title: Selection of Aptamers for Biomarker Peptides for Kawasaki Disease

abstract: Kawasaki disease (KD) is an illness that affects children around the world. There is no current laboratory test that confirms the diagnosis and supports the treatment plan. Recent novel truncation of Serum Amyloid A (KD-PEP) has been identified in patients with KD which are not observed in patients with alternate fragmentations associated with febrile illnesses (FC-PEP). A method for KD detection could be developed using aptamers. Aptamers are oligonucleotides that can bind targets with high affinity and specificity that rival antibodies. Through two screening experiments, aptamer candidates for both KD-PEP and FC-PEP were identified through sequencing and bioinformatics analysis and further screening for the reduction of consensus sequences or complementarity. This analysis yielded nine potential aptamers for KD-PEP, and 9 for FC-PEP. Preliminary characterization of one aptamer for KD-PEP and one aptamer for FC-PEP has been included.


title: An Exploration of Transcultural Othering in the Print Media:  Asian Communities During COVID-19 in Canada and the US

abstract: This thesis explores the transcultural othering of Asian communities in the Canadian and American print media during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using content analysis, I analyzed 226 magazine articles published by Maclean's and Newsweek between February 1st, 2020 and April 30th, 2021. My analysis found 17 othering mechanisms were used against Asian communities. China was the most frequently discussed country within the data and contributed to a negative portrayal of Asians overall. Political articles were identified as the primary source of exclusionary othering towards Asians, whereas articles on COVID-19 were mostly inclusionary. This thesis contributes to the extant literature by further theorizing how and where transcultural othering occurs. It challenges established notions of the mainstream media scapegoating illnesses on transcultural communities during pandemics as a predominant source of exclusionary othering during COVID-19 and suggests that the print media's political coverage was a greater source of exclusion. Implications and limitations are discussed.


title: Environmental processes that control the chemical recovery of arsenic impacted northern landscapes

abstract: Arsenic (As) is a contaminant of global concern because of its toxic and carcinogenic properties. Waste streams associated with gold mining activities have resulted in extensive As pollution of landscapes worldwide. The Yellowknife area in the Northwest Territories, Canada was contaminated by more than half a century of As-bearing atmospheric mining emissions from the roasting of arsenopyrite ore during historical gold ore processing (1938-1999). The environmental footprint from legacy mining emissions persists on the landscape and questions remain about the distribution and fate of As in the local environment. The principal objective of this thesis was to improve our understanding of the environmental processes that control the chemical recovery of As impacted landscapes. Individual field studies were designed to address: a) the distribution, source, and solid-phase speciation of As in Yellowknife area soils; b) the seasonal variation of As in surface waters of shallow lakes; c) the influence of contrasting winter hydrology on the geochemical cycling of As in a shallow lake; and d) the seasonal contributions of terrestrial and aquatic fluxes of As in a contaminated watershed. The combination of mineralogical, geospatial, and statistical tools provided a novel method for determination of geochemical background in soils for areas impacted by legacy mining emissions, including recent unambiguous identification of anthropogenically impacted soils. Year-round investigations of surface waters, sediments, and sediment porewaters provided new insights into seasonal and under-ice processes that influence the mobility and geochemical cycling of As. The evaluation of terrestrial and aquatic As fluxes across a contaminated watershed revealed continued transport of legacy arsenic from catchment soils to lakes, and hydrology mediated within-lake processing and export of arsenic. Thus, climate and hydrology were found to play a fundamental role in the chemical recovery of As impacted lakes.


title: The Tao of Home

abstract: In the act of dwelling, the human intimately navigates the realms of psychology and architecture. This thesis considers architecture's psychophysical effects on its users through a "Glossary for the Meaningful design of Atmospheres" and Taoism. The "Glossary" reconciles psychological reactions with architectural elements through an interdisciplinary analysis of psychology and architecture, and Taoism is an ancient Chinese philosophy that dissolves the human into the universe, unifying them. Architectural precedents including the Japanese tea ceremony, Eileen Gray's E-1027, and Snøhetta's Oslo Opera House, an example of Scandinavian architecture, provide inspirational foundations and illuminate a set of fundamental design ideas at their overlays: "Paradox," "Physical" and "Now." The resulting design of the rituals, and a home on a site near Stockholm follows the guidelines suggested in this thesis and thus exemplifies how reconciling paradox, honouring physicality and elevating the present moment can guide architectural design.


title: Don't Just Look, Listen: How Bernard Herrmann Composed a Sonic Gaze in Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958) and Psycho (1960)

abstract: Bernard Herrmann provided strong scoring to accompany nine of Hitchcock's films including, Vertigo (1958) and Psycho (1960). Hitchcock, and his representation of women, has long been a source of criticism by feminist film scholars. This critique expanded into art, most notably by Cindy Sherman. I use the term "sonic gaze" to describe the aural counterpart to Laura Mulvey's, traditionally visual, male gaze. I argue that Herrmann's sonic gaze maintains the perspective of the male protagonists in Vertigo and Psycho, and therefore objectifies and silences the female characters in the narrative. I use Sherman's Untitled Film Stills series as a critical tool to explore how Herrmann's sonic gaze expands the feminist meanings of the still images. I place Herrmann's score over Sherman's Untitled Film Stills to interpret how the imagined underscoring affects the unseen narratives of the film stills. Through this interpretative experiment, I encourage the practice of "listening" to photographs.


title: North Korean Cultural Heritage Interpretation:  Authenticity and Oral Testimonies in Crash Landing on You

abstract: This thesis situates itself in the larger discourse on authenticity and interpretation in architectural and heritage conservation by considering the role of oral testimonies as evidence used to valourize intangible heritage of a living and inaccessible culture through the medium of film. The investigation focuses on the representation of North Korean rural landscape and architecture in the drama Crash Landing on You, which was influenced by the testimonies of North Korean migrants. Although the drama is fictional, the oral testimonies used to create the setting and stories are authentic. Guided by the Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention on authenticity, this thesis examines the presentation of contemporary North Korean built and intangible cultural heritage at multiple scales. The findings are used to consider the use of dramas as a platform through which the North Korean diaspora can share and communicate an otherwise inaccessible living heritage.


title: Ambient Source and Energy Prediction for Energy-Aware Task Scheduling in IoT

abstract: The deployment of the Internet of things (IoT) is lagging when compared to the forecasted data. This is due to the battery-limited IoT devices. One possible solution is to deploy energy harvesters and use energy management schemes. However, due to the time-varying availability of environmental factors and their effect on harvested power, a structured solution from ambient source and state of charge (SoC) prediction, to the utilization of energy management schemes needs to be presented. In this dissertation, we propose a cost-effective ambient source prediction model, which we then feed into an energy harvesting management unit to predict the batteries' SoC. Lastly, we feed the predicted SoC into our scheduling algorithm to fulfill the application and balance the energy across the IoT network, by distributing the tasks. This solution reduces the deviation of the available energy of the nodes, whilst completing the application and abiding by its quality of service.


title: The Nine Valleys - Towards Embodied Experience: Understanding the Confluence of Material & Spirit in the Design of a Baha'i House of Worship

abstract: This thesis proposes a Temple for Canada situated in Thornhill, Ontario, guided by the Institution of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár - a concept embodied within the Bahá'í Faith. At the center of the Institution is the Temple, or House of Worship, open to all irrespective of religious affiliation, background, or gender. A two-year engagement with the site attempted to meld open-ended experiential and scientific approaches to provide experienced wisdom as design prompts. A more embodied reflection rooted in place and time has encouraged a design practice that aims to reclaim active participation and potentials for contact between site, place, and people. The premise is to reconcile the visual with other modes of perception to resist isolation and passivity bred by the dominance of sight in experiencing the built environment. In terms of methodology, the design is approached through a prolonged and multi-sensorial understanding of site as understood through phenomenology and embodied experience.


title: Sensitivity of Smoke Concentrations to the Variable Biomass Burning Emission Inventories in Canada

abstract: Biomass burning is an essential contributor to smoke concentrations. It is challenging to find the optimal fire emission inventory to estimate fire emissions, that are crucial for predicting air quality. This study aims to investigate the effect of two global biomass burning emission inventories, the Global Fire Emissions Database 4 (GFED4) and the Quick-Fire Emissions Database 2.5 (QFED2.5), on simulating PM2.5 concentrations in Canada. The two inventories were assessed using GEOS-Chem modelling system for the 2020 fire season in Canada (May-August). The simulated PM2.5 concentrations illustrated slight differences at the six air quality monitoring stations and better model performance with QFED2.5. Additionally, the results of sensitivity analysis showed that the Canadian biomass burning led to an increase in the concentrations of PM2.5, more than 42% at Fort Smith and Yellowknife stations. In conclusion, this study suggests that QFED2.5 is more suitable for simulating PM2.5 in the assessed regions.


title: An Assessment of Resilience and Wellness of the Canadian Rangers

abstract: This study addresses the gap in the literature regarding the resilience and well-being of Canadian Rangers. Specifically, the relationship between trauma and mental health outcomes (MHOs) with moderating roles of protective factors (personal meaning, coping factors, social support). Among Indigenous Rangers, the moderating role of cultural connectedness (CC) and sense of identity (SI) on trauma and MHOs was examined. Participants (N=253) completed surveys measuring trauma exposure, social support, personal meaning, coping factors, outcomes of resilience, PTSD and depressive symptoms; plus CC and SI among Indigenous Rangers. Bivariate correlations and moderation analyses indicated greater endorsement of problem-focused coping, stronger social support and positive personal meaning were related to enhanced resilience, lower PTSD and depressive symptoms. The moderation effect of protective factors was identified. Furthermore, three-way interactions between Indigenous status on trauma, protective factors and MHOs were identified. None of the interaction effects were significant for CC and SI among Indigenous Rangers.


