queer expression and wearable technology use, along with design considerations, our work enables the creation of wearable technologies that offer meaningful user experiences for the queer community. CAUTION: This paper discusses topics that could trigger those with histories of homophobia, transphobia, gender dysphoria, racism or eating disorders. Please use caution when engaging with this work.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Computer Science (M.C.S.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Human-Computer Interaction
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Charlton, Tryston Jarred
- Abstract:
- Microglia are the primary immunocompetent cells that protect the brain from environmental stressors; however, their activation can also have deleterious effects on brain functioning. Indeed, environmental toxins and microbial agents can induce microglial driven inflammatory processes and induce a cytotoxic environment. Recent therapeutic strategies have sought to determine how to modulate microglia, to favour their neuroprotective effects, while minimizing toxic outcomes. We hypothesized that BDNF would have a modulatory effect on inflammation in isolated microglia cultures in the context of a bacterial endotoxin. It was found that a BDNF treatment following LPS-induced inflammation blunted the release of both IL-6 and TNF-α in primary microglia. In neurons, LPS-activated microglial media was able produce an inflammatory effect to some extent, and again, BDNF treatment attenuated this effect. We speculate that BDNF plays a role in regulating microglia activation and localized microglia-neuron crosstalk may be crucial in preventing damaging effects of inflammatory mechanisms.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Neuroscience
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Maldonado Navarro, Denisse
- Abstract:
- Mangroves are highly important, endangered species that provide many environmental services. This research examines changes in the spatial extent of mangrove forest cover in the protected area of Yum Balam, in Mexico using data for the years 1981, 2005, 2015 and 2020, obtained from government agencies, together with a review of the history of mangrove conservation and the recent land management plan for the area. Results show an early period of losses, followed by a period of relative stability, culminating in a mix of losses in areas close to the urban centres of Chiquila and Holbox. A comparative analysis using spatial data obtained from Global Mangrove Watch and through Google Engine revealed inconsistencies, but similarities in the overall trend. Overall, the management plan favours tourism, allowing economic development in some sub-zones. Monitoring mangrove cover is important to identify drivers of change, and to elaborate informed policies for mangrove conservation.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Geography
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Martone, Patricia Claudia
- Abstract:
- While there is support for various individual and contextual predictors of counterproductive workplace behaviour (CWB), little research has examined social rank and CWB. In this research, I examined social rank in terms of social dominance orientation (SDO), and leader dominance and prestige. Using data from a police organization (281 employees and 130 supervisors), I examined the association between employee SDO (time 1) and employee self- and supervisor-rated CWB (time 2). I also examined the association between perceived leader dominance and prestige (time 1), and employee self- and supervisor-rated CWB (time 2). Findings indicated that SDO was associated with CWB, and that both servant leadership and perceived social impact moderated this relationship. Findings also indicated that perceived leader dominance and prestige were associated with CWB, via leader trust. Findings contribute to the understanding of CWB as potential outcomes of social rank, highlighting the importance of moderating and mediating variables.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Psychology
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Yan, Jinrong
- Abstract:
- The premature failure of the thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) system is a preliminary phenomenon that can significantly limit their applications in gas turbine engines. The delamination of TBCs occurs typically at interfaces between the top coat and bond coat due to thermal mismatch stress via both crack nucleation and propagation and decohesion. In this thesis, this phenomenon was studied using a multi-physics approach...exceeding text limit
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Aerospace
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Niknafs Kermani, Mahan
- Abstract:
- In this study we propose a Deep structured LOw Rank Matrix Approximation model (DLORMA) that incorporates additional stacked denoising autoencoders and local matrix approximations in a loosely coupled fashion. To the best of our knowledge, DLORMA is the first hybrid recommendation system that combines deep learning and low rank matrix approximation. Comprehend experiments based on three real datasets show improvements in prediction performance over other state-of-the-art recommendation systems.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Computer Science (M.C.S.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Computer Science
