title: Implications of macrophage recruitment and activation in the immunopathophysiology of endometriosis

contributor:
Tayade, Chandrakant
Biomedical and Molecular Sciences

subject: Endometriosis

subject: Macrophage

subject: IL-33

subject: MCP-1

abstract: Endometriosis is an inflammatory gynaecological disease that affects 1 in 10 women globally. Characterized by the presence of endometrial-like tissues found proliferating outside the uterus, the disease is associated with chronic inflammation in the form of increased peritoneal cytokines and leukocyte populations, notably macrophages. Although several studies to date have highlighted the critical roles of macrophages in the progression of endometriosis and the promotion of peritoneal inflammation, the factors responsible for their recruitment and activation remained elusive. Through clinical observations, interleukin (IL)-33 was confirmed as to be a novel endometriosis-related damage-associated molecular pattern and herein we provided a characterization of its role in the regulation of macrophage activation and facilitation of lesion development in a mouse model of endometriosis. We provided evidence that IL-33, along with monocyte/macrophage-related chemotactic factor, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), were significantly increased within human endometriotic lesions compared to control endometrium. Evaluation of eutopic endometrium from women with endometriosis demonstrated macrophages were present in significantly greater abundance than control and may be central to promoting eutopic inflammation. Additionally, with emerging roles of the NLRP3 inflammasome in chronic inflammatory conditions, we sought to evaluate endometriosis patient peritoneal fluid and plasma by multiplex cytokine array and found aberrations in functional inflammasome products and regulators. Studies in our syngeneic, immunocompetent mouse model of endometriosis demonstrated that the administration of recombinant IL-33 induced significant lesion neovascularization and proliferation, as well as promoted robust peritoneal inflammation through the activation of macrophages. Furthermore, we found that inflammatory macrophage recruitment was regulated by the MCP-1/CCR2 signalling axis and was significantly attenuated by MCP-1 neutralization, which resulted in systemic and local perturbation in inflammation. These findings provided novel insights into the mechanisms regulating macrophage recruitment and activation which ultimately promoted endometriotic lesion development and inflammation in vivo.

abstract: M.Sc.


title: Seasonal Ground Surface Change Detected by DInSAR at Cape Bounty, Melville Island, Nunavut

contributor:
Treitz, Paul
Lamoureux, Scott
Geography and Planning

rights: Queen's University's Thesis/Dissertation Non-Exclusive License for Deposit to QSpace and Library and Archives Canada

rights: ProQuest PhD and Master's Theses International Dissemination Agreement

rights: Intellectual Property Guidelines at Queen's University

rights: This publication is made available by the authority of the copyright owner solely for the purpose of private study and research and may not be copied or reproduced except as permitted by the copyright laws without written authority from the copyright owner.

subject:
Permafrost
DInSAR
Arctic
Subsidence
Geomorphology
Remote Sensing

abstract: Differential interferometry of synthetic aperture radar (DInSAR) analysis can be used to generate high-precision surface displacement maps in continuous permafrost environments, capturing isotropic surface subsidence and uplift associated with the seasonal freeze and thaw cycle. We generated seasonal displacement maps using DInSAR with ultrafine-beam Radarsat-2 images for summers 2013, 2015 and 2019 at Cape Bounty, Melville Island, and examined them in combination with a land cover classification, meteorological data, topographic data, optical satellite imagery, and in situ measures of soil moisture, soil temperature and active layer thickness. Displacement magnitudes (estimated uncertainty ± 1 cm) of up to 10 cm per 48-day DInSAR stack were detected, but the vast majority of change was far smaller (up to 4 cm). Significant surface displacement was found to be most extensive and of the greatest magnitude in select low-lying, wet, and sloping areas. We speculate that precipitation may be the most important control on the extent of seasonal frost heave, as 2019 showed higher levels of surface displacement than 2013.  Despite both summers having similar thawing degree days, 2019 had double the cumulative rainfall by mid-August. Areas which showed significant displacement in multiple years were sparse but densely clustered in wet, low lying areas, on steep slopes or ridges, or close to the coast. Cumulative displacement across all three years was also examined: areas with large cumulative uplift were constrained to upland areas, and conversely areas showing large cumulative subsidence were constrained to low-lying areas; this may be due to contrasting ground ice concentrations and water availability associated with different sediment composition and frost susceptibility above and below the local marine limit (estimated at 70 m a.s.l.). DInSAR also captured the expansion of two medium-sized retrogressive thaw slumps (RTS), appearing to successfully map accumulation of slumped material at the foot of the RTS headwalls, and associated destabilization and subsidence upslope.

abstract: M.Sc.


title: Multi-Sensor Based Land Vehicles’ Positioning in Challenging GNSS Environments

contributor:
Noureldin, Aboelmagd
Electrical and Computer Engineering

subject:
Integrated Positioning
Multi-Sensor Fusion
LiDAR Odometry

abstract: The car industry has a growing demand for reliable, continuous, and accurate positioning information for various applications, including routing to a specific destination, asset tracking, and, eventually future self-driving. Global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receivers have been widely used for this purpose. However, adequate GNSS positioning accuracy cannot be guaranteed in all environments due to possible satellite signal blockage, poor satellite geometry, and multipath in urban environments and downtown cores. The technological advances and low cost of micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) – based inertial sensors (accelerometers and gyroscopes) enabled their use inside land vehicles for various reasons, including the integration with GNSS receivers to provide positioning information that can bridge GNSS outages in challenging GNSS environments. An optimal estimation technique, such as the Kalman filter, is used to integrate the positioning solution from both the GNSS receiver and the inertial sensors. However, in dense urban areas and downtown cores where GNSS receivers may incur prolonged outages, the integrated positioning solution may become prone to rapid drift resulting in substantial position errors. Therefore, it is becoming necessary to include other sensors and systems that can be available in future land vehicles to integrate with both the GNSS receivers and inertial sensors to enhance the positioning performance in such challenging environments. The aim of this research is to design and examine the performance of a multi-sensor integrated positioning system that fuses the GNSS receiver data with not only inertial sensors but also with the three-dimensional point cloud of onboard light detection and ranging (LiDAR) system. In this thesis, a comprehensive LiDAR processing and odometry method is developed to provide a continuous and accurate positioning solution, even in challenging GNSS environments. A multi-sensor fusion based on extended Kalman filtering is also developed to integrate the LiDAR positioning information with both GNSS and inertial sensors and utilize the LiDAR updates to limit the drift in the positioning solution, even in challenging or completely denied GNSS environment. The performance of the proposed multi-sensor positioning solution is examined using several road test trajectories in both Kingston and Toronto downtown areas involving different vehicle dynamics and driving scenarios. This thesis discusses the merits and limitations of the proposed method and gives recommendations for future research.

abstract: M.A.Sc.


title: Development of a Vascularized Carotid Artery Plaque Phantom for the Investigation of Novel Ultrasound-Based Technologies

contributor:
Johri, Amer
Biomedical and Molecular Sciences

subject:
Atherosclerosis
Ultrasound
Neovascularization
Medical Imaging

abstract:
As the global burden of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease continues to rise, there is an increased demand for improved imaging techniques for earlier detection and diagnosis of atherosclerotic plaques, and for quantitative measures of disease progression. Vulnerable plaque lesions are thought to be responsible for the majority of cardiovascular events, characterized by a large lipid core, a thin fibrous cap, and neovascularization – features that increase the risk of plaque rupture and thrombosis. Intraplaque neovascularization (IPN) in advanced lesions in the carotid artery can be visualized using contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) technology, and its accurate quantification could provide a powerful tool for the detection of vulnerable plaque.
This project was undertaken to develop a model of vascularized atherosclerotic plaque compatible with CEUS, and to apply it in the validation of a novel IPN quantification tool that calculates a normalized IPN enhancement ratio (NER). A variety of plaque mimics (n=92) were created to simulate different plaque phenotypes, and NER values were compared with visual grading of human plaques (n=42). To validate the vulnerable plaque mimics, contrast enhancement of plaque IPN was evaluated using 2D and 3D methods, showing a positive correlation between NER and IPN volume (rho = 0.45; p<0.0001). Enhancement of certain plaque mimic types was shown to resemble human plaques with visual grade scores of 0 (NER score mean difference = 1.05 ± 2.45; p=0.67), grade 1 (NER score mean difference = 0.22 ± 3.26; p=0.95), and grade 2 (NER score mean difference = -0.84 ± 3.33; p=0.80). The NER quantification method was shown to detect grade 2 plaques with a sensitivity of 95% and specificity of 91%.
This methodology was shown to successfully mimic plaque vulnerability and has the potential to improve clinical identification of vulnerable plaques. The neovascularized plaque phantom developed may serve as an in vitro platform for further validation of novel plaque imaging technologies and techniques for the investigation of plaque neovascularization.

abstract: M.Sc.


title: An Analysis of Motion Smoothness in Video Object Detection

contributor:
Rivest, Francois
Zulkernine, Farhana
Computing

subject:
Object Detection
Machine Learning
Computer Vision
Object Tracking
Image Processing

abstract:
Machine learning in computer vision has become an invaluable aspect of research on object detection and object tracking. While advancements in current research aim to improve the matching of predictions with ground truth bounding box annotations from humans, to our knowledge, very little work is currently being done on analyzing bounding box path smoothness. Bounding box path smoothness is useful as it can contribute to improve machine vision. Additionally, it provides another metric by which researchers can assess the capabilities and qualities of video object detection systems.

In this work, we investigate the problem of object bounding box path smoothness in video object detection systems. We begin by studying the fields of convolutional neural networks for object detection systems, and smoothness metrics from biokinematics research. Two smoothness metrics from this field, namely Log Dimensionless Jerk (LDLJ) and Spectral Arc Length (SAL), are adapted for usage in object bounding box paths and an analysis is done to justify the adaptations made. An in-depth analysis of two bounding box proposal generation systems is done using the two adapted smoothness metrics and validated against the ground truth bounding box paths. The analysis showed that both LDLJ and SAL can differentiate between all tested object bounding box path generation systems. Additional experiments demonstrate that the human annotations are the most smooth bounding box paths, however, the object detection systems tested can be improved naively by doing a moving average over proposed paths.