title: Adjusting the North American Suburb: Combatting Internalization and Loneliness Through Design

abstract: This thesis explores the loneliness and isolation of suburban life and proposes adjustments to the suburban landscape through design. For suburban dwellings, acts of consumption that take place in one's home rather than in shared environments. The internalization of the 'modern comforts of home' have resulted in a residential typology that facilitates an individualistic and isolating lifestyle. In response, this thesis seeks to design spaces for social interaction and connectedness on neighborhood sites that are otherwise unused or underutilized. The suburban neighborhood of Cachet Woods, located in the Greater Toronto Area serves as a testing ground. These sites in Cachet Woods; a cul-de-sac, an open field, and a utility corridor offer experimental grounds for the implementation of socially-based infrastructure that promotes interaction, participation, and belonging.


title: Tale of Soksom: Landscapes of Memory in Jeju, South Korea

abstract: This thesis begins with a personal quest on investigating Jeju 4.3 Incident. Located below the Korean Peninsula, Jeju 4.3 incident indicates a chaotic period from 1947 to 1954 when approximately 30,000 civilians were killed during military sanctions from the South Korean government with the support of the US, against armed guerillas in favor of a unified Korea. Stigmatized as 'Red Island', victims were suppressed, forgotten, and unrecognized for many decades. The commemoration process has started recently with an apology from the president in 2003. Architecture as a physical mnemonic device, the thesis explores the method of commemorating the forgotten events through the landscapes of air, water, and earth in Jeju. How do we remember resistance from the past? What are the appropriate methods? How are each victim comforting themselves from their trauma? How do we treat historical sites? How do 'outsiders' who were clueless about the incident, engage the island?


title: Beyond Postcolonialism: The Urban and Social Realist Turn in Indian and Nigerian Literatures

abstract: Twenty-first century literatures of megacities like Mumbai and Lagos are moving away from the postcolonial condition ascribed to them. Since writing back to the Empire is no longer commensurate with the more accurate representation of their cities, contemporary literatures of Mumbai and Lagos are shifting towards fresh engagements with the extant issues of the present time. Literary trends in India and Nigeria demonstrate an urban turn and a social realist focus on the socio-political landscape of our times that include corruption, inequality and exclusion, unemployment, informal settlements, sanitation, infrastructure, and dysfunctional institutions. While the causes of many of these plights are rooted in colonial practices, their ongoing surge and impact remain debilitating. Contemporary authors continue to acknowledge the colonial histories of the cities they narrate; however, they are now bringing awareness to the present-day problems instead of dwelling on past injustices. These recent narratives, in a genre Ulka Anjaria terms 'the new social realism,' disrupt the comfort zones of middle-classes and aim to stir this group and others into reevaluating their personal and societal actions. I argue that the twenty-first century literary narratives of Mumbai and Lagos, employing diverse and innovative styles, implicate their audience in the perpetuation of prevalent urban problems. Through creative styles and unsettling aesthetics, contemporary city literatures reveal a new social consciousness of the immediate reality. The main corpus examined in this dissertation consists of urban novels and short stories published in the twenty-first century while also drawing from well-established Indian and Nigerian authors' earlier works. I examine the narratives of corruption, formal and informal neighbourhoods, and infrastructure and traffic in Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry, Welcome to Lagos by Chibundu Onuzo, Last Man in Tower by Aravind Adiga, Graceland by Chris Abani, Breathless in Bombay by Murzban F. Shroff, No God in Sight by Altaf Tyrewala, Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor, and "Birdsong" and Americanah by Chimamanda Adichie. With an emphasis on the present-day, these contemporary urban narratives of Mumbai and Lagos offer social commentary and disrupt what has become habitual, familiar, and unseen.


title: Between This Space and Me:  Tracing the Shadow as an Episteme

abstract: Between the Space and Me meditates on how the inextricable entanglement of racialization and the built environment is shaped by the calculated algorithmic pattern of dispossession and destruction of marginalized spaces in Canada. The strength of this algorithm, made possible through the powers of whiteness, capitalism, and antiblack racism, implicitly and structurally produces an uneven landscape reinforced by social policies, histories, and urban regulation. This thesis posits the shadow conceptually as an epistemological approach to understanding how the algorithm envelopes marginalized communities. The processes and terminology used in photography are deployed alongside mapping to think along, with, and through the shadow. Using the photographic framework of 'Dodge and Burn' and personal narratives, the work intends to re-frame the observer's relationship to the built environment, imparting a sense of agency over what is hyper-visible and erased within the shadow.


title: Kernel-Based PET Image Reconstruction using Dynamic PET and MR Anatomical Information

abstract: Positron emission tomography (PET) imaging is used to track biochemical processes in the human body. PET image quality is limited by noise and several methods have been implemented to improve the quality. Kernel-based image reconstruction is among the methods implemented to increase PET image quality and commonly uses a Gaussian kernel. Unfortunately, the Gaussian kernel tends to smooth details in the reconstructed image. To reduce noise without losing contrast details, a different kernel is needed. This work gives an overview of Gaussian kernel PET image reconstruction and focuses on finding substitutes for the Gaussian kernel that tackles its shortcomings. A wavelet kernel can be more efficient than the Gaussian kernel in reducing noise while keeping contrast details by better separating signal from noise and thus it does not over smooth peak values in the final reconstructed images. In this thesis, a wavelet kernel was first applied on prior information derived from dynamic PET series, and its usefulness has been evaluated using simulated brain data, physical phantom data and patient data. Reconstruction results are presented and discussed in detail comparing the wavelet kernel method with the Gaussian kernel method. In the next step, using magnetic resonance (MR) information as prior information for kernel-based PET image reconstruction, the wavelet method is improved and extended by proposing a multi-scale wavelet kernel. This method identifies the directionality in the MR image and includes that information for kernel construction as well. Methods developed in this thesis allow for higher SNR in the reconstructed PET image while preserving contrast. They also produce reconstructed PET images with higher visual quality compared to Gaussian kernel methods.


title: Decentralizing the City:  Altered Paradigms of the Workspace in a Post-Pandemic Society

abstract: The covid-19 pandemic that began in 2020 resulted in unprecedented change worldwide. Today, we are grappling with defining new paths forward toward a new normal. The pandemic has affected the way we work in such a fundamental way that the future of work remains uncertain. Drawing from historical analyses and design research, this thesis will speculate what the future workplace might look like while exploring considerations of health and safety pertaining to pandemic resilience be accommodated in the design of a workspace. Additionally, it will anticipate how the decentralization of work in urban centers may affect the surrounding metropolitan regions as the paradigm of work is altered. The societal disruption will act as a reset button that drives the architectural reimagining of the workspace while simultaneously interrogating urban planning practices and implementing a strategy that synthesizes both remote work and the densification of suburban sprawl in a post-pandemic society.


title: A Methodology to Evaluate Strain Within Tissue Slabs under Complex Loading

abstract: The biomechanical response of brain tissue to strain and the immediate neural outcomes are of fundamental importance in understanding brain injury. Experimental work on measuring the strain-response of brain tissue must be completed to bridge this gap. The objective of this work was to develop and test a headform model for impact that has the capacity to incorporate porcine brain tissue. A surrogate tissue slab was used in the current work, made from silicon gel, filled with radio-opaque markers. The deformation was monitored using a high-speed in-situ X-ray cinematography system at 7,500 fps. The kinematics and strain results from impact were compared among the impact speeds. Strain progression was clear throughout the slab with increased speed resulting in increased strain levels. Repeated impacts at the same speed displayed the region-specific repeatability of the headform under impact testing


title: Safe Schools for Whom? An analysis of policy, austerity and ‘workplace violence’ in Ontario elementary schools

abstract: Education workers, unions, and federations have been raising concerns about workplace violence in schools since the early 2000's. A document analysis of Ontario's elementary school legislation (2000-2020) documents how the Ministry of Education has accounted for student-on-teacher harm. While the Government of Ontario and the Ministry of Education have not yet acknowledged workplace violence in schools, the Ministry of Labour acknowledged issues of workplace violence in schools in 2018. This work demonstrates debates over defining and measuring rates of violence in Ontario schools and reflects on how academic attention on the issue has been divergent. My research highlights the prevalence and impacts of workplace violence, emphasizes the intersectional and gendered nature of the issue, and considers the concerns of conceptualizing elementary student behaviour as 'violent.' An anti-carceral approach to addressing workplace violence is discussed and recommendations for future research are presented.