- Date Created:
- 2020
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Siddon, Stephanie Raye
- Abstract:
- This study seeks to examine how the federal government of Canada is applying Gender-Based Analysis Plus to Impact Assessment of natural resource projects, and to consider whether this constitutes an adequate application of intersectional policy analysis. Through a review of secondary literature and open-ended semi-structured interviews with key informants, this project examines the use of GBA+ in federal impact assessment, ultimately concluding that although improvements have occurred, much more work remains to be done to better align GBA+ with intersectional theory and practice.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Public Policy (M.P.P.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Public Policy and Administration
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Moses, Samuel Junior
- Abstract:
- This thesis examines small low-cost light weight LiDAR systems for remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) for power transmission line (PTL) detection. Different PTL samples were used to understand how the low-cost light-weight LiDAR systems perform against them. A performance evaluation was done which included a specification comparison, data comparison, root-mean squared deviation comparison (RMSD) for both de-energized and energized PTLs and a sectional analysis. For the data comparison, the results showed LiDAR A performed better but not within the advertised precision for 5/6 of the test. The RMSD test resulted in the understanding in the accuracy of the data collected, lower deviations were found in the data collected by LiDAR B, but more consistent deviations were found in LiDAR A data. A conclusion was made that low-cost light-weight LiDAR systems would not be effective as a stand-alone system for PTL detection so it should be paired with an additional sensor.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Aerospace
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Kenyon, Miles Jeffrey
- Abstract:
- This thesis investigates how men who have sex with men (MSM) discern, discuss, and defy issues of surveillance in the context of casual, public sex—also known as cruising—and how these exchanges constitute and inform subaltern countersurveillance measures. Focusing on written exchanges by users of the queer hook-up website Squirt, I analyze how users discuss safety and surveillance of cruising locations in the Greater Ottawa Area. This work concludes that surveillance and cruising is normalized, both police and ordinary citizens present safety risks, great care is taken to act discreetly and not infringe on the safety of non-cruisers, and environmental factors contribute greatly to the construction and circumvention of surveillance infrastructure. The data additionally complicate well-established perspectives on surveillance, including surveillance realism and introduce opportunities for queering and expanding future research.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Communication
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Kim, Anna Kabjin
- Abstract:
- This research is a qualitative assessment of current undergraduate industrial design practica that are implemented in 4-year-based accredited Canadian schools through industry expert insights. Bachelor of industrial design programs in this study offer hands-on industry experience to students between 3rd and 4th years who have completed preliminary program requirements to be considered as eligible candidates. Research findings from academic and company insights propose ways to enhance the current industrial design practica by examining the roles of a key supervisor at work placement, availability of student resources, degree of interactions within assigned departments, the need for funding sources, and understanding industry expectations. The research data also extracts other collaborative learning opportunities for undergraduate students through industry partnerships. Keywords: Undergraduate design practica, expert insights, transferable skills, industry expectations, work preparedness.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Design (M.Des.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Industrial Design
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Cheng, Benjamin Aaron
- Abstract:
- This thesis examines the evolution of small-amplitude, resonantly forced fluid waves in a tank of finite extent. A rectangular and annular tank are considered, with the fluid in each tank subject to periodic lengthwise or radial forcing. The resonant forcing of fluid in a rectangular tank has been examined previously. How varying the geometry of the tank affects the evolution of the free surface is not yet fully understood. This work aims to contribute toward better understanding the interplay between geometric and resonant effects in axisymmetric geometries. Analytic and numerical results are used to examine the effects brought forth by varying the tank geometry. The responses in the rectangular and annular tanks can be qualitatively distinct. The inner radius of the annular tank is connected to the degree to which the underlying spectrum is commensurate, and this is shown to play a key role in determining how the results vary.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Mathematics
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Kardish, Rachel Valentine