Finally, we adapt the smoothness metrics as loss functions in a video object detection system to analyze if it could be used as a regularizer on video object detection using convolutional neural networks. We propose, train and analyse a model on video object detection with 7 training regimens which vary only in the regularizer. We found that using a smoothness regularizer can improve object path smoothness by a small amount and conclude with a list of possible future work.

abstract: M.Sc.


title: 4G LTE Network Data Collection and Analysis Along Public Transportation Routes

contributor:
Hassanein, Hossam
Noureldin, Aboelmagd
Electrical and Computer Engineering

subject:
Data Collection
Throughput Prediction
4G LTE

abstract:
With the advancements in wireless network technologies over the past few decades and the deployment of 4G LTE networks, the capabilities and services provided to end-users have become seemingly endless. Users of smartphones utilize high-speed network services while commuting on public buses and hope to have a consistent, high-quality connection for the duration of their trip. Due to the massive load demand on cellular networks and frequent changes in the underlying radio channel, users often experience sudden unexpected variations in the connection quality. To overcome such a variation and maintain a consistent connection, we need to predict these variations before they occur. This can be accomplished by analyzing different network quality parameters at various times and locations and investigating the main factors that affect the network’s performance and network QoS.

To this end, we conducted a network survey via Kingston Transit, in Kingston, Ontario, using the Android network monitoring application G-NetTrack Pro from which we constructed a dataset of various client-side wireless network quality parameters. The dataset consists of 30 repeated public transit bus trips, each lasting no more than one hour. We studied two techniques for throughput analysis: regression predictive modelling and time series forecasting. For regression predictive modelling, we deployed various machine learning models on the collected data for throughput prediction and achieved the highest prediction performance with the random forest model. For time series forecasting, we used statistical methods as well as deep learning architectures. Our evaluation shows that the machine learning models had a higher throughput prediction performance than the time series forecasting techniques.

In this thesis, we present an analysis of the collected data, where we investigate the effects of time and location on the network’s measured throughput and signal strength. Also, we discuss and compare the results of applying different throughput prediction techniques on the collected data.

abstract: M.A.Sc.


title: Quantum Trajectory Theory of Open Cavity-QED Systems with a Time Delayed Coherent Optical Feedback

contributor: Physics, Engineering Physics and Astronomy

subject:
Quantum Trajectory Theory
Quantum Optics
Coherent Feedback

abstract: The emergence of integrated (or solid state) photonic systems, including quantum dots, waveguides, and cavities, has provided a base to harness quantum optic phenomena for use in current and future quantum technologies. These systems also provide opportunities for exploring fundamentally new regimes in quantum optics. In order to fully realize the potential of these systems, many figures of merit need to be improved, for example by increasing the stability and coherent lifetimes of these systems. Following the notable improvements using measurement-based feedback, time-delayed coherent optical feedback has been proposed as one such method of stabilizing and improving these systems. Furthermore, modelling coherent feedback itself presents an interesting fundamental problem due to its non-Markovian nature. In this thesis, we use quantum trajectory (QT) theory to derive two models for simulating cavity quantum electrodynamic (cavity-QED) systems with time-delayed coherent feedback. First, an explanation of QT theory is given and the related time discretized waveguide (TDW) model is derived. Next we present a model for feedback using the frequency modes of the waveguide and results are presented in the ``one photon in the loop" approximation. We demonstrate how the photon lifetime can be improved in typical cavity-QED with coherent feedback and we explore some nonlinear effects. We then expand the system to allow for two photons in the feedback loop which requires us to use the TDW model. Lastly, this new approach is used to model two two-level systems coupled via a waveguide and connected to a feedback loop. These findings have implications on improving quantum optic systems by creating a new degree of control, as well as for modelling non-Markovian features in quantum optics.

abstract: M.Sc.


title: Theoretical and Physical Chemical Considerations of Chemical Fate and Bioaccumulation Models: Implications for Global Regulatory Assessment

contributor:
Parnis, J. Mark
Chemistry

subject:
Environmental Fate
Bioaccumulation
Toxicity
Partition Coefficients
PBT

abstract: Chemical fate models can provide insights into processes influencing environmental fate and bioaccumulation of chemicals. Currently, experimental data are generally obtained for regulatory assessment of organic chemicals; however, it is believed that concentration- or fugacity-based fate models can be very useful for making estimations prior to testing or for assisting in the interpretation of results. This thesis aims to take a modelling perspective on regulatory aspects of chemical assessment by addressing the three main criteria used internationally for regulation including Persistence, Bioaccumulation, and Toxicity (PBT) of chemicals. Regulations usually use ‘bright-line’ or ‘pass/fail’ criteria, which may not take all relevant considerations into account, especially when assessing chemicals with new or unusual physical chemical properties. Four studies are presented each of which address relevant issues observed in assessing chemical fate including i) kinetic delays seen in highly hydrophobic substances, which may obscure persistence assessments, ii) assessment of lipid-normalization for calculating bioaccumulation metrics, iii) presentation of the Chemical Exposure Toxicity Space (CETS) tool for estimating successful toxicity test conditions, and iv) application of the CETS tool to two non-fish aquatic organisms. It is demonstrated that simple uptake models can be used to successfully address these problems and the benefit of estimating results before conducting experiments is discussed. It is demonstrated that using simple chemical fate or bioaccumulation models can be very useful by providing insight into unexpected results as well as to help prevent wasted tests by predicting results beforehand.

abstract: PhD


title: Evaluation of a Novel Polymeric Flocculant for Enhanced Water Recovery of Mature Fine Tailings

contributor:
Hutchinson, Robin
Chemical Engineering

subject:
Flocculation
MFT
Mature Fine Tailings
Degradable Cationic Flocculant

abstract: This thesis explores the feasibility of using a novel degradable cationic flocculant, poly(PLA4ChMA), for enhanced dewatering of mature fine tailings (MFT). Previous research indicated that this material provided improved flocculation of 5.0 wt.% MFT diluted in deionized water compared to commercial anionic polymers, with continued dewatering of the sediment occurring as the polymer undergoes partial hydrolytic degradation. However, the elevated dosages (10,000 ppm) required would make the polymer costly to implement on an industrial scale. With this motivation, the impact of MFT composition and the use of process water is explored while comparing the settling performance of poly(PLA4ChMA) to commercially available alternatives such as anionic FLOPAM A3338. While consolidation of 5.0 wt.% MFT diluted with process water could be achieved using 500 ppm poly(PLA4ChMA), the final compaction levels after polymer degradation were similar to those achieved with the non-degradable FLOPAM A3338. Furthermore, the initial (24 h) compaction and clarity were better with FLOPAM A3338, which also provided faster settling rates (5-8 m/h) than those observed with poly(PLA4ChMA) at 10,000 ppm (<0.4 m/h). Attempts to increase poly(PLA4ChMA) molecular weight did not offer improvements in the settling properties at comparable dosages to those used with FLOPAM A3338. A series of flocculation-filtration experiments were also conducted to compare the performance of the polymers with undiluted MFT. While faster rates of water release were observed with cationic flocculants compared to FLOPAM A3338, no improvement in overall compaction of the tailings was measured with poly(PLA4ChMA), either before or after degradation. Slower rates of water release were measured with poly(PLA4ChMA) following degradation, indicating that the cleavage of the cationic functionality from the polymer during degradation has a negative impact on its performance. Thus, the improved dewatering observed with poly(PLA4ChMA) in dilute MFT suspensions does not extend to conditions that would be encountered in the field.

abstract: M.A.Sc.


title: Analysis and Management of Stormwater Quality: A Case Study of the Town of Jasper in Alberta, Canada

contributor:
Filion, Yves Dr
Hulley, Michael Dr
Loock, Daniela Dr
Civil Engineering

subject:
Stormwater Management
Stormwater Quality Monitoring
Best Management Practices
Stormwater Modelling

abstract:
Stormwater pollutants can have deleterious impacts on the aquatic life of receiving waterbodies. The aim of this thesis is to present the findings from stormwater quality monitoring and modelling performed for the Town of Jasper in Alberta, Canada. This research was conducted in order to understand the stormwater quality issues in the Town and propose Best Management Practices to reduce stormwater impacts to the aquatic life of receiving waterbodies.
A monitoring program was conducted over a period of a year, and samples were collected at major outfalls in the Town for various weather events. The objective of the monitoring program was to identify key pollutants of concern and to characterize impacts to sensitive surrounding aquatic ecosystems downstream of the Town. A total of 14 stormwater quality parameters were found to be of high concern to aquatic life, particularly total suspended solids (TSS), metals and phosphorus (TP). TSS concentrations were statistically correlated with metals and TP by using a Spearman rank correlation. It was found that vehicular traffic was a major source of metals and that winter road salting was responsible for excessive chloride concentrations. High hydrocarbon loads were traced to the oil leaks associated with the high volumes of traffic during the tourist season and fecal coliforms were largely present due to the fecal droppings of the resident Elk population. A Stormwater Management Model (SWMM) was developed to assess the performance of street sweeping and infiltration trenches to reduce TSS loads in the stormwater in Jasper. Two catchments models were developed for the Town using long-term meteorological data, as well as watershed and drainage system data provided by the Municipality. The quality parameters were calibrated so that TSS loads at the outfalls were within a 20% error of monitoring data. The performance of proposed Best Management Practices (BMP) was assessed using single-event and continuous data simulations. A combined sweeping/trench control scenario was recommended for implementation as it generated the highest removal efficiency of up to 51%. The modelling results were used in support of a stormwater management plan to protect the sensitive ecosystems and waterbodies that surround the Town of Jasper.

abstract: M.A.Sc.