title: Machine Vision for Patient Monitoring in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

abstract: Continuous patient monitoring of newborns in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is often performed with wired sensors which can be cumbersome, can interfere with parental bonding, and can irritate the patient's fragile skin. Non-contact video-based patient monitoring systems are therefore a preferrable solution. While a multitude of high-performing machine vision technologies have been successfully implemented on an adult population, such methods often fail in neonatal population. In this thesis, we assess state-of-the-art adult-based methods to bridge the gap to an understudied neonatal population in the NICU environment. To this end, several important machine vision concepts are investigated, including scene understanding, image classification, face detection, semantic segmentation, motion detection, face tracking, and heart rate estimation. In each of these areas, we assess the state-of-the-art and identify its applicability to a neonatal population. In cases where serious limitations are observed, this thesis pushes the state-of-the-art and implements new techniques more suitable for newborns. Finally, a non-contact neonatal heart rate monitoring pipeline is created using multiple research contributions in this thesis. Doing so, we obtain a vital sign decision support tool for clinical use by estimating the uncertainty in each research contributions and demonstrating how errors can propagate from one to another. Thirty-three newborns admitted to the NICU at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario were recorded using a depth-sensing camera, which simultaneously captures color, depth and near-infrared videos, thereby acquiring pertinent data in all lighting conditions. Gold standard event annotations and physiologic data were recorded simultaneously as ground truth data for the development of machine vision models. Our proposed approach includes a combination of machine vision, deep learning, image processing, and signal processing techniques to overcome environmental factors such as lighting variations, occlusion, and motion artifacts. This thesis implements an efficient, robust, and reliable prototype neonatal monitoring system for potential future deployment in hospital settings. To this end, this research aimed to exploit transfer learning from state-of-the-art models to address problems such as complex NICU scenes, variations in newborn's visual features, data scarcity, and class imbalance which are often observed in clinical research and neonatal monitoring applications.


title: Towards a Martian Vernacular: Closed-Worlds and Infrastructures of Social Connectivity

abstract: Humanity is at the forefront in a new age of space travel and exploration. With the recent advancements in reusable rocket technologies by private and government organizations, the prospects of sending humans to Mars has never been brighter. However, the conditions of operating within self-sustaining environments on Mars can prove to be spatially limiting. While this situation encourages functional habitats responding very precisely to their technical engineering constraints, those very constraints can be stifling for human inhabitation and detrimental to physical and mental well-being. In response, this thesis draws on contemporary closed-world settlements and speculative science fiction narratives, to explore the intersection of technology, architecture and well-being on Mars. The research uses analytical mapping, rapid prototyping, and design explorations as the primary tools of investigation. This thesis posits that the psychological tolls of human inhabitation are mission critical and proposes infrastructures where future settlers can gather.


title: Advancing Treatment Accuracy of Accelerated Partial Breast Irradiation

abstract: Accelerated partial breast irradiation (APBI) has been clinically demonstrated as a new and advantageous breast radiotherapy approach. Contrary to standard-of-care whole breast radiotherapy (WBRT), APBI focuses radiation to the tumour bed with a small surrounding margin. To ensure successful treatment outcomes, these precise treatment techniques require a higher level of treatment accuracy than WBRT. The purpose of this thesis is to inform and advance treatment accuracy of external beam APBI. This is achieved through two main approaches. First, 3D printing was utilized to construct phantoms for assessing image fidelity and measuring geometric distortions on multiple radiological imaging modalities used in target delineation during high-precision radiotherapy treatment planning. The proof of concept was demonstrated using a small version of the phantom and with co-registered helical computed tomography (CT), cone beam computed tomography (CBCT), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) image sets, which are routinely employed during target delineation of certain cranial diseases for high-precision, high-accuracy radiotherapy. The second part of this work was motivated by the fact that MRI offers excellent soft tissue visualization, which can be particularly advantageous for APBI. In MRI, the breast is positioned at the lateral parts of the imaging field-of-view where geometric distortion increases. Methods demonstrated for the cranial site were further developed to construct a modular, large 3D printed phantom. Radiological image geometric distortion was measured on image sets acquired with MRI sequences often utilized for clinical breast imaging. Results showed that errors arising from geometric distortions can be sufficiently significant to consider in margins for APBI. Second, a novel, realistic, deformable breast phantom was developed for multi-modality imaging, radiation absorption measurements, and surgical simulation applications. The phantom's properties were optimized to match human breast tissues'. Mechanical properties were validated through mechanical and shear-wave ultrasound elastography testing. Radiation absorption was determined through empirical calculations, experimental measurements, treatment planning system calculations, and EGSnrc Monte Carlo simulations. Surgical simulation validation was confirmed by surgeons. Finally, a set of breast phantoms were used to simulate various oncoplastic breast surgery (OBS) techniques. This study provided new insight on OBS and showed how OBS can potentially impact patient eligibility for APBI.


title: Real-Time Operator-in-the-Loop Anti-Sway Control for Shipboard Cranes

abstract: Shipboard cranes play an important role in many maritime operations, however unexpected payload sway due to the motion of the ship or external disturbances creates a hazardous environment for deck personnel. To improve deck safety, the development of anti-sway control systems to reduce undesired payload motion has been of great interest to researchers; however, existing literature has focused primarily on complex nonlinear control strategies that require highly simplified dynamic systems, and the consideration of anti-sway control on high-fidelity, high-degree-of-freedom (DOF) crane/ship dynamic systems is lacking. Additionally, anti-sway control systems in the literature are typically developed with little consideration of real-time operator-in-the-loop interaction, and rarely are the human factors of shipboard crane anti-sway control seriously considered. Therefore, to address the deficiencies in the literature this thesis presents the development of a real-time anti-sway control system that can be applied to high-DOF shipboard cranes, developed with consideration of an operator-in-the-loop and tested in a virtual reality (VR) human factors study. To provide complete motion compensation, the anti-sway system can switch smoothly between deck-frame compensation, where the payload is held stationary with respect to the ship deck, and world-frame compensation, where the payload is held stationary with respect to the ocean's surface. To provide intuitive control, the operator is only required to provide the desired Cartesian position of the payload; as part of the anti-sway system, a nonlinear trajectory optimizer maps the Cartesian position to the crane actuators. To demonstrate its performance, the anti-sway system is validated in high-fidelity simulations with a five-DOF shipboard gantry crane, as well as a six-DOF, seven-DOF and nine-DOF shipboard knuckle boom crane, each with dynamics of increasingly complexity, including a double-pendulum between the sheave, hook and payload. The anti-sway system is enhanced iteratively with each crane, showing a reduction in payload tracking error of 73%, 84%, 92%, and 93%, respectively. Finally, the anti-sway system is tested in a real-time VR simulator, where it is demonstrated through a human factors study that the anti-sway system is both effective at reducing payload tracking error and intuitive for operators to use.


title: Resistivity in Contemporary Art Biennials: A Synchronic Analysis

abstract: The dominant art historical narrative of contemporary art biennials starts with the Venice Biennale. Taking the Venice Biennale as the biennial template, form, and medium, for universalizing biennial history is clearly problematic, and the concept of "biennials of resistance," as proposed by curator Ranjit Hoskote, has become an important catalyst for writing non- and counter-Venetian histories of biennials. This history of counter-biennials situates "biennials of resistance" in a parallel, or a tangential anti-/postcolonial canon to the lineage established by the Venice Biennale. Hoskote's proposed counter narrative approach limits and ultimately maintains divisive Eurocentric biases. I argue for re-framing the geographic interpretation of global South to collapse and expand the "biennials of resistance" framework and problematize the anti-/postcolonial canon that constitutes it through, what I call, biennial resistivity. Biennial resistivity utilises the qualifiers of the "biennial of resistance" to become a conceptual rather than geographical framework. As this dissertation demonstrates, biennial resistivity amplifies the post/decolonial resistive potential of a biennial given its local specificities and complicates the global South dichotomy and static historical interpretations of the anti-/postcolonial biennial. Moreover, I propose to study biennial historiography not by focusing on the "waves" biennial historiography, and instead to utilize a synchronic analysis according to host years. Synchronic analysis mobilises the temporal biennial model (of every two years) using a horizontal, relational, and comparative approach to elucidate (art) historical, political, social, and cultural complexities that constitute biennials at across locales, while attending to their specific histories. The time frame between 2017-2018 situates my study, where I examine three different biennials as comparative case studies: #00Bienal de La Habana in Havana, Cuba; the 15th Istanbul Biennial in Istanbul, Turkey; and documenta 14, in Kassel, Germany. I argue each of these biennials are "biennials of resistance" by way of their resistivity. Moreover, I demonstrate a new conceptualization of "biennials of resistance" through a synchronic methodological paradigm to shift the study of biennials to move past entrenched Eurocentric historiographic epistemologies.


title: Do No Harm? Discrepancies across Canadian Healthcare Policy and Obstetrics and Gynaecology Training for Treating Women affected by Female Genital Cutting

abstract: Female genital cutting (FGC) is a flashpoint feminist issue. It is a deeply stigmatized and controversial cultural practice that affects millions of women and girls internationally and is criminalized in Canada. My research set out to answer the questions: To what extent is obstetrics and gynaecology training in Canada structured to provide adequate, effective, and culturally sensitive care for women who have undergone FGC? Does this training reflect the broader framing of FGC as a "barbaric" practice? Through my research into medical education, I find that Canadian healthcare reflects norms and values of nationalism when considering whose bodies represent these standards. With the methodology of transnational feminism, these covert issues of structural violence that mark certain bodies as Other become more clearly recognizable. I challenge predominant knowledge, attitudes, and skills of healthcare practitioners to ultimately recommend four steps toward creating a new benchmark for culturally sensitive training and care.