- Abstract:
- This study examined whether cerebral blood flow (CBF) differed between children with concussion and orthopedic injury (OI) controls at 72 hours and 4 weeks post-injury. It also examined whether acute CBF and psychological resilience improved prediction of concussion symptoms beyond the existing 5P score prediction tool. 70 children with concussion (Mean age=13.05±2.02, 47% female) and 29 with OI (Mean age=12.59±1.97, 41% female) were included in this study. Regional CBF alterations were present in children with concussion versus OI, with some regional CBF varying over time. Specifically, increased CBF was found in anterior regions, and decreased CBF was found in posterior/temporal regions. Regional CBF, psychological resilience, and the 5P score combined did not predict 2- or 4-week concussion symptoms. Though clinical significance remains unclear, these results are important for understanding persistent neurobiological deficits after pediatric concussion, as they indicate clear regional CBF alterations.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Neuroscience
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Abou Elatta, Pansee
- Abstract:
- How have Egyptian struggles to repatriate and retain Pharaonic artifacts shaped the value and meaning attributed to these iconic but contested objects? And how have these public struggles influenced museum practice from the time of its modern origins? This dissertation works against the archival grain to trace a popular history of three Pharaonic objects (or collections thereof) around which highly-visible campaigns for ownership have been waged: Tutankhamun's treasures, The Bust of Nefertiti, and the obelisk typically titled the 'Paris Needle'. Each chapter examines the contestations through which these objects have gained a foothold in Egyptian liberatory projects and in the global imaginary, from the 18th century to the present day. Colonial expeditions in Egypt represent some of the earliest ventures in modern archaeological collection and museology, generating a foundation upon which many of the world's most authoritative museums have constructed their legacies as part of broader nation-building projects. In the case of the 'Tutmanias' of the 1920s and 1970s, media representations leverage public conceptions of ancient history to consolidate Western geopolitical power in the Middle East. Mass media plays a similar role with the Bust of Nefertiti, whose ownership becomes the focus of frenzied publicity in Weimar Germany, reflecting and reproducing the racial, geopolitical, and gendered anxieties of the era. The obelisk's transport from Luxor to Paris produces and mediates the public square in a different way, erasing Egyptian labour while glorifying the feat of its transport to substantiate its value as a trophy. Finally, this dissertation looks to the displacement of Gurna - a supposed "world capital of thieves" atop the Theban Necropolis - as a case study in intra- and inter-national contestation around the 'value' of heritage, preservation, and place. Doing so, this project draws links between the complex imbrications of artifactual value on the economic, sociological, and semiotic levels. These highly-public yet little-researched anticolonial struggles shed light on the ways in which rhetorics of (economic and affective) 'appreciation' are deployed to impose ways of feeling and knowing about history which produce normative museological ends.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Cultural Mediations
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Guay, Jessika D.
- Abstract:
- Recreational fishing is an important activity primarily enjoyed for the purposes of pleasure or competition. Despite the many benefits of interacting with nature and harvesting wild food, recreational fishing presents a myriad of negative impacts to fish populations, thus requiring management interventions to ensure sustainability. Since management conservation measures typically involve angler compliance with regulations and voluntary adoption of proconservation behaviours, I analyzed social data from two fisheries facing contrasting conservation challenges to identify the prevalence of self-reported proconservation behaviours among recreational anglers. I further investigated the factors which influence such behaviours in an effort to dissect how certain desired behaviours may be encouraged to support management conservation goals and to contribute to knowledge surrounding angler behaviour. My results indicate high levels of participation in voluntary proconservation behaviours and may inform management strategies that would benefit from angler participation.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Biology
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
Cardiac Dysfunction in People with Schizophrenia: Linking Clinical Outcome, the Heart, and the Brain
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Nyveld, Melissa Kristine
- Abstract:
- The link between cardiac dysfunction and clinical outcome remains poorly understood in people with schizophrenia. The current study was an exploratory analysis among clinical outcome, cardiac function, and brain volume of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Participants who achieved remission showed significantly better global functioning and lower positive and negative symptoms. Cardiac function and structure and ACC grey matter volume were measured using MRI. Cardiac function and structure did not differ between remitted and non-remitted groups; however, those not in remission had significantly less volume in the left ACC. While no significant relationships were found between ACC volume and clinical symptoms, there were inverse relationships between social withdrawal and cardiac function and structure. Bilateral ACC volume significantly correlated with cardiac function and structure. These results support that clinical outcome is related to brain volume but may not be related to cardiac measures of function and structure in people with schizophrenia.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Neuroscience
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- McAskill, Madison Taylor Janice
- Abstract:
- While California has one of the largest state incarceration rates in America, the state has recently observed the greatest increase in the use of parole nationwide (Carson, 2020; Oudekerk & Kaeble, 2021). The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether the implementation of a new guide, the SDMF (Serin, 2019), has led to differences in parole decisions in California. Retrospective reports and case files of parole applicants were rated using the SDMF to come to a new parole decision, which was then compared to the original California Board of Parole Hearings (CBPH) decisions to evaluate fidelity. Results showed that denial rates significantly differed between pre- and post-implementation. Furthermore, SDMF-based decisions and CBPH decisions did not significantly differ, except for low-risk cases, suggesting commissioners may be considering extraneous information. Furthermore, the SDMF as a whole significantly predicted CBPH grants, with Release Plan and offender risk individually predicting these decisions.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Psychology
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Donnelly, Sarah
- Abstract:
- Children with additional learning needs are disproportionately excluded from dual language education programs, in part because of concerns that bilingualism will exacerbate existing difficulties with language (Marinova-Todd et al., 2016). To address these concerns, this thesis investigates syntactic and morphosyntactic development in children with additional learning needs, who are registered in early French immersion (EFI). Participants were children who are often considered at-risk for academic difficulty (AR) enrolled in EFI (n = 13), children who were AR enrolled in an English-only program (ELoI; n =15), and children who were not AR enrolled in EFI (n = 10). No group differences were found between participant groups. The grammatical errors produced by children in each group were also examined and similar error patterns were observed across the three groups. These findings illustrate that children with additional learning needs are developing both English and French abilities when enrolled in EFI.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Linguistics
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Shukri, Ali Hazem
- Abstract:
- Pathogenic bacteria are evolving resistance to conventional therapeutics at a rate which threatens our ability to reliably treat infections, necessitating the discovery of new therapeutics. Here, I employ the development of novel peptides that can be used to combat antimicrobial resistance. In Chapter 2, I employ a permutation of two known antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), Indolicidin and UyCT3, and through sequential generations of evolution, develop a peptide that can inhibit bacterial growth better than the wild type AMP. These AMPs are tested on clinically derived strains to help translate the clinical relevance of these findings. In Chapter 3, I use an orientated peptide array library (OPAL) to assist in the discovery of peptide β-lactamase inhibitors against the β-lactamase TEM-1. Candidates' activities were assessed for inhibition against TEM-1. These results show the significance of our findings and the robustness of the techniques that can be used for the discovery of peptide antimicrobials.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Biology
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Prasanna Kumar, Lakshmi
- Abstract:
- In recent years there is an unprecedented growth in online communication and collaborative platforms like Slack, Discord, Microsoft Teams,etc. These platforms facilitate communication among developers all over the world and allow distributed software development. Software developers rely on these platforms to discuss their projects and to seek technical help. It is challenging to summarize these chat messages due to their short size, unstructured and colloquial format. This thesis is an attempt to tackle this problem by applying topic modeling techniques to generate discussion summaries. We use a dataset extracted from the Discord chat conversations and evaluate four topic modeling techniques to identify the primary topics discussed. We evaluate different embedding models and study their impact on the performance of the topic modeling technique. We perform an extensive analysis of the topics per month and also study evolution of the topics over a period of one year.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Computer Science (M.C.S.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Computer Science
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Ritchie, Marshall William