title: (Re)Framing Resistance: The Role of Indigenous Comic Books in the Past, Present, and Future

contributor:
Bertrand, Karine
Cultural Studies

subject:
Indigenous Comics
Visual Sovereignty
Gord Hill
Chelsea Vowel
David Alexander Robertson

abstract: As Maori scholar Linda Tuhiwai Smith has described, “the collective memory of imperialism has been perpetrated through the ways knowledge about Indigenous peoples was collected, classified and then represented in various ways back to the West, and then, through the eyes of the West back to those who have been colonized.” This research project will therefore take an interdisciplinary approach to understand how comics books have become a medium of Indigenous resistance to and a remediation of popular media such as comics which often perpetrate racialized stereotypes as the dominant representation of indigeneity. Furthermore, this research will consider how the reclamation of the comic medium by Indigenous artists can thus be viewed as an expression of “visual sovereignty” by, not only speaking back to settler representations, but also strengthening Indigenous sovereignty by advocating for Indigenous cultural and political power.  This research will primarily focus on three texts — The 500 Years of Resistance Comic by Gord Hill, Betty: The Helen Betty Osborne Story by David Alexander Robertson, and kitaskinaw 2350 by Chelsea Vowel — and consider how each of them enact visual sovereignty.

abstract: M.A.


title: Automated Detection of Helium Bubbles in Inconel X-750 and Modeling Their Effect on its Mechanical Properties

contributor:
Beland, Laurent
Mechanical and Materials Engineering

rights: Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 United States

subject:
Object Detection
Neural Networks
Lattice Element Method
X-750
Helium Bubbles

abstract:
It is well known that the presence of pores has an effect on the mechanical properties of materials.  A figure case is X-750, a Ni-based alloys exposed to neutron irradiation in nuclear reactors. Interactions with neutrons lead to atom transmutations that spontaneously create nanoscale pores in otherwise sound material.
Imaging these nanoscale features using transmission electron microscopy is key to predicting and assessing the mechanical behavior of structural materials in nuclear reactors. Analyzing these micrographs is often a tedious and time-consuming manual process. It is a prime candidate for automation. A region-based convolutional neural network is adapted to detect helium bubbles in micrographs of neutron-irradiated Inconel X-750 reactor spacer springs. This neural network produces analyses of similar accuracy and reproducibility to that produced by humans. Further, this method is shown as being four orders of magnitude faster than manual analysis allowing for generation of significant quantities of data. The proposed method can be used with micrographs of different Fresnel contrasts and magnification levels.
To understand the effect that these pores have on mechanical properties, a lattice element method is introduced. The lattice element method uses a spring network to act as forces between nodes to predict the micro-mechanical response of the system. This computationally efficient model shows promise in the application of porous material mechanical testing to fracture. A two-dimensional isotropic linear-elastic model is developed with multiple spring networks and boundary conditions. The lattice element method (LEM) is validated in all model conditions for isotropic behaviour and for size effects. The LEM is then validated in the case of a slab containing a circular pore. The LEM predicts stress concentrations in good agreement with an analytical solution.
In the future, the detection network and the LEM, used in tandem, could enable the development of high-throughput simulated material models from experimental porous samples.

abstract: M.A.Sc.


title: Autonomous Bathymetric and Magnetic Surveying for Canadian Lakes

contributor: Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering

subject:
Magnetometry
USV
Bathymetry
ASV
Autonomous Surface Vessel
Mineral Exploration
Marine Archaeology
Lakes
Surveying
Geophysics

abstract: Magnetic surveys are an important step in the process of mineral and archaeological exploration. Current magnetic surveying methods include mounting magnetometers to various survey platforms including inhabited airplanes, helicopters, all-terrain vehicles, boats, and backpacks for walking surveys. Recent developments in autonomous controls and remotely piloted systems have led to conducting magnetic surveys from remotely piloted aerial systems (RPAS). The use of these recently developed platforms has allowed the mineral exploration industry to reduce risk to pilots and operators of inhabited survey platforms and achieve reduced sensor to magnetic source separations while improving data resolution, or speed of data collection compared to previous survey vessels. In survey regions occupied by freshwater lakes (10% of Canada’s surface area), these aerial survey platforms are restricted by the water surface, limiting the achievable proximity to the ground/magnetic source body. The work completed in this thesis has led to the configuration of an autonomous surface vessel (ASV) equipped with a single frequency echo sounder and an Overhauser magnetometer for applications in marine magnetic and bathymetric surveying. This platform and developed operating procedure are capable of deploying a magnetometer only metres above the lakebed thus decreasing the sensor to magnetic source separation and improving magnetic body resolvability compared to pre-existing public magnetic data acquired across Canadian lakes. The survey vessel configuration was tested in three Canadian lakes (Lake Ontario, Surprise Lake – Thunder Bay, Ontario, and Opinicon Lake – South Frontenac, Ontario) by completing magnetic and bathymetric surveys for shallow sections of each lake. The surface area of each survey was less than 1 square kilometre, with a maximum lake depth of 6.5 metres. Through interpretation of acquired data, localized magnetic anomalies on the order of 200nT have been identified and are suspected to indicate the presence of iron-rich geological units, and/or archaeological waste. The data acquired throughout these  case studies, combined with a regional investigation of over 877,000 Canadian lakes completed throughout this research, has indicated that the configured ASV and operation procedure could serve as an effective and reliable survey platform for purposes of mineral and archaeological exploration in over 68% of Canadian lakes.

abstract: M.A.Sc.


title: HPA Axis Reactivity in Depression: Relation of Childhood Maltreatment, Affect Lability, & Testosterone

contributor:
Harkness, Kate
Psychology

subject:
Depression
Stress
Childhood Maltreatment
Affect Lability
Testosterone
HPA axis
Cortisol

abstract: Stress is one of the most important etiological factors implicated in depression. A principle physiological stress response system is the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Dysregulation of the HPA axis is proposed as a mechanism that may help translate stress exposures, such as childhood maltreatment (CM), into heightened risk for depression. Further, sex differences in HPA axis regulation have been proposed to help explain women’s heightened vulnerability to depression. Overall, depression and CM are associated with blunted HPA axis reactivity to stress. However, studies also show patterns of heightened HPA axis reactivity in relation to depression, including among depressed individuals with CM, suggesting that other vulnerability factors may be necessary to promote blunted reactivity in depression. Two factors associated with depression in women, and which interact with the HPA axis, are disturbances in affective processes, such as affect dynamics, and hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis functioning. Thus, in the current dissertation, in two separate models, I examine whether the relation of depression and childhood maltreatment on HPA axis reactivity may be further moderated by two indices of these systems, namely affect lability and basal testosterone. Specifically, I assessed HPA axis reactivity by assessing salivary cortisol output in response to a laboratory stress task (Trier Social Stress Test) in a sample of depressed and non-depressed women (i.e., no lifetime history of psychopathology). Childhood maltreatment was assessed as the presence of severe CM (sCM) using a rigorous contextual interview, affect lability was assessed via self-report, and basal testosterone was assessed via blood serum. Although I found that the relation of depression and HPA axis reactivity was moderated by sCM, affect lability, and testosterone, the specific pattern of effects among depressed women were not as hypothesized. Instead, I found that affect lability and testosterone helped to further characterize HPA axis reactivity but only for depressed women with no sCM, such that low affect lability/testosterone was associated with lower cortisol reactivity. In contrast, depressed women with sCM showed disturbances in HPA axis responding in the acclimation period just prior to the TSST regardless of affect lability. Implications and future directions for understanding HPA axis functioning in depression are discussed.

abstract: PhD


title: Cyclic Testing of Pre-engineered Beam-Hanger Connections & Reinforcement of Holes in Glulam Beams Using Self-tapping Screws

contributor:
MacDougall, Colin
Civil Engineering

subject:
Connections
Wood
Earthquake
Glulam
Glued-Laminated Timber
Self-Tapping Screw
Cyclic

abstract:
This thesis is split into two sections: the first evaluates the performance of pre-engineered beam-hanger connections under cyclic loading, and the second evaluates the reinforcement of holes in glulam beams using self-tapping screws.

Chapter 3 describes laboratory testing of the Megant 430x150x50 beam-hanger connector under applied interstorey drift deflections based on a modified version of the CUREE loading protocol. The performance of the Megant 430x150x50 connector was evaluated and it was determined that the connector surpassed interstorey drift limits of 2.5%, outlined in the 2015 National Building Code of Canada. The failure of the connector was due to a combined tension and pull-out failure of the wood screws. It was observed that the gravity load has a significant effect on the interstorey drift capacity and energy dissipation by the connector.

Chapter 4 describes experimental tests conducted on different size glulam beams: 6-layer, 9-layer and 11-layer. Each beam is tested under three test configurations: no hole, a 2-inch hole at ¼ span and a reinforced 2-inch hole at ¼ span. It was determined that when a hole is introduced, the overall strength capacity of the beam decreases. When self-tapping screws are used as reinforcement around the hole, the strength capacity of the beam can increase up to 34.4% compared to a hole with no reinforcement, and can even over-reinforce the beam by 6.2%, as seen in the 9-layer beam, when compared to its reference beam. The depth-to-span and diameter-to-depth of beam (d/h) ratios have a large impact on the strength and behavior of the beam.

abstract: M.A.Sc.


title: Analysis of the Utilization of Mobile Network Base Stations Using Traffic Load Predictions

subject:
Telecommunications
Base Stations
Machine Learning
Forecasting

abstract:
Every day, mobile network traffic is increasing in an unprecedented manner all over the world, resulting in growing demand from the network operators to deploy more base stations in order to be able to serve more devices while maintaining a satisfactory level of service quality. Base stations are considered the leading energy consumer in a network infrastructure; consequently, increasing the number of base stations will increase power consumption. By finding a method to predict the traffic load on base stations, network optimization techniques can be applied to put inactive base stations into sleep mode thereby decreasing energy consumption.
This research explores methods capable of predicting traffic load on base stations. The most common time series forecasting techniques are examined in this research on a public dataset that provides records of traffic loads of several base stations over the span of one week.
Because of the limited number of records that exist in the dataset for each base station, and to avoid a common problem often raised in training forecasting algorithms, different base stations are grouped together while building the prediction model. Due to the different behavior of the base stations, forecasting the traffic load of multiple base stations together becomes challenging. Our proposed solution involves clustering the base stations according to their behavior and forecasting the load on the base stations in each cluster individually. Different clustering algorithms along with several similarity metrics are compared to each other using a variety of evaluation methods. The base stations load prediction task is formulated as a time series forecasting problem. The most common statistical techniques, machine learning techniques, and deep learning techniques used for time series forecasting are applied on the clusters. Consequently, the clusters’ performances are evaluated and compared. Lastly, two popular online tools, created specifically for the time series forecasting task, are employed to the dataset. The results generated by these online tools are used in this research as a benchmark to compare to the performance of the proposed prediction model.
Our findings demonstrate that Deep Recurrent Neural Networks such as the Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) and Gated Recurrent Units (GRU) networks perform better than other time series forecasting techniques for large data sets. Our findings offer clustering the time series data according to their behavior before using them for the forecasting algorithms as a solution for the problem of the dissimilar behavior of the time series when they are trained together.