title: Burial Places, White Supremacy, and Racial Necrogeographies in Eastern North America

abstract: This dissertation examines how the places inhabited by the racialized dead have been destroyed or disallowed in regimes of racialization and colonization in the territories of the Saugeen Anishinaabeg (an area colonially known as Bruce and Grey Counties, Ontario) and throughout eastern North America. I include the burial places of four interconnected peoples: Anishinaabeg of the Great Lakes region, Black communities in Ontario and the Mid-Atlantic, Protestant English-speaking white populations of Ontario and the eastern United States, and Muslim communities who may be part of the three preceding groups, but who also comprise large numbers of more recent migrants to eastern North America. This dissertation maps a variety of case studies across these communities, while remaining centred on the Anishinaabe world. I chronicle how white people have engaged in patterns of desecration and destruction of the burial places of Indigenous and Black communities and resisted efforts by Muslims to establish space to bury their dead. White people have thus maintained the landscape of whiteness both through the destruction of existing graves and the denial of new ones. I argue first that processes of racial dehumanization and colonial dispossession have not only been inflicted on the living but also the dead and the sites they inhabit, and that this violence has its roots in traditions of posthumous dehumanization that are part of British/North American Protestant cultures while also, paradoxically, being deeply at odds with this culture's worldviews about the dead and the respect owed to them. Second, I argue that processes of colonial dispossession rooted in the removal of peoples from their lands extend to the grave itself, and that the grave is a symbol of power over a place. Thirdly, I argue that there is a wide pattern of burial place destruction across eastern North America. Finally, I highlight the profound and magnified importance of these sites to Indigenous, Black, and Muslim communities, as evidenced by both reclamation efforts, and the presence of burial places in the spoken and literary statements of these communities, for whom these sites are essential connectors to threatened pasts, violent presents, and resurgent futures.


title: Health-Related Criterion-Referenced cut-Points for the 20 Meter Shuttle Run Test Among Children and Youth – An Exploration and Meta-Analysis

abstract: Cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) is significantly related to current and future physical and psychosocial health in youth making it an important indicator in the measurement and surveillance of population health. The aim of this research was to explore meta-analytical techniques with aggregate published health-related criterion-referenced cut-points for V ̇O2peak in youth developed using the 20 meter shuttle run test (20mSRT) and explore age, sex, prediction equation, country, and health indicator related differences. We included thirteen articles representing 114,145 children and youth aged 6-18 years across 18 countries who completed the 20mSRT. Significant heterogeneity was demonstrated across all sub-group analyses. This may be explained by direct and indirect variables related to each co-factor and the pooling of data within the studies disregarding age and maturation of the participants or health outcome definition. Future research needs to use standardized approaches and include sex-, age-, and culturally diverse cut-points to reduce heterogeneity between studies.


title: Julius S. Held and the Development of Art History in Canada

abstract: The impact of German refugees in art historical circles in the United States before and after World War II is well documented, but their effect on Canada is comparatively unexplored. This thesis investigates the influence of German emigre Julius Samuel Held (1905-2002) through his interactions with the National Gallery of Canada (NGC). Held emigrated in 1934 from Germany to the United States due to his Jewish faith, and became acquainted with the NGC in 1935. Between 1935-1960, the NGC consulted Held on acquisitions and policy, as well as organized lectures for him in various Canadian cities. I examine why a national institution went to such lengths to accommodate Held, and the impact of this collaboration on Canadian art historical pedagogy. This case study provides insight on the influence of German intellectual refugees and the contributions that Held made to the developing field of Canadian art history in the mid-twentieth century.


title: The Third Seascape: A Deep Narrative of the California Coast

abstract: Twenty-seven offshore oil platforms line the coast of Southern California from Point Conception to Huntington Beach. They are some of the oldest in the world and are scheduled for complete decommissioning by 2033. Overtime, the rigs have adapted to the surrounding ecosystems, unintentionally creating habitat for fouling communities. The subsurface provides a vertical skeleton for coral reefs that support an abundance of marine life. This thesis reflects on kinship studies, deep time and the philosophies of Gilles Clément to inform it's theoretical positioning on design. Making the depths of the ocean visible fundamentally alters our relationship to the living and non-living entities that occupy it. This, in turn, re-positions ourselves as kin in place, space, and site, prompting a re-evaluation of our actions, thoughts, and design motivations in the process. Structured as five stories, the Ecologist, Mussel, Fish, Oil Particle, and Gardener create a circular journey through time and space.


title: Accelerated Epistemic Harm: Understanding the Role of Social Media Engagement Algorithms in Online Radicalization

abstract: Social media use appears to play a role in radicalizing an increasing number of people. I problematize what I characterize as the current picture of radicalization, where the radicalization of an agent is depicted on a timeline, eventually culminating in an act of extreme violence. I argue that what is particularly concerning about online radicalization is the harm that prolonged social media use and exposure to its engagement algorithms can cause to the epistemic capacity of the agent. I then argue that social media companies are at least partly responsible for online radicalization, since they have created an environment that causes epistemic harm. I conclude by sketching some ways we might combat this environment at the level of the agent and the level of the community, problematizing the virtue ethics-based approach that is common in such recommendations and favouring a legislative approach against social media companies.


title: Blockchain Flipping: Housing as a Commodity in Toronto

abstract: This thesis explores ﬁnancialization and speculative urban development in Toronto where real estate values have increased dramatically in recent decades. Playing off the emerging trend of "paper flipping" where condominiums are purchased pre-construction and then shortly thereafter re-sold, the work examines the possibilities of a community land trust subversively selling speculative, unbuilt NFT properties in the metaverse—done to fund real-world community development initiatives. A series of parallel design-research probes unpack the implications of such a proposal in both the metaverse and along Toronto's Queen Street West. Overall, this thesis contributes to a broader understanding of the impacts of block-chain technology in architecture and urbanism. It underscores the deep implications for design professionals of financialization and its associated real estate market trends.


title: Development and Testing of New Ring Spring Self-Centering Energy Dissipative (RS-SCED) Braces for Seismic Resilience of Buildings and Bridges

abstract: The applicability of existing SCED braces is limited by size, as well as load and deformation capacity. In this study a new compact Self-Centering Energy-Dissipative (SCED) brace is developed, designed, and experimentally tested. The new innovative compact high capacity ring spring SCED (RS-SCED) is a brace system that exhibits a nonlinear response with good energy dissipation and post-yield stiffness, while eliminating or minimizing residual drift after an earthquake. The new high capacity compact RS-SCED brace utilizes ring springs to provide a restoring force, while simultaneously dissipating energy through friction between ring spring units in the assembly. The new RS-SCED brace has high load capacity with stable and repeatable hysteresis that makes them suitable for deployment in full scale building and bridge structures in high seismic regions. Hybrid simulations are performed to evaluate the system level performance of the new brace in prototype structures. In this study, a 4-storey building and a 3-span bridge with the new ring spring SCED brace are tested using hybrid simulations. The physical test substructure is the prototype compact high capacity ring spring SCED with a load capacity of 1400 kN and a deformation capacity of 160 mm. During the tests, the systems are subjected to a series of earthquake records with a wide range of frequency contents at different hazard levels. Typical seismic design procedures rely on ductility and overstrength factors for simplified seismic analysis and design using an equivalent static force procedure. In this study, the FEMA P695 methodology is used to determine the ductility (R), overstrength (Ω_0) and deflection amplification (C_d) factors for seismic design of the proposed structural system. The combination of different building heights, bay sizes and seismicity levels led to the design of 12 different prototype building designs for the numerical analyses. Pushover analyses, as well as nonlinear dynamic time history analyses of the prototype buildings subjected to a suite of scaled ground motions are performed. The calibration of the seismic design factors for the RS-SCED braced frame buildings, is based on optimization of the seismic performance of buildings by considering the peak storey drifts, residual drift and floor accelerations.


title: Exploring the Relationship Between Scoring Accuracy and Predictive Validity in Risk Assessment Using the Service Planning Instrument (SPIn)

abstract: Accurate scoring is an essential component of a risk assessment's reliability, which in turn contributes to its predictive validity. This study tested a new method for evaluating the accuracy of completed risk assessments, described as intra-rater consistency. Pairs of cross-consistency items in the Service Planning Instrument were used to identify scoring errors. Participants were 31,460 adults (20.5% female; 20.7% Indigenous) on community supervision in Alberta. The overall base rate of error was low; Indigenous participants had higher rates of error than non-Indigenous participants. In the full sample assessments with errors had slightly higher predictive accuracy than assessments without errors (error AUC = .70, no error AUC = .68). Similar results were found among non-Indigenous sub-groups, however, there were no significant differences in predictive accuracy based on errors among Indigenous participants. Sex- and race-based differences in predictive accuracy were observed in assessments with errors, but not in assessments without errors.


title: Is the Association Between Appearance Overvaluation and Dietary Restraint Robust to Substantive and Methodological Specifications? A Specification Curve Analysis

abstract: In the cognitive-behavioural model, dietary restraint follows from appearance overvaluation (i.e., the core psychopathology of disordered eating). However, little research has examined the association between appearance overvaluation and dietary restraint when accounting for shared variance with other factors. Moreover, results generally hinge on researchers' decision-making, including addressing outliers and covariates. Herein, specification curve analysis was used to examine the association between appearance overvaluation and dietary restraint under 80 unique regression models based on different combinations of substantive factors and methodological decisions. Results indicated a positive association between appearance overvaluation and dietary restraint among university women (N=569; mean β=0.26), however, the association was not statistically significant when all factors were included in the model, and removal of outliers made results unstable. Hence, it is possible that sociocultural and cognitive-behavioural factors may be mediating or confounding the association. Findings also highlight the importance of limiting researcher degrees of freedom during data analysis.