- Abstract:
- Plastic pollution has become a major concern in almost every natural environment. As plastics enter an environment, they undergo a degradation process and can become microplastics (MPs; plastics smaller than 5 mm). Thus far, most MPs research has focused on aquatic, rather than terrestrial environments, and standardized methods of plastic extraction and quantification from animals living in the latter are needed. For my thesis, I aimed to understand the fates of MPs ingested by the generalist insect, Gryllodes sigillatus. In chapter 2, I developed a new, clearly laid out protocol on how MPs can be extracted and characterized within a laboratory setting after they have been ingested by an animal. In chapter 3, I used this method to investigate the effects of the cricket digestive system on ingested MPs, and found that crickets radically physically degrade microplastics and may therefore serve as a path for plastic transformation in natural environments.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Biology
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Atkinson, Teresa Celeste
- Abstract:
- OnlyFans is a platform that has become well-known for creators selling sexually explicit content, where creators share their content with fans, often for a monthly subscription fee. Currently, little is known within an academic context about the platform and its creators of adult content. Specifically, this study sought to understand how creators experience their platform, understand their labour, and how their experiences intersect with or diverge from current understandings of sex work. To understand the lived experiences of OnlyFans creators of sexually explicit content, nine qualitative interviews and a visual content analysis of 10 creators different from those interviewed were conducted. My research illustrates how there are parallels between OnlyFans creators of sexually explicit content and other forms of sex work however, creators are experiencing sex work in new manners, particularly within a digital environment.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Legal Studies
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Salmon, Melissa Maria
- Abstract:
- Motivational strategies to facilitate behaviour change typically focus people living with addiction on a better possible future should the addictive behaviour be reduced or ceased. In contrast, emerging research suggests focusing people on positive aspects of the life one lived before addiction also has behaviour change utility. In the current program of research, I measured and manipulated temporal focus to systematically assess the process by which a focus on one's past or future motivates self-directed change as well as the limits and boundaries of each approach. In Study 1, a qualitative assessment of the meaning people living with problem gambling (N=57) assign to their past before gambling and future without gambling revealed two distinct types of past (i.e., positive versus difficult) and anticipated future (i.e., optimistic versus ambivalent) experiences. Those with a positive past or optimistic future reported being more ready to change their gambling behaviour compared to those with a difficult past or ambivalent future. In Study 2 (correlational), problem gamblers (N=229) who perceived their past before gambling to be more positive were more ready to change their behaviour to the extent that they felt nostalgic for their pre-addicted past. Moreover, participants who felt optimistic about their future without gambling were more ready to change to the extent that they felt a sense of longing for this better possible future. In Study 3, participants (N=273) manipulated to focus on a positive past (versus an ordinary past) reported greater nostalgia for the pre-addicted past, which was associated with greater readiness to change. In Study 4, participants (N=174) manipulated to focus on a positive future (versus an ordinary future) reported greater longing for a future without gambling, which was associated with greater readiness to change. Lastly, an integrated data analysis testing the relative efficacy of a positive past and positive future in promoting readiness to change revealed no between-condition differences. Many people living with problem gambling are resistant to behaviour change. This program of research has significance by demonstrating when and for whom self-directed change can be advanced by way of focusing on a positive past and better possible future.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Psychology
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Venis, Robbie
- Abstract:
- Ceramic water filters (CWFs) are home-based drinking water treatment technologies promoted in rural and resource-restricted contexts due to their simplicity in terms of use, maintenance, and manufacture. However, cost, flowrate, breakage, and general misuse/disuse in the field are barriers to proliferation, adoption, and associated impact. This research addresses these limitations by evaluating technological innovations and participatory implementation in Tanzania. CWFs are produced by mixing clay, sawdust, water, and silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), pressing the mixture into a pot shape, and firing it in a kiln. AgNPs are added to enhance disinfection but are among the most expensive of filter elements. Cost reduction is thus explored through investigation of AgNP replacement and/or supplementation with zinc oxide (ZnO). Metals are challenged in isolation and combination against E. coli within batch and filter phases and disinfection and elution are assessed across time and varying water qualities. Combined AgNP-ZnO treatment proved synergistic under all conditions, consistently outperforming either metal alone. Supplementing silver with zinc in CWFs can therefore simultaneously reduce cost while improving bactericidal efficacy. Sawdust size and proportion within CWFs also relate to flowrate, strength, and bacteria removal, yet the nature of these relationships is unclear. Modelling these performance measures is consequently challenging. CWF disks with varied material characteristics are therefore evaluated for flow, strength, and disinfection efficacy. Nested multiple regression analysis with possibility-based design optimization is then investigated as a novel approach to predicting filter performance with generalized porous media characteristics. Optimum material parameters that maximize flowrate while maintaining sufficient disinfection and strength are identified. Optimization results show flowrate may increase to >8 L/hr without compromising water treatment capacity or strength if is porosity is <48%, dry density is >1.2 g/cm3, and intrinsic permeability is <29 x 10-9 cm2. Finally, multi-year community engagement and participatory program development processes in Longido, Tanzania are described. Three education and CWF provision structures are subsequently evaluated. Filter adoption, breakage, and associated health are monitored over 27 months. Multi-week and repeated knowledge communication proved critical to promoting CWF usage, maintenance, and protection. Long-term participant engagement and support is necessary to promote CWF longevity and improve related diarrheal health.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Environmental
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Bashnick, Courtney Taylor
- Abstract:
- Autonomous rendezvous and docking, whereby two spacecraft come into close proximity and subsequently make mechanical contact, is used for on-orbit servicing missions. The safety of these missions is endangered by space debris and other hazards that pose a threat for collisions. The guidance algorithm onboard a spacecraft is responsible for planning a safe path to a target spacecraft and must actively avoid these hazards for the mission's success. This thesis presents a real-time optimal guidance algorithm for autonomous path-planning with moving obstacles based upon the Model Predictive Control framework. Numerical simulations are completed in two- and three-dimensions to prove the functionality of the algorithm. The current laboratory facility was upgraded to validate the real-time collision avoidance capabilities of the algorithm. The experiments are, to the best of the author's knowledge, the first to demonstrate the moving obstacle avoidance capabilities of a Model Predictive Controller for spacecraft rendezvous and docking.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Aerospace
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Leibel, Miranda Sophia
- Abstract:
- This dissertation examines the child death inquiry as a performative ritual of liberal-democratic governance in the contexts of ongoing settler colonialism and the implementation of New Public Management in Canadian public policy. I ask: what is the performative work of public inquiries in constituting political relationships in contemporary Canada? I situate the child death inquiry as a particular form of public inquiry shaped by settler affective responses to Indigenous child deaths and assembled by contradictory logics that emphasize the universal generalizability of Indigenous loss, while articulating a specific and targeted anger with liberal, democratic governments, who ought to be accountable to their taxpaying-settler-publics. I trace the movement of figures as they are re/produced in the inquiry process: the 'Indigenous Public Child', the taxpayer-citizen and the benevolent settler public, and the ir/responsible government. I then consider how these relationships are produced, contested, and reaffirmed, as well as what kinds of impacts, concerns, and possibilities exist in the political spaces and relationships produced. I demonstrate how the dispositif of the child death inquiry moves from organizing hegemonic forms of visibility (through mainstream media), structuring the vocabulary of problematization (through legislative debate), establishing normative 'solutions' (through public reports), and articulating 'progress'(through policy commitments). The shift to private-sector-infused managerialism as a proposed solution to the contradictions of settler colonialism reflects a transformation from justice (as a political demand) to justness (as a technocratic form of 'resolution' and a commitment to continuous self-improvement). In Manitoba, one child becomes a symbolic stand-in for the various political failures of what is portrayed to be a bloated bureaucracy; in Alberta, government accountability comes to be framed through the quantification (and publicization) of child deaths; finally, in Ontario, the absence of the figure of the Indigenous Public Child, compounded by the pre-emptive commitment to self-improvement, reveals how the dispositif of the child death inquiry changes when the benevolent settler public does not accept moral responsibility for the Indigenous Public Child. Each case study demonstrates how, in different ways, lives and deaths are made to be public in the settler state, and to what end.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Canadian Studies