abstract: M.Sc.


title: An Empirical Analysis of the Conduct and Effects of Monetary Policy

contributor:
Smith, Gregor
Economics

subject: Monetary Policy

abstract:
This dissertation provides an empirical investigation on the implementation and effects of monetary policy. Chapter 2 examines how interest rate policy is determined at the European Central Bank. I provide empirical evidence against the notion that monetary policy at the European Central Bank favors the national interests of the largest member states. Instead, policy can best be described by a simple voting model where the median interest rate prevails. By mandate member countries are required to consider economic conditions in the broader Euro area when setting interest rate policy and, as I show, there is little empirical evidence suggesting that this is not the case. Because larger countries make up a larger fraction of these economic conditions, policy will favor their economic interests more often than not.

The remainder of this dissertation uses data from the Survey of Professional Forecasters to examine the effects of monetary policy on the term structure of inflation expectations in the United States. In Chapter 3 I use the unobserved components model to estimate the term structure of inflation expectations from 1992–2018. I show how the model can be extended to allow for two departures from rational expectations and find that both channels are statistically significant. Contractionary monetary policy lowers inflation expectations after a lag of several years, an effect which is driven by the response of long-run inflation expectations which remain permanently lower after the policy move. Because interest rates and long-run inflation expectations are cointegrated, contractionary monetary policy additionally lowers future interest rates.

In Chapter 4 I propose a method to calculate the impulse response of the term structure using local projections. The method uses the law of iterated expectations to derive a set of linear cross-equation restrictions which substantially reduce the number of parameters to estimate. I apply the term structure local projections to estimate the response of the term structures of inflation expectations and interest rates after a monetary policy shock. My results confirm the findings in Chapter 3: higher interest rates today cause both inflation expectations and interest rates to decline in the future.

abstract: PhD


title: Multi-Sensor Fusion of Automotive Radar and Onboard Motion Sensors for Seamless Land Vehicle Positioning in Challenging Environments

contributor:
Noureldin, Aboelmagd
Korenberg, Michael
Electrical and Computer Engineering

subject:
Positioning
Static Object Detection
Electronic Scanning Radar
Extended Kalman Filter
Global Navigation Satellite System
Inertial Navigation System

abstract: Positioning services for land vehicle navigation have long relied on global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) including GPS; however, GNSS cannot maintain an accurate position while travelling under bridges, around tall building and under tree canopies due to signal blockage or multipath. Integration with the onboard motion sensors or perception systems can not maintain adequate level of accuracy in all environment during long GNSS outages.  The proposed research overcomes the limitations of current positioning technologies to expand their capabilities in degraded environments, providing an ‘uninterrupted everywhere’ positioning. The proposed system integrates a GNSS receiver, onboard motion sensors, and an electronic scanning radar (ESR) presently used in land vehicles for adaptive cruise control. This research develops a new method for ESR-based static object detection using Median Absolute Deviation (MAD) approach to support accurate computation of the vehicle’s forward speed. A radar odometry method is then developed to obtain the vehicle position based on ESR. Integration with onboard motion sensors based on Extended Kalman filtering (EKF) is designed and realized to achieve accurate positioning in degraded vision and challenging GNSS environments. An intelligent switching mechanism is designed to choose between GNSS and ESR to be integrated in different scenarios with the onboard motion sensors in order to maintain reliable and continuous positioning in all enviroments. The proposed method sustained reliable positioning accuracy with errors less than 1% of the traveled distance. During GNSS outages, the fusion of ESR with the onboard motion sensors has resulted in at least 50% improvement in positioning accuracy when compared to the onboard motion sensors operating in standalone mode. This thesis discusses the merits and limitations of the proposed method and gives recommendations for future research.

abstract: M.A.Sc.


title: A Laboratory of Social Policy: California, The New Right and the Gubernatorial Administration of Ronald Reagan, 1967-1975

contributor:
Smith, Timothy
History

rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States

subject:
New Right
Conservatism
Social Policy
Welfare Reform
Ronald Reagan
California
Health Policy
Politics

abstract: The traditional historiographical narrative locates the revival of grassroots conservatism in the postwar decades, the subsequent reemergence of conservatives in mainstream American politics by the mid 1970s and the completion of this ascent with the election of Ronald Reagan as President in 1980. This thesis argues that there is a crucial stage missing in the existing literature on the development of the New Right as a political force, their election to state government offices in the 1960s and early 1970s. This work will focus on Ronald Reagan’s time as Governor of California as an example of how New Right conservatives grappled with learning how to govern and honed their policy agendas before entering the national political arena. Crucially, this thesis shows that welfare and social policy were an essential part of New Right ideology and played an important role in their critiques of both the Democratic legacy of the New Deal and Great Society as well as President Nixon’s liberal domestic policies. Furthermore, welfare policy and rhetoric were an important wedge issue that was used to create a new, more avowedly conservative political coalition. It is argued that it is essential to look to the laboratories of state government to uncover how conservatives experimented with policy and prepared themselves for national politics if the full narrative of both American conservatism and welfare policy are to be properly understood.

abstract: M.A.


title: Masculinity and Exile: The Art of Benvenuto Cellini

contributor:
D'Elia, Una Roman
Art History

subject:
Goldsmith
Renaissance
Benvenuto Cellini
Masculinity
Exile
Gender and Sexuality
Bust of Cosimo I
Silver Jupiter
Mint
Coinage
Crucifix

abstract:
This dissertation analyzes sixteenth-century European exile through the lens of masculinity, taking as its case study the Florentine goldsmith and sculptor Benvenuto Cellini. Drawing on a range of primary texts from the fields of law, literature, and art theory, this project examines Cellini’s written works, such as the Treatises and Autobiography, alongside his sculptural and other three-dimensional objects. The study of masculinity is particularly well-suited for an analysis of the effects of exile—in which gender, sex, and sexuality are alternately maintained and transformed across geopolitical boundaries. In focusing on the interaction between legal institutions and the material body and its representations, this dissertation probes the complex ways exile has shaped sixteenth-century identity formation and gendered categories of citizenship, nationhood, and belonging. It argues that exile forced Cellini and his patrons to negotiate these meaningful but contested categories, making exile central to our understanding of the art of this period.

This dissertation is organized by three crucial aspects of exile, each in a separate chapter: exile’s forced encounter with foreignness, its creation of insiders and outsiders within one nation state, and its resolution in allowing those excluded to come back home. “The Jupiter” examines Cellini’s work in France, especially his work on a rarely discussed work, his silver life-size Jupiter. This chapter asks what role technique and material had in reshaping gendered power in the context of foreignness. “The Bust” assesses the function of state portraiture in defining centre and periphery. In tracing the creation and reception of Cellini’s bronze bust of Cosimo I (1546-47), including its move to the island of Elba in 1557, this chapter explores how exile shaped the expansion of the sixteenth-century absolutist state. “The Mint” examines the end of exile—a significant aspect of the institutional process of exile common in the sixteenth century, occurring when a term-length exile ended or when a banishment was lifted. This chapter analyzes two divergent areas of Cellini’s career, the mint and his marble Crucifix, to examine the function of money and compensation in making meaning in returning home.

abstract: PhD


title: Electrodeposited Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Substrates for Point-of-Care Drug Checking

contributor:
Docoslis, Aristides
Chemical Engineering

subject:
SERS
Sensors
Nanomaterials
Fentanyl
Harm Reduction
Drug Checking
Multivariate Analysis
Machine Classification
Opioid Crisis
Point-of-care Device

abstract:
Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is an analytical technique that can provide ultra-sensitive chemical detection on a mobile platform when implemented on handheld Raman spectrometers. However, the large laser spot size of handheld Raman spectrometers requires SERS substrates of sufficient surface area. In this work, we present a straightforward method of fabricating silver nanostructured SERS substrates, and subsequently demonstrate the substrates’ viability as drug checking tools to help combat the opioid crisis.

We first demonstrate that electrochemically reducing silver ions onto silicon-gold microchips from a large `bath’ of aqueous solution results in highly-branched, nanostructured films that grow laterally across the silicon surface. The process is found to decrease production time and improve batch-to-batch reproducibility when compared to the existing 'droplet' protocol, which uses a smaller volume of reagent solution. In addition, we study the effect of temperature and mass transfer on lateral nanostructure growth with the intent of achieving large surface area substrates for use with handheld Raman spectrometers. While neither of these factors is found to have a significant effect on the extent of nanostructure growth, the study confirms that the nanostructured films grow under a mass transfer-controlled regime. We finally hypothesize that lateral growth is limited by electrical impedance within the nanostructure.