title: Data Management for Enhanced Resource Utilization in Internet of Things Systems

abstract: Internet of Things (IoT) systems are driven by numerous Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) at the sensing layer supporting various applications. Due to the high volume, complexity, and velocity of IoT data and the limited resource of IoT devices, it is crucial to develop efficient data management to fulfill the required Quality-of-Service (QoS). However, managing IoT traffic based on QoS metrics is insufficient, especially when the required QoS is not attainable even after optimally utilizing all available resources. In this thesis, data analytics is used to develop metrics and methodologies for identifying the quality of IoT data in terms of predictability and contained information. The Quality-of-Information (QoI) of the collected data must be optimized while being subjected to the limited resources to ensure that IoT applications run successfully. Therefore, the QoI is exploited in data management, reduction, and forwarding. Firstly, advanced algorithms are developed for performing Dual-Prediction (DP) to reduce data based on its predictability. The proposed algorithms are based on Deep Neural Networks, which are able to outperform existing techniques in terms of reduction ratio while maintaining the same error levels in recovery. Secondly, information-oriented data reduction and forwarding are developed to maximize the Information-Content (IC) of collected data. The proposed IC metric measures data redundancy and recoverability. The developed schemes aim to improve data delivery by ensuring that all delivered data is important for running applications successfully. Thirdly, the challenges facing the practical implementation of the proposed DP and IC-based data reduction schemes are highlighted. Also, the proposed solutions addressing them are validated through a developed IoT testbed running realistic IoT applications. Finally, a Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) approach is proposed for solving problems where unknown-state components in IoT systems need to be managed. The DRL approach has been applied for Edge backhaul selection to fulfill the QoS of data delivery through the backhaul. To improve the convergence time of DRL policies training, Federated Learning (FL) is applied. FL enables collaborative policy training between multiple Edge devices without sharing private training data.


title: Neural Network Based Predictions for the Aerodynamic Performance of Flapping Wings

abstract: There is unrealized potential in using Neural Network approaches in aerospace, particularly in assisting with aircraft design. The objective of this thesis was to determine if neural networks could predict the morphology, kinematics, and performance of flapping wings. A neural network was developed in Python and trained using a small dataset of biological insect data from literature. The model was then tested for biological data (small and large insects) as well as micro-aerial vehicles. The small insect test dataset performed best likely due to similarities with the training set. A larger dataset is needed to validate the use of neural networks in flapping wing micro-aerial vehicle design. This work is ground-breaking in the field of flapping wing micro-aerial vehicle design since it provides the foundation for a quick and accurate alternative to lengthy experiments and simulations.


title: Anatomy of a Gender: A Micro-Example (Or, An Autotheoretical Disruption of Societal Demands for Trans Legibility)

abstract: In this thesis, I employ autotheory, critical discourse analysis, and interview-based research to address the question of how, even as trans acceptance grows more common, normative scripts of (trans)gender still limit and marginalize trans people who are additionally queer, gender non-conforming, and/or nonbinary. Centring my lived embodied experiences as a trans gender non-conforming man, I demonstrate that gender can be far more unknowable and incoherent than any single definition of trans experience can hope to describe. In so doing, my thesis contributes to debates within trans studies concerning the legibility of individuals whose gender identities and expressions challenge the rigidity of the binary logic present in cisgenderism and transnormative politics. Furthermore, my making visible some of the struggles that nonbinary and/or gender non-conforming trans people go through to live an authentic life contributes trans politics beyond the academy.


title: Investigating the Contribution of Agouti-Related Peptide (AGRP) on Ghrelin’s Ability to Promote Social Interaction in Mice

abstract: Ghrelin is a stomach-derived peptide that acts as an endogenous ligand for growth hormone secretagogue receptor (GHSR). GHSR is abundantly expressed in the brain with high expression found in AGRP/NPY neurons within the hypothalamic arcuate nucleus. Emerging evidence suggests that ghrelin promotes social interaction whereas ghrelin receptor antagonists increase social vigilance. In this present thesis, we investigated the contribution of AGRP on ghrelin's ability to promote social interaction. 63 male and female C57BL/6J mice were assigned to groups receiving IP injections of saline or ghrelin, followed by saline or the MC3/4R agonist melanotan-II, then tested on a social interaction test to investigate how these drug treatments affected social behaviors. Results showed that IP ghrelin promotes social approach and motivation, whereas IP MTII enhances social vigilance. No interaction effects between the two drugs were found, suggesting that ghrelin promotes the motivation for social interaction, and these effects are independent from AGRP.


title: Design Methodologies for Simple Adaptive Controllers with Applications to Spacecraft Proximity Operations

abstract: Space debris in low-Earth Orbit is increasing year-on-year, with inaction threatening Kessler Syndrome, a point where debris collisions are self-sustaining and space launches are impossible. Conventional control techniques make it infeasible to manage the rendezvous, docking, and deorbit multiple pieces of debris every year. Adaptive controllers can sense and correct for deviations in systems with unknown or time-varying characteristics. The current work develops and experimentally verifies that optimization decreases the convergence time of a simple adaptive controller, while disturbance compensation increases the model tracking. Design heuristics are developed that provide a tangible method for determining simple adaptive control parameters. Furthermore, simulations show that simple adaptive control can uncouple unknown system dynamics, while improving the response. The provided work provides several methods and techniques to help designers implement simple adaptive control in physical systems, and improving those designs once they are implemented.


title: Jet Comparison, Trigger, and Sensitivity Studies of Dark Sector Emerging Jet MC Models

abstract: Analysis work is presented as part of a search for Emerging Jet (EJ) signals within the ATLAS detector at the LHC. These EJs arise in models with a QCD-like dark sector, where dark pions are produced during proton-proton collisions. These dark pions then decay into SM particles with a mean decay length between 0.5mm and 300mm, causing a jet to emerge. The analysis uses Monte Carlo events simulated with a hidden-valley implementation of PYTHIA (version 8.230) scaled to the LHC Run2 period (2015-2018) with integrated luminosity of 139fb^-1 and centre-of-mass energy of 13TeV. It includes a comparison study between these EJs and QCD jets, and a trigger study to verify that it is efficient in the search region of interest. Finally, a sensitivity study to probe the theoretical cross-sections of the EJ models is presented, which utilizes a data-driven ABCD method for two model-independent planes and a machine-learning, model-dependent plane.


title: Reflections on Peer Researching the School Based Experiences of Young People with Lived and Living Experiences (PWLLE) of Youth Homelessness Using Participatory Action Research

abstract: This participatory research investigates the school-based experiences of homeless youth, addressing the question: how might schools intervene in homelessness? Theories of representation, structure, and agency are presented alongside youths' narratives of stigmatisation, punishment, substance use, exclusion etc. within the education system. This thesis highlights how sociological theories might help educators, youth and others move beyond harmful perceptions of homelessness where youth are misunderstood as perpetrators of deviance rather than victims of unjust structures. Researchers increasingly desire collaboration with people with lived/living experience of studied topics, yet publications by PWLLE on research practices are few. The second question this thesis addresses is: what is it like to do participatory research as a scholar with lived experience of youth homelessness? This thesis argues that neoliberal structures contribute to homeless students' punishment and neglect in schools and also creates research as a competitive and marketized space sometimes at odds with ethical engagement.


title: Optimizing and Validating a Caenorhabditis Elegans Model as a Tool for Assessing Contaminant-Induced Oxidative Stress and Oxylipin Signalling

abstract: Oxidative stress (OS) is a physiological mechanism that is induced by pollutants and can lead to pathophysiological conditions. Pollutants may be activated by phase I metabolism enzymes, becoming more reactive, inducing additional OS. Paraquat-induced OS was measured in Caenorhabditis elegans that were modified to express CYP2E1—a human cytochrome P450 enzyme that bioactivates xenobiotics—in either their endoplasmic reticulum (erCYP2E1) or mitochondria (mtCYP2E1). Paraquat induced worm death, but deaths were reduced when worms were incubated in antioxidants. Reactive oxygen species significantly increased in mtCYP2E1 and wild-type worms, and significantly decreased in erCYP2E1 worms. These assays will validate a final OS testing method: monitoring global oxylipin production by tandem mass spectrometry. Oxylipins are potent signalling molecules in stress responses, and optimization efforts increased their detection by 66%. Further oxylipin testing will provide a mechanistic overview of the OS response which could explain differences in CYP2E1 isozyme activation.


title: Filling an Instructional Gap in an English for Academic Purposes Course: Developing Speech Comprehensibility and Autonomous Learning with an Electronic Portfolio Learning Module

abstract: Although researchers have indicated that speech production is an important aspect of academic success and acculturation (e.g., Berman & Cheng, 2001; Cheng & Fox, 2008) and teachers have identified the need for more preparation in this area (Thornbury, 2005), there is still a lack of time and practice devoted to the speech issues of international students in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses at the tertiary level (Maleki & Zangani, 2007; Wood, 2010; 2015). Many second language (L2) learners in academic programs have expressed frustration with the difficulty their listeners often have in comprehending what they say (Derwing & Munro, 2015). To address this instructional gap, an electronic portfolio (ePortfolio) learning module designed to guide learners to work more autonomously was integrated into EAP courses at a medium sized university. Learners were encouraged to engage in more autonomous learning (Reinders, 2011) by examining their performance, planning interventions, reviewing performance, and assessing improvement. This study examined the impact of the ePortfolio learning module on 55 participants in developing speech comprehensibility and autonomous learning by applying a two-phased mixed methods explanatory sequential design (Creswell, 2015). In Phase I, quantitative data were collected through the use of a survey and a pre- and post-treatment test. In Phase II, qualitative data (18 participant reflections, four semi-structured interviews) were analyzed. Findings of the first phase indicated that speech comprehensibility improved through better learner management of volume or degree of loudness, speed, articulation, and word attack skills, and the lower the initial level of comprehensibility, the greater the improvement. Findings from the second phase indicated that over 90% of participants' comments were related to autonomous learning activities and that the more they engaged in autonomous learning, the greater the improvement in speech comprehensibility. Further, participants who improved the most were those who also applied the autonomous learning skills to other academic contexts. These findings suggest that the ePortfolio learning module was successful in filling the gap between the perceived need of L2 participants for support in developing speech comprehensibility and the limited amount of time available in the curriculum to address this need.