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Gutland, Michael James
- Abstract:
- Hygrothermal models are important tools for assessing durability risks in building envelopes, such as biological growth (mould and wood rot fungi), corrosion and freeze-thaw action in masonry. Hygrothermal modelling of mass masonry wall assemblies are known to have numerous weaknesses and gaps in our understanding. These include uncertainties relating to model inputs, calibration against data measured in the field, poorly understood two and three-dimensional interactions between adjacent materials, and the effect of geometric irregularities, imperfections and decay. Combined, these uncertainties can lead to reduced confidence in the model's conclusion and alter our opinions on the durability risks and whether certain retrofits are appropriate or not. This integrated doctoral thesis examines how uncertainty factors into hygrothermal as demonstrated using a combination of simulation studies and on-site monitoring work. First, a methodology for integrating calibrated hygrothermal and energy models of the Southwest Tower of the East Block for the purpose of assessing durability is demonstrated. This project consisted of in-situ monitoring of the masonry and interior climate of the tower for over a year. The calibrated energy model was used as basis for estimating the net benefit of interior climate retrofits on the durability of the masonry. Second, the imperfect nature of the mortar-unit interface in masonry and how this affects moisture transfer into and out of the wall is examined. Simulations showed that modelling this interface explicitly as a fracture will increase water absorption during wetting periods, but also help slightly with releasing moisture under drying conditions. And third, the uncertainty in geometry and construction of the rubble core walls is examined. The examined walls have highly irregular geometry and are known to have significant voids. A Python script was developed to stochastically generate sections of walls with and without voids. A significant variation in state variables, and heat and moisture fluxes was found between stochastically generated geometries and this variation increased with the number of voids. Overall, this research contributes to efforts make hygrothermal modelling of masonry more accurate and intuitive and how establishing sound baseline models and uncertainty windows is key to confidently estimating the deterioration risk in masonry.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Civil
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Dugan, Jordan
- Abstract:
- Electromagnetic metasurfaces are 2D arrays of sub-wavelength resonating particles whose microscopic properties can be tailored to achieve a desired macroscopic field scattering response. Determining the scattered fields from large metasurfaces consisting of small resonators constitutes a multi-scale problem. To remedy this, metasurfaces are modeled as zero thickness sheets described using surface susceptibilities in conjunction with the GSTCs. Here, the GSTCs are implemented in an FMM-IE solver to simulate metasurfaces embedded in complex environments. While the FMM-IE-GSTC solver works well, the standard dipolar surface susceptibility model of metasurfaces is inadequate for modeling structures exhibiting spatial dispersion. These spatially dispersive structures can be modeled using surface susceptibilities that are rational polynomial functions of the transverse wave-vector leading to the extended GSTCs. In this thesis, the extended GSTCs are further developed to model non-uniform metasurfaces providing a computationally efficient zero thickness model for practical metasurfaces which is then integrated into the IE-GSTC solver.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Engineering, Electrical and Computer
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Storosko, Iain
- Abstract:
- Organic farmers face many disadvantaging and marginalizing factors in their agricultural practices. Participatory plant breeding (PPB) is a method of crop breeding that pairs farmers' knowledge with the skills of formal plant breeders to bolster the insights generated by each partner. This study examines the potential of PPB programs to benefit Canadian organic farmers through a case study of the first-ever national PPB program. This study adopts a political ecology approach to analyse how PPB better meets the needs of organic farmers, compared to the dominant industrial seed systems. Farmers identified the networks and collaboration derived from the program to be as important as the actual materials developed. They also expressed the need for consistent institutional funding for PPB and organic agronomy. These findings will allow improvements to be made to the structure and methodologies of existing and new PPB programs to the benefit of all stakeholders.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Geography
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Easa, Hassan Khan
- Abstract:
- This thesis explores some extensions of the Standard Model in search of new physics. The research presented here concerns aspects of cosmology and collider physics. The research includes a combination of model building, constraints imposed by the current experimental data, and prospects of future experimental bounds. There is an aggregate of three main research projects composing this thesis. Firstly, the possibility of multiple hidden sectors to accommodate a successful framework to explain the abundance of matter over anti-matter and study prospects of a viable dark matter candidate. The evolution of cosmological history and the baryon asymmetry is studied thoroughly. The baryon asymmetry and the dark matter relic abundance are checked in light of the current cosmological data and a potential parameter space is computed. The analysis conducted reveals that a viable mechanism for the origin of matter and a feasible model for dark matter can be constructed considering the multiple hidden sectors framework. Secondly, we study the phenomenology of an extension of the Standard Model with fermionic top partners. The introduction of such new particles gives rise to rich collider phenomenology which is examined given the copious amount of data collected at the Large Hadron Collider. The discovery potential and the constrained parameter space for the proposed model are derived and discussed in great detail. The various available collider searches for top partners suggest that the limits obtained on the fully hadronic decay channels of the proposed model are less stringent compared to the traditional decay modes and the effects of future dedicated searches are outlined. Finally, a dedicated study analyzing some aspects of supersymmetric quantum chromodynamics (SQCD) like gauge theories is conducted. In particular, exploring the behaviour of a sub-category of SQCD theories which confines without chiral symmetry breaking for three quark flavours. The computations of the SQCD with the anomaly-mediated supersymmetry breaking effects lead to the conclusion that for the three flavour scenario, the scalar potential does not have a minimum away from the origin.
- Thesis Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Physics
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Varga, Ksenia
- Abstract:
- Main group compounds can offer viable alternatives to transition metal catalysts, some of which are not optimal due to toxicity concerns, element endangerment, and non-sustainable extraction from Earth's crust. In this work, a series of dicationic 2,6-Bis(benzimidazole-2-yl) pyridine (BZIMPY) -bound phosphorus-based Lewis acids were synthesized, characterized and tested for catalytic reactivity. The BZIMPY ligand provides rigidity and tunability, the R' substituents on the phosphorus influence the electron-deficiency at the P atom, and the counter anions can influence the reactivity and stability of the dication.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Science (M.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Chemistry
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Czerwonka, Sara Emily
- Abstract:
- This thesis study investigates how the experience and mental models of novice players differ from experienced players, and how this information can be utilized to design more effective tutorials for these new players. To do this, an exploratory survey study about experiences related to difficulty and tutorials was presented. The results indicated support for hands on tutorials with gradual onboarding techniques. Participants also identified unfamiliar control schemes, game complexity, and assumed knowledge about video games as major barriers to entry for new players. To address this, a pilot user study was conducted to test the effectiveness of finger-based haptic cues in addition to the user interface as a novel technique to alleviate difficulty and aid learning for novice players in a first-person shooter game. Results indicated that the system produced somewhat positive effects on player performance, and the system was generally supported by players as a potential solution. However, there were several limitations impacting this study and the significance of its results.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Human-Computer Interaction
- Date Created:
- 2022
-
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Creator:
- Johnston, Mackenzie Breanna
- Abstract:
- This series of studies investigated the relationships between self-compassion, physical activity, and autonomous motivation for exercise. The purpose of Study 1 was to examine if autonomous motivation for exercise moderates the association between self-compassion and physical activity in Carleton University students using a cross-sectional design. The goal of Study 2 was to test the effects of a 5-day self-compassion writing intervention on autonomous motivation and physical activity in first year university students at Carleton University. Autonomous motivation did not moderate the relationship between self-compassion and physical activity in Study 1 (B = -1.04, SE = 1.88, t(383) = -0.56, p = .57, 95% CI = [-4.75, 2.65]). The self-compassion intervention in Study 2 did not affect autonomous motivation, self-compassion, or physical activity across time (p < .05, η2 = .01 - .24). Researchers should replicate these findings with larger sample sizes and better measures of self-compassion and physical activity.
- Thesis Degree:
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Thesis Degree Discipline:
- Psychology
- Date Created:
- 2022