We subsequently establish our SERS substrates’ viability as a drug checking tool, specifically for the detection of fentanyl in drugs. We determine fentanyl’s limit of detection on our platform as 0.078 ppm. SERS spectra of fentanyl, furanylfentanyl, and carfentanil are classified using multivariate analysis coupled with machine classification models. The classification model also identifies trace fentanyl amidst high concentrations of heroin and caffeine. Finally, we achieve SERS fentanyl detection using a handheld Raman device, thus setting a precedent for point-of-care drug checking.

abstract: M.A.Sc.


title: Investigating low temperature resistance in Brachypodium distachyon, a cold stress and crop model

contributor:
Walker, Virginia
Biology

subject:
Brachypodium
Cold Stress
Freezing Tolerance
Ice-Binding Proteins
Monocot Transformation
Brachypodium Distachyon
Cereal Crops
Temporal Knockdown
Agricultural Biotechnology
Agritech
Low Temperature Stress
Cold Acclimation

abstract: Low temperature poses one of the most biologically taxing and economically significant stresses for a variety of agricultural crops. To combat cold stress, resilient plants can undergo cold acclimation, a process involving intricately programmed genetic, metabolic, and physiological changes. Ice-binding proteins (IBPs), if present, are upregulated under cold stress and present great biotechnological potential for their ability to protect crops against pathogen-associated freezing damage responsible for widespread economic devastation. Until recently, functional investigation of IBPs via knockdown had not been attempted in any organism, but it was accomplished for the first time in the model crop, Brachypodium distachyon, which has emerged as an ideal experimental system for low temperature tolerance in plants. B. distachyon itself has no economical value of more than an invasive weed; however, the use as a model crop refers to the ease of use for research in place of typical crop species. These first IBP knockdowns proved problematic likely due to the pleiotropic effects of constitutive miRNA expression. Here I present a new strategy to generate transgenic B. distachyon containing a temporal miRNA-facilitated IBP knockdown wholly generated without using tissue culture or traditional genotyping techniques. Plants with temporal knockdown of IBPs confirmed the functional importance of IBPs under cold stress, without other obvious pleiotropic effects. Wildtype plants that had not been cold acclimated produced low, basal levels of IBP expression, suggesting that IBPs may be constitutively expressed for developmental needs and only upregulated under cold stress for protective measures.  Although it could not be included as part of this thesis, preliminary assessment of the plasma membrane proteome showed that IBPs do not localize to the plasma membrane, with some potential new protein candidates for future studies on cold stress highlighted. Perhaps most importantly, the methods employed here for transgenic plant generation present an unprecedented level of processivity and low cost so that studies on these many newly identified proteins are now feasible. Thus, an additional legacy of this thesis could be an increasing accessibility and attractiveness of transgenic monocot research in the crucial years to come for humanity.

abstract: M.Sc.


title: Inequities in Education: A Study of Left-behind Children and Migrant Children

contributor:
Hill, Emily M.
History

subject:
China
Left-behind Children
Migrant Children
Inequity of Education

abstract:
In the 1950s, China’s household registration system (hukou) was set up to serve the planned economy, becoming in turn a vital tool to manage migration. After the launching of Reform and Opening policies in 1978, the planned economy receded yet the Chinese government refused to loosen control of migration due to the fear of instability, especially as millions of migrant workers began to enter the large cities in the late 1980s. Thus, the hukou system was maintained and continues to operate effectively today. The hukou system has resulted in circumstances where more than 288 million migrants reside in cities where they do not hold local hukou, restricting their access to public services such as education. At the same time local governments are unwilling to share the publicly funded educational resources that urban residents have enjoyed since the 1950s.
National legislation making primary school education compulsory, together with a system of college entrance examinations linked to the hukou system, force migrants to choose between leaving their children behind in rural areas or taking their offspring to the cities where they will face difficulties in receiving adequate education. This entire institutional system has created the current phenomenon of China’s more than 100 million left-behind children and migrant children and resulted in inequitable access to education for left-behind and migrant children in comparison to urban-registered children.
Aside from the institutional system, China’s central government and many local authorities have implemented various provisional policies intended to control migration during the past forty years. As the principle of migration control is prioritized over other policies, the system of restrictions has been strengthened and inequity in education has been further solidified.
This thesis is based on documentary analysis supplemented by field research on the plight of left-behind children, conducted by the author through interviews of teachers and young adults who had been left-behind as children.

abstract: M.A.


title: Environmental influences on microbial communities of lake whitefish, cisco, and Arctic char on and surrounding King William Island, Nunavut

contributor:
Walker, Virginia K.
Biology

subject:
Arctic Char
Lake Whitefish
Cisco
Coregonus
Core Microbiota

abstract: Partnered with the Nunavut community of Gjoa Haven on King William Island, a large-scale Genome Canada project, the Towards a Sustainable Fishery for Nunavummiut (TSFN) project endeavoured to integrate Inuit traditional knowledge and practices with genomic and microbial analyses to assess the sustainability and health of the Coregonus species complex (CSC) and Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus) fisheries. Encompassed within the goals of the project, fish health was assessed based on microbial diversity and condition factor (K) of the sampled fish. In this region, sampled CSC, which included lake whitefish (C. clupeaformis) as well as two cisco species (C. autumnalis and C. sardinella) and Arctic char displayed anadromy, transitioning annually from the ocean to freshwater lakes and rivers. Inuit fishers collected samples from the ocean, rivers, and lakes in different seasons, and microbiomes from these salmonids were characterized with respect to changing seasonal habitats. Skin- and intestine-associated microbiomes were characterized through amplification of 16S rRNA gene fragments. Overall, lake whitefish, ciscoes, and Arctic char skin-associated microbiota grouped separately in ordination based on salinity while cisco and Arctic char grouped based on seasonal habitat. Higher Shannon diversity in autumn and spring freshwater habitats suggested a transitional state in the autumn riverine and spring lacustrine environments. Core microbiomes, representing taxa found in at least 50% of samples, were also identified within seasonal habitats. Comparison of skin- and intestine-associated core microbiota showed differences in composition across seasonal habitats. Condition factor (K) remained consistent across seasonal habitats for cisco, was higher for lake whitefish in the lacustrine environment, and progressively decreased for char from ocean, to riverine, to overwintering habitat. There was some evidence of dysbiosis in the microbiota of lake whitefish, which may be associated with stress as these fish are at the northern limits of their range. In contrast, cisco and Arctic char appeared to have more stable communities, possibly displaying resilience towards anadromy within the high Arctic. Overall, these findings may inform sustainable fishery practices in regard to how microbiomes respond to stress and what factors may put these fish at risk of pathogen colonization throughout their migrations.

abstract: M.Sc.


title: Postural Control with and without Secondary Tasks during Stair Ascent in Older Adults with Type two Diabetes

contributor:
Norman, Kathleen
Costigan, Patrick
Rehabilitation Science

subject:
Postural Control
Diabetes
Stair Ascent
Aging

abstract:
Background: Community-dwelling older adults rate ascending and descending stairs among the top five most difficult daily tasks, likely a result of bodily deterioration due to normal aging. Type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2) is a chronic prevalent condition and when combined with the normal aging process results in more significant deterioration throughout the sensorimotor and musculoskeletal systems, significantly affecting balance control. The purpose of this study was to investigate postural control differences during stair ascent between people with DM2 and an age-matched control group under three conditions: without additional challenge, with a cognitive challenge, and with a motor challenge, and to investigate which measure of centre of mass (CoM) –body or trunk– is more sensitive to changes in postural control during stair ascent.
Methods: Fifteen older adults (¬≥ 65 years) with DM2 and fifteen healthy age-matched controls were recruited. Data were  collected by an OPTOTRAK motion capture system as participants climbed a four-step staircase without hand support at a self-selected pace. Cognitive and motor tasks were added to assess their ability to multitask. The cognitive task involved serial subtraction by three’s and the motor task involved carrying an empty laundry basket. Outcome measures included: body and trunk measures of CoM (RMS, RMS velocity, and peak-to-peak displacement), RMS of centre of pressure, head and trunk stiffening, and gait velocity.
Results: In both groups, gait velocity during stair ascent decreased during the basket and cognitive conditions when compared to the control condition. The trunk peak-to-peak CoM measure was more sensitive than the body CoM to changes measure under the cognitive condition, with no between-group differences identified.
Conclusion: The ability of individuals with and without DM2 to maintain postural control during stair ascent with the addition of the secondary task may be attributed to a slower gait velocity. When a cognitive task was added to stair ascent, the measure of trunk CoM displacement was more sensitive to changes when compared to the measure of body CoM displacement, indicating that individuals with DM2 did not change their use of postural control strategies when compared to the healthy control participants.

abstract: M.Sc.


title: Environmentally Friendly Recycling of Lithium Ion Batteries

contributor:
Jeswiet, Jacob
Mechanical and Materials Engineering

subject: Lithium Ion Batteries

subject: Recycling

subject: Green Chemistry

subject: Donnan Dialysis

subject: Formic Acid

subject: Sodium-Free

subject: Sodium-Free Li2CO3

subject: Sodium-Free Lithium Carbonate

subject: Zero Liquid Discharge

subject: Recycling of Lithium Ion Batteries

subject: Bicarbonation

subject: Decarbonation

subject: NCM111

subject: NMC111

subject: Thermal Decomposition

subject: Thermal Decomposition of Lithium Formate

subject: Thermal Decomposition of LiCOOH

subject: Mixed Ni, Co, and Mn Sulphates

subject: Mixed Ni, Co, and Mn Sulfates

subject: Mixed Sulfates

subject: Lithium

subject: Nickel

subject: Cobalt

subject: Manganese

subject: Formate

subject: Mixed Sulphates

subject: Zero Solid Waste

subject: No Liquid Waste

subject: No Solid Waste

subject: Environmentally Friendly Recycling

subject: Organic Acid Lixiviant

subject: Organic Acid Leaching

subject: Leaching

subject: Formic Acid Leaching

abstract:
Recycling lithium ion batteries (LIBs) and using their recovered materials to make new ones has many economic, social, and environmental benefits. The greatest benefits come from recycling metals from  cathode active materials (CAMs), for example Li, Ni, Co, and Mn from NCM111 (a common electric vehicle CAM). Hydrometallurgical recycling processes, in which CAMs are leached and metals are extracted from the pregnant leach solution (PLS), are favoured because they can recover all metals. Due to the hazards of leaching with strong acids, organic acids are becoming preferred lixiviants; however, they are expensive. In this work, two green chemistry hydrometallurgy processes were developed to recycle CAMs from LIBs. Both processes regenerate organic acid lixiviant, have high Li, Ni, Co, and Mn recoveries, and produce sodium-free Li2CO3.
In the first process, Donnan Dialysis is used to extract Li, then Ni, Co, and Mn, as well as to reprotonate organic acid in PLS. Donnan Dialysis combined with bicarbonation and decarbonation is used to produce Li2CO3 from the Li extract. Heating is not required in the process. Mass balances, charge balances, and mass flux equations were developed. Experiments were performed to obtain mass transfer coefficients. The process was simulated and the results were: recoveries of 94.1% for Li and 99.4% for Ni, Co, and Mn and 98.9% of organic acid reprotonated.
In the second process, formic acid was used to leach NCM111 while simultaneously precipitating Ni, Co, and Mn formate salts. These salts were reacted with sulphuric acid to yield mixed Ni, Co, and Mn sulphate salts and formic acid, which was evaporated. The PLS was saturated with Li2CO3, which precipitated residual Ni, Co, and Mn, and was filtered then dewatered. The LiCOOH salts obtained were thermally decomposed in air to 99.97 wt% Li2CO3. Recoveries of Li, Ni, Co, and Mn were 100%. The process produces neither solid nor liquid waste. By condensing vapours from dewatering and evaporation steps, 66% of the water and 57% of the formic acid needed for leaching can be recovered for reuse. Mixed Ni, Co, and Mn sulphate salts and Li2CO3 can be used to make new LIBs.