title: The Body Biography as a User-Centered Design Practice: Four Artists Narrate Their Studio Stories

abstract: Although best practices have been associated with art studios for individuals with disabilities, there is a gap in pertinent literature on obtaining feedback from the artists. Consequently, I conducted a qualitative research study, theoretically and practically grounded in narrative inquiry and multimodal literacies in relation to accessibility via user-centered design. The center piece was the body biography practice used to access the artists' feedback for informing best practices in their studio. Findings led to insights in (i) helping studios facilitate best practices,(ii) addressing online design implications of the body biography practice, and (iii) helping individuals designing for people with disabilities.


title: Effects of Perceived Health on Time Perception

abstract: Two online studies investigated the nature of the relationship between health and the perception of future time while controlling for chronological age and subjective age. In the initial pilot study, I analyzed the relationship between multiple facets of health and open-ended future time perspective, planning behaviours, and the subjective passage of time. This study showed a significant positive relationship between perceived health and time perception, such that participants with a more positive self-evaluation of their current health reported a more open-ended future, more future planning behaviours, and that the passage of time felt longer. Study 2 used temporal comparisons to momentarily manipulate participants' subjective physical health, prior to measuring time perception variables. Although the experimental manipulation of subjective health was not significant and causal links of health and time perception could not be determined, subjective health was again correlated with more open-ended future time perception and more future planning.


title: High Data Rate DMT SERDES Design

abstract: The research presented in this thesis involves implementing a high data rate wireline com- munications system using Discrete Multitone (DMT) transmission. A theoretical analysis of the model of channels typically used for serializer/deserializer SERDES chip to chip com- munication is done, showing the benefits of DMT through improved spectral efficiency, and simplified transceiver design due to the pseudo-narrowband characteristics of DMT. Sim- ulations results demonstrate this benefit by being able to achieve higher data rates than conventionally used non-return-to-zero (NRZ) and pulse-amplitude modulation (PAM) typ- ically used, even with typical channel correction circuitry such as continuous-time linear equalizers (CTLE) and decision-feedback equalizers (DFE). Furthermore, a combined bit- loading/power allocation and transmit side equalization algorithm is presented that can improve the data rate of the system and decrease its error rate. Measurement results are demonstrated using a digital-analog-converter (DAC) and analog-digital converter (ADC) test bed using realistic conditions for chip-to-chip communication with a data rate over 250 GB/s with sufficient overhead for forward-error-correction (FEC) coding needed to reduce the bit-error rate (BER).


title: Gunshots Sound Analysis, Identification, and Impact on Hearing

abstract: Analyzing the sound resulting from a gunshot can help identify the type of gun used and can also lead to a better understanding of the impact of this sound on hearing. Exposure to gunshot sounds can cause hearing impairments. Measuring these sounds from various locations and analyzing them can improve the design of hearing protectors and help enact regulations to minimize the impact of gunshot sounds on hearing impairments. In this thesis, acoustic data was collected from different guns and a mortar for analysis. This thesis entails two types of analysis. The first is an image-based analysis method to take advantage of the recent advancement of image recognition techniques. A second type of analysis was conducted using a novel characterization method for characterizing acoustic attenuation properties that respects the spectral sensitivity of the human ear and preserves the energy in its octave bands at the same time.


title: An Investigation of the Association between Maternal and Early Life Exposure to Urban Greenness and the Incidence of Childhood Asthma

abstract: Several epidemiological studies have investigated the possible role that living in areas with greater amounts of greenspace has on the development of childhood asthma. These studies have yielded inconsistent findings, and not all have explored the relevance of timing of exposure. This topic was studied using a retrospective cohort study design that consisted of 982,131 singleton births in Ontario, Canada between 2006 and 2013. Two measures of greenness, NDVI and GVI, were assigned to the residential area. Asthma diagnoses were determined by using administrative data. The Cox proportional hazards model was used to characterize associations between greenness measures and asthma (up to age 12 years) while adjusting for several risk factors. This thesis suggests that greenness is not associated with the development of asthma. However, greenness may reduce the risk of developing asthma for children diagnosed at older age, and for those children born during the spring and summer seasons.


title: Exploration of Latent Spaces of 3D Shapes via Isomap and Inverse Mapping

abstract: We introduce a deep neural network based 3D shape latent space exploration method where exploration is performed through 2D embedding navigation. It is based on a combination of Isomap dimensionality reduction and an inverse mapping function. For a shape dataset, we train an autoencoder network to learn the latent representation. Then, we reduce the dimensionality of the latent space to two dimensions with the Isomap method. This makes navigation and new point sampling easy in the 2D latent space embedding. Our method then translates the sampled points back to latent vectors with an inverse mapping function, while the latent vectors are decoded by the neural network into 3D shapes that can be inspected by the user. The inverse mapping poses it as a radial basis function (RBF) scattered interpolation problem. The qualitative and quantitative experiments show the performance of the exploration method, along with the comparative advantages, and meaningful outcomes.


title: High-Intensity, Low-Frequency Ultrasound Treatment as Sustainable Strategy for Innovative Biomaterials with Antioxidant Activity from Tomatoes, Hemp, and Hops By-Products

abstract: This study focused on ultrasound application as a green platform adding values from agricultural waste in two different contexts. Ultrasound was used to increase efficiency of extraction of bioactive compounds such as saponins and phenolics in tomato skin, hemp meal and hops flowers. Ultrasound was used to create stable emulsion gels from byproducts/leftovers of tomato skin, hemp meal and hops flowers to produce green biomaterials. It was found that ultrasound treatment reduced extraction time for saponin and phenolic acid from 24h to 30 min. Influence of ultrasound was also shown to have no impact on antioxidative capacity of extract. Ultrasound treatment was shown to positively impact the overall microscopic structure and qualities of bioplastic such as water activity, % moisture, hardness, cohesiveness, resilience, and springiness index. This study suggests that ultrasound can be used as sustainable non-thermal method for extraction of active saponins and phenolics, enhancing their physico-chemical characteristic in bioplastic materials


title: Evaluation of High Level Synthesis Frameworks: Analysis Across Three Programming Paradigms

abstract: High Level Synthesis (HLS) has played an important role in the design of high performance Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) based solutions and it is increasingly popular among developers. In this thesis, two HLS tools, Vivado HLS and Clash, supporting three programming language paradigms (imperative, transactionlevel modeling, and functional) are investigated. To assess the characteristics and performance of these HLS tools, we implement two trivial and non-trivial applications, Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filter and EigenValue Decomposition (EVD) with C++, SystemC and Clash. Pre-synthesis and post-synthesis results are elaborated to ensure each tool generates consistent outputs and simulation results are verified with the same program in MATLAB. It was found that Clash usually has better performance and latency as a result of the intrinsic parallelism feature of functional programming language Haskell. However, it was also found Vivado HLS has better results regarding power consumption and resource utilization, and provides more options for optimization of a design.


title: Array Design for High-Resolution Beam Steering in Optical Phased Arrays Applications

abstract: In Optical Phased Array (OPA) designs, there are often compromises between having a high beam resolution and a large steering range. Achieving an optimized result simultaneously is seldom found. The main cause of this problem are the spacing constraints required for routing and element placements. A large element spacing in an array leads to the appearance of gratings lobes in the far field radiation pattern which are replicas of the main signal. Consequently, the main signal is indistinguishable from the grating lobes. The main goal of this thesis is to investigate new array design methods which can enhance the resolution and steering range of the OPA. The first array design we investigated was a planar sub-array design which undergoes a rotation method that rotates each sub-array, changing the location of the grating lobes. The second array design we investigated was a circular sub-array design which also undergoes rotation.


title: Platform for Graphene Sensors Using Printed Circuit Boards and Single Board Computers

abstract: A platform was designed to allow electrical measurements to be taken from graphene sensors. Research began with the characterization of a range of different sensors. Some sensors then had circuit boards designed to house them. The PCBs were designed to be connected to a Raspberry Pi, which could then supply voltage and read measurements using a MATLAB script. The boards were simulated in LTspice, while testing of the platform was done with a Graphenea GFET chip mounted on one of the boards and included a breadboard and resistor to create a voltage divider. Further experimentation was done on the use of acetone and paraffin wax to maintain the quality of the chip on the board over time. The results point to the wax having a stabilizing effect on the graphene, but another test with more samples and a longer time period is likely necessary.