abstract: PhD


title: Safety Through Uncertainty in Wastewater Treatment: Monte Carlo Simulation-Based First Order Kinetic Design of Waste Stabilization Ponds

contributor:
Champagne, Pascale
Mabee, Warren
Civil Engineering

subject:
Wastewater
Design
Probabilistic
Treatment
Waste Stabilization Ponds
Uncertainty
Sensitivity Analysis

abstract:
Waste stabilization pond (WSP) systems are a simple and low-cost form of wastewater treatment. Forecasting the treatment efficiency of these systems can be challenging given the complexity of their treatment processes and their dependence on changing climatic conditions. In WSP design, these treatment forecasting uncertainties are compounded by inaccuracies in population statistics. In this thesis, two studies were conducted to develop uncertainty-based methods of design for WSPs.
In the first study, a simple uncertainty-based method of design for a facultative-maturation pond system was proposed based on the removal of biochemical oxygen demand and Escherichia coli. Removal of contaminants was modeled using first kinetics assuming a dispersed flow hydraulic regime with uncertainties propagated using Monte Carlo simulations. A sensitivity analysis method was also described for factor prioritization and factor fixing. The method’s use in practice was presented using a case study for the design of a pond system treating residential wastewater.
The second study explores two approaches for the integration of a steady state temperature model (SSTM) and a transient bulk temperature model (TBTM) into an uncertainty-based WSP design method. The design method was based on the removal of biochemical oxygen demand using a first order kinetic model assuming a plug flow hydraulic regime. Uncertainties were propagated using Monte Carlo simulations. A case study with two design scenarios was conducted for the sizing of a standalone facultative pond treating residential wastewater. The first design scenario employed the uncertainty-based method with the SSTM approach while the second made use of the TBTM approach. The uncertainty-based method using the SSTM approach produced area requirements 76% larger than the TBTM approach. The significant difference in area requirement estimates of both approaches highlights a need for the accurate modelling of pond temperature and its uncertainty in uncertainty-based design.

abstract: M.A.Sc.


title: The Safety, Efficacy, and Tolerability of Microbial Ecosystem Therapeutic-2 in People with Major Depression and/or Generallzed Anxiety Disorder

contributor:
Milev, Roumen
Neuroscience Studies

subject:
Depression
Anxiety
Microbial Ecosystem Therapeutic
Gut-Brain Axis

abstract:
Objective: The primary objective of this study is to assess subjective changes in mood and anxiety symptoms before, during, and after administration of the microbial therapeutic. The secondary objectives of this study are to assess changes in diversity of gut microbiome, changes in peripheral blood biomarkers, repopulation of healthy gut bacteria, and safety and tolerability of therapeutic.
Method: Twelve adults diagnosed with major depressive disorder or generalized anxiety disorder were recruited from the Kingston area. Participants orally consumed once daily an encapsulated microbial therapeutic, containing 40 strains of bacteria purified and lab-grown from a single healthy donor stool, for 8 weeks. Participants underwent a series of clinical assessments measuring mood, anxiety, and gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms using validated clinical scales and questionnaires. Molecular data was collected from blood and fecal samples to assess metabolic changes, neurotransmitter, immunoglobulin, and inflammatory markers concentrations, and alpha diversity for fecal samples to predict outcomes in depression or anxiety.
Results: Of the twelve individuals included in this study, nine have responded to treatment (50% improvement in MADRS and/or GAD-7 scores from baseline to week 8 visit). Over the course of 10 weeks MET-2 significantly decreased MADRS and GAD-7 scores, MADRS [F (5, 55) = 8.784, p<0.001 and F(2.78,30.56) = 9.638, p<0.01], respectively. This improvement may be mediated by the recolonization of the gastrointestinal tract with healthy bacteria resulting in increased bacterial diversity. Although increased bacterial diversity was seen in participants’ stool samples from baseline (3.62  0.20) to week 8 (3.69  0.13), this increase was not significant (p=0.104). Results for peripheral blood biomarkers showed a significant decrease in overall HDL, IgM, and IgG concentrations.No significant change was seen in alpha diversity during stool analysis.
Conclusion: The findings of this study are the first to provide evidence for the role of microbial ecosystem therapy in treating depression and anxiety. However, a double-blind, randomized controlled trial with a larger sample size is needed for more conclusive results.

abstract: M.Sc.


title: Perceiving and Experiencing Subgroups in Sport: A Conceptual and Qualitative Approach

contributor:
Martin, Luc
Kinesiology and Health Studies

subject:
Social Environment
Athlete Interactions
Group Dynamics
Cliques
Structure

abstract:
Sport research intimates that the presence of subgroups within a superordinate team can vary from being facilitative to debilitative at both the individual and team levels (e.g., Martin et al., 2015). Interestingly, researchers have made limited progress in documenting the processes or mechanisms that shape athlete perspectives and experiences with subgroups. Specifically, how do athletes observe the smaller entities that emerge within their superordinate teams, and what is it about them that renders them more or less favorable? The purpose of this thesis was to advance a conceptualization of athlete experiences with subgroups in sport.

A four-phase qualitative design rooted in critical realism was employed, whereby: (1) six focus group interviews (n = 28 interuniversity athletes) were conducted, (2) a preliminary conceptualization based on relevant theory and themes from Phase 1 was proposed, (3) group dynamics scholars (n = 5) took part in a conceptualization review process, and (4) a subsample of athletes from Phase 1 (n = 6) was reengaged for individual reflection interviews. All four phases contributed to the development of a conceptual sport subgroup framework that suggests athlete experiences with subgroups are based on the extent to which they recognize their presence (i.e., observability) and the associated behaviours (i.e., behavioural) demonstrated by the observed subgroups. These two dimensions subsequently inform individual athlete affective, cognitive, and behavioural outcomes.

Herein, I summarize the relevant literature pertaining to subgroups, describe the methodological processes adopted for this study, advance the resulting subgroup conceptualization, discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the findings, and conclude by highlighting study strengths, limitations, and possible future directions, and provide a personal reflection.

abstract: M.Sc.


title: The Religion of the Heart: Self, Solidarity, and the Sacred in Romantic Liberal Modernity

contributor:
Kymlicka, Will
Cultural Studies

subject: Religion Spirituality Liberalism Romanticism Modernity

abstract: North Americans and Western Europeans increasingly prefer “spirituality” to “religion.” In response to this “spiritual turn,” a voluminous literature has emerged across the human sciences. Yet the study of spirituality remains rife with discord and fragmentation. This study seeks to clarify the nature of these debates, as well as advance a substantive position within them. In Part I, following in the footsteps of contemporary cultural sociologists, I contend that the spiritual turn signals the ascent of an enduring cultural structure in Western modernity, which I call the religion of the heart. I draw from a wide array of sociological and historical studies, supplementing these with my own empirical research, in order to offer a brief history of this religious tradition, and delineate its core tenets. In Part II, I synthesize the existing scholarship on “spirituality,” advancing a genealogy of the spiritual turn since the 1960s. I maintain that the religion of the heart holds deep elective affinities with the romantic liberal social imaginary that crystallized in popular consciousness during this era and transformed the institutional spheres of Western liberal democracies, eventually giving birth to a new social order—romantic liberal modernity. In Part III, I illuminate the striking degree to which academic debates about the religion of the heart, or “spirituality,” track debates about romantic liberal modernity, delineating the social-cum-political theoretical traditions that scholars have drawn upon to criticize both. I then draw from the Durkheimian tradition in order to mount a defense of the animating ideals of romantic liberalism, challenge these traditions’ chief theoretical and normative presuppositions, and flag the concerns critics raise that warrant further empirical investigation. In Part IV, I advance institutional ethnographies of three sites where the religion of the heart is institutionalized in a specific discursive form as a means of assessing the validity of these concerns. I conclude that while critics may have reason to disparage both the religion of the heart, and romantic liberal modernity more generally, the reality is far more complex than their critiques suggest— and more importantly, far less hopeless.

abstract: PhD


title: Campesino-a-Campesino Pedagogy, Peasant Protagonism, and the Spread of Agroecology:  A Multi-Site Case Study

contributor:
Upitis, Rena
Education

subject:
Campesino-a-Campesino
peasant agriculture
food sovereignty
agroecology
Indigenous peoples
Mexico
pedagogy

abstract:
As more actors embrace agroecology as an alternative to industrial agriculture, it is important to recognize that the ways in which agroecology are taught and learned have a profound effect on whether or not the spread of agroecology will align with the goals of food sovereignty. Campesino-a-Campesino (CaC), or peasant-to-peasant, is a horizontal, constructivist pedagogy responsible for spreading agroecology among Campesinos/as across Latin America in the 1980s and 1990s. CaC is characterized by knowledge exchange between peers—a process of collective reflection and action through which peasants share agroecological practices and innovative solutions to problems. The purpose of this study was to investigate both how CaC promotes peasant protagonism and what makes CaC a unique catalyst for spreading agroecology.
Using critical educational ethnographic methods, this case study analyzed CaC in practice in five communities in Calakmul, Campeche, Mexico, supported by the NGO Fundo Para La Paz (FPP). Through in-depth interviews and member reflections with promoters, facilitators, coordinators and community group members, as well as observations of agroecology workshops, a case was formed to illuminate socio-cultural and socio-political conditions of engagement/disengagement, the motivations of Campesinos/as, and pedagogical tools of CaC which influence the adoption of agroecology practices.
The data revealed that these communities were contributing to their food sovereignty by adopting agroecological practices learned through CaC processes. After a year as promoter guides, Indigenous women saw themselves as protagonists in their communities. Guiding principles that fostered a culture of participation countering the hegemony of paternalism included (a) promotion of Indigenous knowledge, languages and culture, (b) a focus on relationship and capacity building, and (c) a gradual transfer of responsibility toward community self-sufficiency. In the transition toward agroecology, hands-on workshops, on-farm exchanges of experience with knowledgeable peers, and promoter guide implementation of practices were important. These results point to CaC’s potential to destabilize the structures of development and agricultural education, and create decolonial action by changing who has the power to create goals and lead discourse. Based on this case study, it is recommended that actors promoting agroecology use CaC pedagogy as a way to foster food sovereignty in Campesino/a communities.

abstract: PhD


title: Building a Foundation for Equity-focused Intersectoral Practice (EquIP): An exploratory intervention in intersectoral action on housing inadequacy in Owen Sound, Ontario

contributor:
Masuda, Jeffrey R.
Kinesiology and Health Studies

subject:
health equity
intersectoral action
housing
social determinants of health
knowledge translation
participatory action research
environmental health
lived experience
rural
grounded expertise
equity-focused intersectoral practice

abstract:
Equitable access to the social determinants of health, including adequate housing, is essential to the attainment of health equity goals. Concerted intersectoral action involving public health, social services, relevant non-profit and private sector entities, multiple levels of government, and community members is necessary to ensure that all people have the conditions necessary for health and well-being.

This dissertation chronicles the development and field-testing of a novel approach to building stronger and more equity-focused approaches to intersectoral action towards health equity goals. Through a participatory action research project in the rural community of Owen Sound, Ontario, a team of academic and community-based researchers worked together from 2017-2019 to design and implement a methodology for Equity-focused Intersectoral Practice (EquIP) to support local response to an escalating housing crisis. Implemented as a series of Learning Exchanges followed by an immersive Intersectoral Retreat, the novel EquIP methodology created uncommon spaces for relationship-building and knowledge co-creation among diverse intersectoral actors.

Key to the methodology was the leadership of community members whose grounded expertise derives from their lived experience of housing inadequacy, poverty, and other dimensions of social marginalization.  Centering their grounded expertise served to catalyze professionals from relevant agencies and institutions to reflect on the structures, beliefs, and practices that perpetuate inequitable access to the social determinants of health and impede effective intersectoral response.

The research demonstrated that this “reversing the gaze” to identify gaps and disconnects in the institutional realm can broaden the lens of intersectoral action to include contextual and upstream factors, such as racism, inadequate mental health supports, and the stigmatizing effects of neoliberal austerity in social welfare policy. The research suggests that investing in authentic relationship-building among diverse intersectoral actors can help bridge the social, cultural, and epistemic distances that can impede effective and sustained intersectoral action.

Through its integration of critical social science perspectives with public health practice, the EquIP model holds promise as a practical means of re-orienting intersectoral efforts towards the structural drivers and socio-economic injustices that perpetuate health inequities.

abstract: PhD


title: The Development of Laser-Heated Multiple Electrospray Emitters for Nano-Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry (Nano-ESI-MS)

contributor:
Oleschuk, Richard
Loock, Hans-Peter
Chemistry

subject:
Mass Spectrometry
Multiple Electrospray
Light-Assisted Desolvation
Nano-Electrospray Ionization (ESI)
Microstructured Fibers (MSFs)
Wet-Chemical Etching

abstract: Nano-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (nano-ESI-MS) is a valuable technique for detecting larger biomolecules such as oligosaccharides, glycosides and glycoproteins. The reliability of nano-ESI-MS, however, depends largely on the spray emitter properties. Commercial single-aperture, tapered nano-ESI emitters are limited by poor robustness, high clogging tendencies and a limited range of experimental flow rates. In order to overcome these limitations and yield mass spectrometry (MS) methods with higher sensitivity, this thesis seeks to develop novel emitters capable of generating multiple electrosprays (MESs) from custom-designed microstructured fibers (MSFs). A wet chemical etching method with hydrofluoric acid (HF), previously established by Bachus in 2017, was employed to fabricate a series of MES emitters with different nozzle profiles. These emitters were then characterized via scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and image analysis with respect to their nozzle length, post angle and axicon angle values. By using an offline ESI setup, parameters including the hydrophobic coating, voltage, emitter- to-orifice distance, and solvent flow rate were all examined in order to identify the optimal conditions for nano-ESI-MS analysis and data acquisition. The performance of the MES emitters was then tested using these optimal parameter settings. Preliminary results show an enhanced ionization efficiency and robustness compared to single-channel, commercial alternatives. Moreover, this thesis confirms the MES emitters’ ability to guide and focus light, and thereby, operate similarly to optical axicon lenses. We then investigate whether near-infrared (IR) light, that co-propagates with the liquid flow and is focused in front of each axicon microlens, can further amplify the ion spray current. Most notably, the expected enhancement in ionization efficiency was realized by coupling 1064 nm radiation into the MES emitter using a class IIIB laser. This work demonstrates that higher sensitivity and lower detection limits in ESI-MS are achievable by using the MES emitter employed in this report in tandem with light-assisted desolvation.

abstract: M.Sc.


title: Optimization Policies for Polya Contagion Networks

contributor:
Alajaji, Fady
Gharesifard, Bahman
Mathematics and Statistics

subject:
Control Theory
Optimization
Probability
Polya urn
Game Theory

abstract: This thesis investigates optimization policies for resource distribution in network epidemics, using a model that derives from the classical Polya process. The basic mechanics of this model, called the network Polya process, are based on a modified urn sampling scheme that accounts for both temporal and spatial contagion between neighbouring nodes in a network. We present various infection metrics and use them to develop two optimization problems, one which takes place upon initialization and one which occurs continually as the network Polya process develops. We frame these problems as both one-sided and two-sided resource allocation problems with fixed budgets, and analyze a suite of potential policies. Due to the complexity of these problems, we introduce effective proxy measures for the average infection rate in each case. We also prove that the two-sided infection-curing game on the so-called expected network exposure admits a Nash equilibrium. In both the curing and initialization scenarios we introduce heuristic policies that primarily function on the basis of limiting the number of targeted nodes within a particular network setup. Simulations are run for large-scale networks to compare performance of our heuristics to provably convergent gradient descent algorithms run on the simplified proxy measures.

abstract: M.A.Sc.


title: Teamwork Makes the Dream Work: Teachers’ Experiences with Interdisciplinary Integration in Technological Education

contributor:
DeLuca, Christopher
Education

subject:
Interdisciplinary
Multidisciplinary
Teacher Collaboration
Collaboration
Technological Education
Integrated Curriculum
Integrated Assessment
Integrated Mathematics
TechnoMath
Teamwork
Subject Integration
Broad Based Technologies
Mathematics
Collaborative Challenges

abstract:
Though enrollment rates into many of TE and BBT programs have seen some decline, mostly due to revised requirements for the Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD), learners still stand to benefit from exposure and learning in both academic and TE learning streams. The TechnoMath program was a collaborative effort between the Ontario Ministry of Education and a school board in Southern Ontario to support integrated teaching and learning between TE and mathematics. In this program, TE and mathematics teachers were assigned to work collaboratively to develop and teach an integrated curriculum combining a TE subject area within Grade 10 mathematics. The purpose of this study was to examine how these teachers applied interdisciplinary teaching in their collaborative practice and how they navigated challenges throughout its implementation. A qualitative case study methodology was used to respond to the following research questions: (1) How do two teachers collaborate to deliver an integrated TE and academic mathematics program? (2) What challenges do teachers face during integrated teaching of the TechnoMath program, and how do they navigate these challenges? and (3) What perceived benefits and weaknesses do teachers identify in the TechnoMath program?
 These research questions were explored using teachers’ perspectives as examined through participant-observations, document analysis (i.e., curricular materials), field notes, and semi-structured interviews. This case study described an integrated teaching model in which TE and academic subjects were delivered with consideration for how teachers navigated challenges to integrated teaching and learning.
Data were open-coded using NVivo software; the codes mapped onto seven themes after analysis. These themes were: (1) Teachers’ readiness; (2) Assessment; (3) Student experience and learning; (4) Subject integration; (5) Curricular content; (6) Collaborative practice: and, (7) Financial and planning challenges. Research found that collegial collaboration was present and essential in helping participants overcome challenges faced as a result of teaching an integrated program. TechnoMath also allowed teachers to deliver larger scale projects as a result of their collaboration, though student engagement was not as high as expected. Planning time, assessment strategies, and logistics surrounding procurement of project materials were the main challenges faced by teachers.

abstract: M.Ed.