title: Sewing in Arviat: Inuit Women’s Work Through Stories and Parkas

abstract: Sewing has long been a core part of Inuit women's land-based labour in Arviat, Nunavut. The objects that Inuit women produce by sewing, such as parkas, embody their responses to and perspectives of colonialism and the entrenchment of the capitalist economy in their communities. This dissertation takes an interdisciplinary approach using archival records and photographs, museums objects, interviews with seamstresses and experiential learning. In this project, gendered work is inherently connected to gendered knowledge. The amauti, a women's parka with a pouch to carry small children is useful for understanding both work and knowledge because it is a tool for women's work, while also serving as a conceptual lens through which to discuss Inuit women's knowledge transmission. I use methodologies developed in material culture studies to carefully develop three case studies to trace Inuit women's labour through three sewing mediums. The first case study uses caribou skin parka designs to examine women's responses to shifting patterns of subsistence and contact with First Nations and Qallunaat. This chapter argues that changes in caribou skin parka designs embody Inuit women's work as they render changes in their designs to respond to changes in their worlds, thereby enabling the continued work of all family members. Ann Meekitijuk Hanson's concept of Inuktization underpins the next two chapters. One examines the use of trade commodity beads, to centre the decisions of Inuit seamstresses as they undertake the physical and intellectual labour that resulted in beadwork that reflects Inuit aesthetics and worldviews. In the final case study, I argue that the shift to fabric parka sewing in the twentieth century demonstrates that sewing remains a significant part of women's work in the mixed economy of Arviat. Inuit women Inuktized fabric into something that suited their needs despite the deprivations caused by colonial policies. The findings of this project foreground Inuit women's work in historical records by centring the sewn objects that women make; they use their knowledge and skills to create a distinctly Inuit modernity.


title: Criteria for Securing Operating Systems Supporting Low-End Devices in the Internet of Things

abstract: As the Internet of Things (IoT) continues to grow, specialized IoT operating systems (OSs) become increasingly important to facilitate rapid development of secure and portable applications. However, supporting the subset of low-end devices called for in resource-constrained environments introduces additional design challenges, particularly with respect to security. In this thesis, we propose eight criteria to encapsulate important aspects and considerations for securing OSs supporting low-end devices in the IoT. We present three main contributions, each building upon one another to inform and end in our proposed criteria. First, we review foundational hardware- and software-based mechanisms relating to OS security, discussing the need for such mechanisms and examining several real-world examples relating to IoT OSs. Second, we experimentally examine the use of such mechanisms in two actively developed IoT OSs, RIOT and Tock. Finally, we combine these contributions with a literature review to derive, support, and propose eight criteria for securing OSs supporting low-end devices, evaluating each against the aforementioned IoT OSs.


title: An Automated Building Energy Model Calibration Workflow to Improve Indoor Climate Controls

abstract: Calibrating a white-box building energy model (BEM) is time-consuming and prohibitively expensive due to the large number of required model inputs and the limited availability of measurements. Therefore, this research aims to increase the calibration efficiency by proposing an improved workflow to obtain a quick, lightweight, and parsimonious model that only requires building automation system (BAS) and energy meter data and simple geometric drawings. The proposed method was demonstrated with a case study building in Ottawa, Canada. The results indicated more accurate parameters estimates and significantly more reliable energy consumption projections when the model is calibrated using energy meter data at a higher temporal resolution. Applying control interventions to calibrated BEM showed that up to 34% of energy could be saved through the optimized operation. Furthermore, leveraging BAS data not only overcame the overparameterization issue but was also found useful to detect operational anomalies to support optimized operation.


title: Overstressed and Understudied: An Examination of Stress and Workplace Leaders

abstract: This dissertation examines leaders' experiences of work stress, using distinct methods, perspectives, and groups of leaders. Guided by conservation of resources and stressor-strain theories, I focus on prevalent workplace stressors, the processes through which leaders are impacted, and ways organizations can mitigate negative outcomes for leaders. Study 1 examined effects of mistreatment on leaders in a Canadian manufacturing firm, among 86 leader-direct report dyads. Results from surveys collecting quantitative data and soliciting open-ended comments indicated that leaders' experiences of workplace incivility are related to their own subsequent reports of disengagement, job dissatisfaction, and turnover intentions, as well as follower reports of the same outcomes, all through increased leader burnout. Taking a follower perspective to enhance the understanding of employees' perpetration of mistreatment directed at leaders, Study 2 examined the effects of COVID-19-related grief on leader-directed deviant behaviours among young workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results from Participant Group 1 (N = 98; 1st wave) suggested young adults experiencing COVID-19-related grief engaged in more leader- and organization-directed deviant behaviours, through the mediating effect of role overload. Results from Participant Group 2 (N = 760; 2nd wave) supported and extended the findings from Participant Group 1, by demonstrating that perceived organizational support moderated the negative effects of role overload on deviant behaviours. Finally, Study 3 examined the effects of work-family conflict and COVID-19-related grief on 334 North American leaders. Mediation analyses suggested work-family conflict and COVID-19-related grief are negatively associated with work (i.e., laissez-faire behaviours and turnover intentions) and personal (i.e., family cohesion and well-being) outcomes, through role overload and burnout. Organizational support of work-life balance moderated these effects. Although employee outcomes have been widely studied in the leadership literature, leader outcomes have been largely excluded. Moreover, despite the habitually stressful nature of work for leaders, little research has focused on understanding work stress for this cohort of the workforce. This dissertation addresses these gaps in the literature. Taken together, results from these three studies indicate many ways in which work stressors influence leaders, and the important role of organizations in determining any negative outcomes.


title: The Independent Effects of Forest Amount, Fragmentation, and Corridors on Forest Understory Plant Diversity

abstract: It is well documented that forest amount in the surrounding landscape increases understory plant species diversity in a forested site. However, the extent to which fragmentation and structural connectivity (wooded corridors linking patches) also influence understory plant diversity remains largely unknown due to repeated conflation with forest amount. Here, we test the independent effects of these three landscape variables on understory plant species diversity at 70 forested sites in Ontario. Forest amount had large positive effects on richness and negative effects on species assemblage uniqueness. Fragmentation reduced species richness and evenness, through negative effects on short-distance dispersers. Both had their maximum effects within 5 km of sites. Connectivity did not affect species richness but reduced both evenness and species assemblage uniqueness. The results demonstrate that maximizing forest amount is of primary importance for conserving forest plants, and increasing structural connectivity is not a viable strategy for maintaining forest plant communities.


title: Player Matching using Personal Characteristics for Asynchronous Multiplayer Exergames

abstract: Participation in regular exercise can help with maintaining good health. However, exercise interventions, including those that are game based, while successful at capturing initial interest, usually suffer from retention as adherence declines overtime. To maintain continued interest, recent efforts are exploring the effects of gradual release of game features, tailoring gamified systems to personality, and matchmaking for multiplayer games. To encourage a better workout, asynchronous experiences, where the gameplay and exercise occur at separate times, are also being designed and investigated. The experience of fun and social affiliation are good predictors of long-term intention to play, yet current player matching algorithms are poor at facilitating and utilizing social connectedness and grouping based on compatible characteristics. Grounded in psychological and sociological theories, we propose player matching based on personal characteristics as an attempt to create a more socially satisfying playing experience and address the retention problem. We start by exploring the effectiveness of pairing players based on personality types and simple game features such as competitive and cooperative team challenges. The results of our 60-day study show that grouping players based on similar personalities seems to increase the level of game engagement and retention compared to dissimilar ones. Using a storyboard approach, we further examined the effects of matching based on player types and various social features on increasing exergame retention. We found strong relationships between social game elements and player types. Correlational analyses demonstrated that the gamification element of "lottery", unlockable content, and "update and encouragement" was strongly related to the "Achiever" player type, while "virtual character", "custom goal" and "leaderboard" elements were most strongly related to both "Philanthropist" and "Socialiser" player types. We believe game designers can use these results and improve game and exercise adherence by offering more socially rewarding interactions between players through personalized features.


title: Analysis of Compressively Sensed Electrocardiogram for Detection of Atrial Fibrillation

abstract: Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are one of the leading causes of death in the world. Long-term ambulatory electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring enables timely medical interventions. Effective and efficient ambulatory ECG monitoring can be supported by compressive sensing, which can reduce battery consumption; however, the reconstruction of compressively sensed ECG could be a computationally intensive operation. Therefore, detection of CVDs in compressively sensed ECG is highly desirable. This thesis proposes a three-stage system based on machine learning for detecting atrial fibrillation (AF) in compressively sensed ECG while reducing false alarms (i.e., false positives) due to contamination and reducing reconstruction of the ECG. Stage 1 uses a novel signal quality index (SQI) to represent the quality of the compressively sensed ECG on a continuous scale and reject low-quality ECG. Stage 2 classifies the ECG as either AF or normal and generates an associated confidence score. Stage 3 selectively reconstructs the ECG when the Stage 2 confidence score is unacceptable and classifies the reconstructed ECG as either AF or normal. Clean ECG from Long-Term AF Database was artificially corrupted with simulated motion artifact to pre-set signal-to-noise ratios. The corrupted ECG was compressively sensed at 50% and 75% compression ratios (CRs). The system was evaluated using average precision (AP), the area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operator characteristic curve, false-positive rate (FPR), and true positive rate (TPR). The system was optimized to maximize the AP and minimize ECG rejection and reconstruction ratios. The optimized system for 50% CR had 0.72 AP, 0.63 AUC, 0.38 rejection ratio, and 0.38 reconstruction ratio. The optimized system for 75% CR had 0.72 AP, 0.63 AUC, 0.40 rejection ratio, and 0.35 reconstruction ratio. The optimized system reduced FPR by 0.37 for both CRs compared to Stage 2 alone. At a fixed FPR of 0.10, the TPR of the proposed system was 0.43 and 0.42 for 50% and 75% CRs, respectively, an improvement of 0.10 and 0.14 over Stage 2. The proposed system reduced the probability of false alarms (FPR) and detected AF in compressively sensed ECG (improved TPR) while being computationally efficient (low reconstruction ratio).