title: Aging Ungracefully: Transgressive Femininity on the Eighteenth-Century Stage

contributor:
Ritchie, Leslie
English Language and Literature

subject:
Eighteenth Century
Theatre Studies
Age Studies
Celebrity
Actresses
Frances Abington

abstract: This dissertation analyzes how negative conceptions of aging are weaponized against the bodies of female players in the eighteenth century, particularly when players are engaging in behaviour that society deems transgressive or inappropriate. While it considers accounts concerning the oppression of aging female bodies, it is more interested in how aging is negatively projected onto actresses, regardless of the woman’s chronological or physiological age. In the introduction, this dissertation establishes a foundation for this investigation by understanding the intersections of acting and aging in the eighteenth century: how aging affected an actor’s abilities and reception, and how acting was believed to prematurely age an actor’s body. As its evidence, the introduction analyzes newspaper advertisements for anti-aging products, pamphlets that promote anti-aging techniques, acting manuals, and the autopsy of an early eighteenth-century player, Barton Booth. The second chapter investigates the treatment of aging actresses by audiences, critics and managers, through an analysis of the work of prominent theatrical practitioners and critics, chiefly David Garrick, John Hill, W.R. Chetwood, and William Hazlitt. The chapter argues that actresses who remain onstage are depicted as losing their identity alongside their youth. The following two chapters consider comic actress Frances Abington’s successful mediations of her physical body in response to ageist critiques. Chapter three argues that Abington responded to critics by threatening to remove her supposedly “unattractive aging” body from view byway of a feigned retirement, while chapter four contends that her sartorial skill allowed her body to be viewed as consistently novel, if not specifically youthful. While Frances Abington is the primary case study for these chapters, the actress’ experiences are discussed in relation to those of other eighteenth-century actresses as well, namely Charlotte Charke, George Anne Bellamy, Mary Robinson, and Anne Oldfield. The final chapter analyzes the obituaries of Susannah Cibber and Sophia Baddeley as evidence for how theatrical and paratheatrical texts function as a form of social policing against immoral behaviour with punishments enacted on the physical female body. Overall, the dissertation is an examination of the ageist language that has been used in attempts to oppress women, and how actresses respond to these denigrations. This work connects eighteenth-century theatre history with the growing field of age studies by demonstrating how age intersects with narratives of gender performance and identity.

abstract: PhD


title: Evaporative Spray Cooling of Hot Air Flow from a Round Nozzle: Experiments and CFD

contributor:
Birk, A.M.
Mechanical and Materials Engineering

subject:
Evaporative Spray Cooling
IR Suppression
CFD
Spray

abstract:
Evaporative spray cooling is a technique that utilizes the latent heat of evaporation of a cold liquid spray to rapidly cool a hot gaseous source. During evaporation the liquid droplets are fixed at their boiling point, ensuring a large temperature differential between liquid and gas, and promoting high heat transfer rates. The application of note for this research is the infrared radiation (IR) suppression of naval vessel exhaust streams which have a distinctive radiative signature due to the hot carbon dioxide and water vapour within the exhaust. Cooling of the exhaust stream greatly reduces this signature and limits the possibility of tracking by hostile sources [1].

Despite extensive and historical use in fields such as fire suppression, the detailed mechanics of evaporative sprays are incredibly complex and predictive simulation of these flows has only been made possible with the rapid increase in computational power over the last two decades [2]. This research presents a dual approach in which results from optical measurements of a scale naval vessel exhaust system equipped with evaporative spray cooling are compared with the findings of multi-phase spray flow computational fluid dynamics (CFD).

Spray flow experiments were run at the Grant Timmins research facility on the Hot Gas Wind Tunnel (HGWT), a rig capable of emulating a scale naval vessel exhaust system. With previous research focussing on direct spray measurement, an optical approach was undertaken utilizing a laser sheet to produce overall spray images and high-speed droplet imagery. In conjunction with experimentation a spray flow CFD study was constructed within the ANSYS suite of software tools. Given the complexity of real-world spray mechanics, simplified models form the bulk of the droplet-gas interaction within CFD and ensuring these models perform well together forms the crux of these simulations.

The CFD results produced compare well with droplet velocity measurements, but spray spread and evaporation rates do not match experiment. Despite this, it is likely that a robust predictive CFD methodology may yet be created in the same software suite given further inquiry.

abstract: M.Sc.


title: Extent, Determinants and Consequences of Cost-Related Non-Adherence to Prescription Medications Among People With Spinal Cord Injuries in Canada

contributor:
McColl, Mary Ann
Rehabilitation Science

subject:
Spinal Cord Injury
Cost-Related Non-Adherence
Prescription Medications
Canada
Drug Costs
Drug Insurance

abstract: The overall purpose of this doctoral thesis was to build an understanding of financial barriers faced by people with disabilities to pay for their prescription medications. The thesis was composed of four different studies that were designed and conducted logically to fulfill this objective. Study 1 was a scoping review that analyzed the type, extent, and quantity of research available on CRNA to prescription drugs in Canada. The study had three notable findings: first, between 4-36% of Canadians face CRNA to fulfill their medications; second, people between 18 and 64 years, with low income, poor health status, no insurance coverage, and high out-of-pocket cost on medications are at risk of facing CRNA; and third, CRNA to prescriptions may have an adverse effect on individuals’ health and may lead to other social consequences; however, the evidence for this is still underdeveloped. This research revealed an evidence gap that no studies are available to understand CRNA among people with disabilities. Study 2 was a theoretical paper that argued for the reconsideration of existing models on CRNA for application to people with disabilities. The study suggested an adapted model needed to examine CRNA within the context of disability. This adapted model served as a conceptual framework for study 3. Study 3 quantified the magnitude and risk factors of medication non-adherence among people with SCIs. The study revealed that the cost of prescribed medications spent by individuals with SCIs and the extent of CRNA is greater than that is reported for general Canadian households. Medication-related, disability-related, and socio-economic factors were the main influencers that determined the risk of facing CRNA among participants, parallel to what was proposed in the adapted model. Lastly, study 4 aimed to understand the processes underpinning medication cost burden through a qualitative inquiry. The study found five key strategies adopted by the participants to manage the burden of medication cost. From the overall findings of the thesis, I offer recommendations to improve financial access to medications among people with disabilities in general and people with SCIs in particular, within Canada.

abstract: PhD


title: Low-Intensity Cognitive Behavioural Therapy-Based Music Groups for the Treatment of Mild to Moderate Symptoms of Mental Illness

contributor:
Naeem, Farooq
Neuroscience Studies

rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States

subject:
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
Mental Illness
Music
Depression
Anxiety
Psychosis
Community Mental Health
Music Therapy

abstract:
The costs of mental illness - economic, social, and human - are immense. However, the demand for evidence-based non-pharmaceutical therapies appears to exceed the availability of these services, and when therapy is available, sustained client engagement can remain a prominent issue. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) has been well-established as an effective form of psychotherapy in the treatment of mental illness. Low-intensity CBT evolved from standard CBT to address availability concerns while maintaining effectiveness, but issues of engagement remain. Music has the potential to be a popular and effective new medium for low-intensity CBT because of the positive emotional connection people have with it, the potential ease of adaptation to a low-intensity therapy format, and its non-verbal nature.
The purpose of this project was to develop, and assess the feasibility of, two low-intensity CBT-based music group protocols, CBT-Music (Study 1, Chapter 2; for symptoms of depression and anxiety) and CBTp-Music (Study 2, Chapter 3; for symptoms of psychosis), for individuals in community mental health care. A randomised controlled trial (RCT - Study 1) and a pre-post trial (Study 2) were used. Measures of therapeutic acceptability (i.e. recruitment, attendance, & client feedback) and clinical effectiveness (i.e. symptomology & disability) were gathered in both studies.
Development and provision of a standard CBT-based group protocol utilising music as a delivery medium was successful, as was recruitment from community mental health services. In both studies, there were high attendance rates and overall positive response from participants that showed acceptability of the group protocol. In Study 1, there was a significant decrease in measures of disability following treatment (compared to a control group), though there was no significant effect of symptom reduction. In Study 2, there was also a significant decrease in measures of disability following treatment, plus a significant reduction in the severity of delusional symptoms of psychosis.
There have been no previous trials of a low-intensity CBT-based music group for mild-to-moderate symptoms of mental illness. The advantage of a CBT-based music group may be its potential for reaching a more comprehensive range of the general population, including individuals unsure about engagement with therapy. A CBT-based music group may help individuals with mild-to-moderate emotional and mental health difficulties, but also those at high risk of developing mental health problems.

abstract: PhD


title: Explorations into Nanoparticle Analysis by Single Particle Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry

contributor:
Beauchemin, Diane
Chemistry

subject:
ICPMS
Nanoparticle
Single Particle ICPMS

abstract: The growing use of nanoparticles in a wide variety of industries has facilitated an increasing need to detect, quantify, and size these materials. Quality control and detection of environmental contaminations are pressing areas of concern for nanoparticle analysis. A wide range of techniques promises the ability to achieve these goals; however, many struggle in certain key areas, namely reproducibility, expense, and time required to take measurements. A technique that is growing in popularity for nanoparticle analysis is single particle inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (spICPMS) as it solves many of the issues that other techniques struggle with, namely reproducibility and time required for analysis. A new peak area calibration technique is shown for spICPMS and compared to the conventional average intensities approach. The peak area technique does not require measurement of the transport efficiency while still providing statistically similar results, thus eliminating one potential source of error. One area where spICPMS struggles is the sensitivity of the analysis. The sensitivity is limited by the transport efficiency of the spray chamber. To attempt to improve the sensitivity of the spICPMS method, this thesis examines modified sample introduction techniques. Flow injection and mono segmented flow analysis (MSFA) are both techniques where a discrete amount of sample is injected into a carrier stream for analysis. Additionally, infrared (IR) heating of the sample introduction system to create smaller droplets increasing the amount of sample that reaches the plasma is also examined. MSFA give similar size distributions to the conventional approach while improving the transport efficiency leading to improved precision for the measurement of nanoparticles as well as improved sensitivity and limits of detection for solution analysis. IR heating of the sample introduction system also improved the transport efficiency and therefore the sensitivity of the analysis; however, raising the temperature too high resulted in the background signal being increased. The optimal temperature that was found was 60°C. Calibrating spICPMS with the peak areas approach reduces the number of measurements required and lowers the error associated with the analysis, while using an MSFA approach as well as IR heating can increase transport efficiency and improve the sensitivity.

abstract: M.Sc.