title: Making Sense of “Insanity”: A Genealogy of Canada’s Not Criminally Responsible Subject

abstract: In 2014, Stephen Harper's Conservative government introduced the Not Criminally Responsible Reform Act. Amongst the handful of changes instituted by the legislation, the Act created the "high-risk accused" designation that, when applied, heightens measures in the detention of the accused and transfers authority for their release from provincial review boards to criminal courts. While the new laws reflect the Harper government's "tough on crime" policy, they also point to the Not Criminally Responsible on Account of Mental Disorder (NCR) subject who, within the broader history of Canadian insanity law reform efforts, is unique in its ontological stability and governability. This dissertation historicizes Canada's NCR subject by investigating the often-overlooked period that preceded its introduction in 1992. By examining a variety of historical materials related to the country's insanity law reform efforts during the second half of the 20th century, this project reveals that developments during this period played an important role in constructing the governable NCR subject of today. Initially driven by the psy-entific optimism of the post-World War II era, failed efforts to reform the country's insanity laws grew increasingly problematic in the context of a number of changes, including the abolition of capital punishment, the deinstitutionalization of the psychiatric hospital, and a growing rights movement. In light of these mounting pressures, and combined with a move towards neoliberal rationalities of government in Canada beginning in the late 1960s, insanity law reform efforts shifted from attempts to decipher who the insane subject was, to questions regarding the best legal procedures and practices of its detention. In so doing, those deemed insane in the criminal legal context were increasingly understood as rights-bearing subjects that were amenable to constitutional logics. As a result, the NCR subject of today—who is ontologically stable and manageable through risk-based governance—can be understood as a product of this history.


title: Non-Invasive Motion Detection and Classification in NICU Patients using Ballistographic Signals from a Pressure Sensitive Mat

abstract: Patient movements can cause motion artifacts on physiological signals and can result in false alarms in a continuous patient monitoring environment. This thesis explores the use of centre of pressure (COP) signals from a pressure sensitive mat to (a) detect patient movement in real-time, and (b) classify the upper/lower directionality of movement. For (a), the sum-distance travelled by the COP is tracked over time using a sliding window with data from seven patients. Window-boundary-suppression led to improved motion detection with precision = 0.84 and recall = 0.71 with a window of 10 seconds. For (b), seven features were derived from the COP, and feature selection was done using out-of-bag-error ranking and sequential forward selection. It was found that using a sample imputation approach of adding ~13 minutes of hand-annotated new subject data to the training set makes the classifier most useful, producing accuracy = ~87.29%, precision = 0.90, and recall = 0.84.


title: Occurrence of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances in Cosmetics and Personal Care Products

abstract: Per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are highly fluorinated aliphatic substances that contain a perfluoralkyl moiety (CnF2n+1). This moiety imparts a unique suite of characteristics onto the PFAS such as hydrophobicity, lipophobicity, chemical and thermal stability. These characteristics make PFAS extremely useful in a wide range of industrial and commercial applications such as textiles and leather, paper and food packaging, fire-fighting foam, and cosmetics. Concern has been raised about PFAS because of their environmental persistence, global occurrence, and presence in human blood. Laboratory animal toxicology studies have found an association between PFAS and tumor development, developmental and hormonal effects, and immunotoxicity. The goal of this project was to expand and provide further evidence of the potential exposure to PFAS through cosmetic and personal care products.


title: Precision Cities: Responding Precisely to Human Needs

abstract: The main research problem this thesis addresses is that public engagement processes treat actor groups as homogenous as opposed to recognizing their unique differences and their positionality in local issues. The thesis posits that it is these differences that affect their ability to engage on issues of importance to those actor groups. The Vanier neighbourhood in Ottawa serves as a case study for this thesis, as it provides a microcosm into the complexities that arise in an environment comprising different interests, capacities, and capabilities of individuals and organizations. Precision Cities was introduced to this neighbourhood to create an engagement process for the Vanier community to collaborate in finding sustainable solutions capable of tackling food insecurity. The analysis of each actor group demonstrates the importance of creating personalized engagement strategies due to the distinctions between different actor groups in terms of what motivates and demotivates them to take community action.


title: Tactile Feedback Within Virtual Reality Training: An Immersive Study for Motorcycle Training

abstract: Motorcyclists are affiliated with higher fatality rates than drivers as motorcycles are more physically demanding due to their innate design. As virtual reality (VR) is being used to train professionals in numerous industries, it may be a potential training tool for novice trainees. Specific levels of tactile feedback have been seen to increase performance of specific skill in VR, although research on the effects of tactile feedback within the domain of motorcycle training and VR have not yet been investigated. To investigate the addition of tactile feedback on operator performance in VR, three groups of participants were trained on three different VR simulators with each differing in levels of tactile feedback. Low levels of tactile feedback contribute to better performance in motorcycle training, while higher levels of tactile feedback increase immersiveness, encouraging participants to treat the virtual reality simulation more as a training tool and less as a game.


title: Dwelling and Belonging: Government Housing Rooted in Place

abstract: This thesis explores how a strong sense of identity can be woven into the current government housing model in Halifax, Nova Scotia. By drawing on studies of affordable housing and theories of place and belonging the thesis asserts that place driven design can combat the uniformity, lack of specificity, and lack of key services and amenities that plague government housing practices. A design rooted in place and identity is suggested for the housing project of Demetreous Lane in Halifax's Dartmouth North. The housing development is critically adapted through a combination of interventions in existing units and additions and improvements on the site. This thesis asserts that through small scale interventions a greater level of connection to site and place can be achieved that will enrich the lives of its residents.


title: Applications of Optimal Mass Transportation in Geometric and Functional Inequalities

abstract: In this thesis, our aim is to first layout the framework of optimal transport, and then demonstrate its usefulness in proving functional inequalities. This approach is advantageous as it provides extremely efficient proofs, while requiring potentially less work than when using a classical approach. In particular, the optimal transport approach grants the ability to prove inequalities with sharp constants and pinpoints conditions for which they hold with equality. For example, in the case of the Gagliardo-Nirenberg-Sobolev (GNS) Inequality, optimal transport recovers the inequality for arbitrary norms in $\mathbb{R}^n$.


title: The Ecological Impacts and Effectiveness of Control Methods for the Invasive Macrophyte Myriophyllum spicatum in Eastern Ontario Lakes

abstract: In this thesis, the impacts a year after the treatments of both burlap benthic barriers and mechanical cutting of M. spicatum on physical, chemical, and biological components of eastern Ontario lakes were investigated. One lake was selected for studying the burlap barrier treatment, and three lakes were selected across a nutrient gradient for the mechanical harvesting treatment to observe links between total phosphorus concentrations and macrophyte-zooplankton dynamics. The impacts of the treatments on this invasive species were minimal but there was a clear shift in zooplankton assemblage to more open-water types following the barrier application. Results from both treatments displayed minimal impacts to localized abiotic factors and zooplankton assemblages. While the change in zooplankton community structure at Malcolm Lake did appear to be partially driven by the burlap barrier treatment, zooplankton communities within both types of treatments were instead mainly driven by their surrounding environmental variables and seasonal variance.


title: Deep Reinforcement Learning as Guidance for Aerospace Robotics

abstract: The ability for a manipulator-equipped chaser spacecraft to autonomously capture a target spacecraft is an unsolved prerequisite for space debris removal and on-orbit servicing. This thesis investigates using deep reinforcement learning (DRL) to improve the capabilities of a manipulator-equipped chaser at this task. DRL allows for behaviour to be learned, rather than designed, according to a simple reward function. DRL uses trial-and-error to learn the behaviour, which is not feasible to perform on-board a spacecraft. Training must therefore be performed in simulation with the resulting behaviour transferred to the spacecraft. Transferring the learned-in-simulation behaviour to a real robot, however, is difficult due to dynamics differences between the simulator and the real world, i.e., the simulation-to-reality gap. This thesis develops, over the course of four increasingly-difficult applications, a solution to the simulation-to-reality gap by restricting DRL to exclusively learn the guidance portion of the guidance, navigation, and control system needed for autonomous spacecraft operations. The first application is spacecraft proximity operations (without capture), where a DRL-based guidance strategy issuing desired velocity signals is designed, trained, and evaluated in simulation and experiment. Next, the DRL-based guidance strategy is improved upon and applied to a quadrotor proximity operations scenario. Here, it is demonstrated in simulation and experiment that desired acceleration signals lead to better performance compared to desired velocity signals. These two proof-of-concept results show the proposed DRL-based guidance strategy is viable for bringing DRL to real aerospace vehicles. Next, the DRL-based guidance strategy is applied to a more difficult scenario: a multi-agent cooperative quadrotor runway inspection task, where fault-tolerant behaviour is successfully learned and demonstrated in both simulation and a real, outdoor, GPS-driven quadrotor facility. Finally, with the now-developed DRL-based guidance strategy, the author returns to the central motivator for this research: autonomous manipulator-based capture of a spinning spacecraft. The DRL-based guidance strategy learns this task in simulation and is successfully transferred to an experimental facility where similar results are obtained. Additionally, capture is successful in experiment despite large perturbations and initial conditions not seen during training. Improvements to the experimental facility were performed to enable this research.