title: Ethics and Participation in Art: Reading the Migration Library and other methods

contributor:
Naaman, Dorit
Cultural Studies

subject:
research-creation
research ethics
art
art and migration
migration studies
refugee studies
asylum seekers
borderzones
social art
participatory art
visuality
visual methods
representation
arts-based research
creative writing
Agnes Etherington
dissertation portfolio
ethical turn
autoethnography
methodology

abstract: This dissertation portfolio provides a focused—albeit methodologically diverse—review of research ethics in the context of participatory art, including research-creation and social art practices. Focusing on a case of intense ethical demand involving the creative representation of people who are making asylum and refugee claims, this project makes a unique contribution to research on research ethics as it applies to arts-based projects. This portfolio includes a set of stand-alone manuscripts linked by creative texts that situate the work in both creative and theoretical contexts. The manuscripts include a critical review of the development of research ethics review processes for research-creation in Canada; a commentary on aesthetic approaches to ethics in participatory art following the ethical turn in philosophy; and an artist statement for a new and ongoing research-creation project called Reading the Migration Library. The poetic and hybrid-form texts that are interwoven with the manuscripts situate the work in the context of Indigenous resurgence inside of academia, leading up to and following the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada and concomitant with recent revelations of research misconduct directly affecting Indigenous communities and individuals. Using alternate forms of academic writing including poetry and autoethnography, this portfolio is a contribution to methodological experimentation in cultural studies and arts-based research. The multiple methods employed demonstrate how critical and creative researchers’ ethical engagement in settings of intense ethical demand is deepened and enhanced through methodological antecedents including disjunctures, epistolary and first-person forms, genealogy, place-based theories, refusal, relationality, and strategic silences. The fieldwork, including Reading the Migration Library, was completed during 2016 and 2017 with artists and arts organizers associated with the Immigration/Emigration artists-in-residence program of Santa Fe Art Institute in New Mexico. The research also included partnership with cultural groups in the cities of New Westminster and Vancouver in British Columbia.

abstract: PhD


title: A Field and Numerical Study of Heat and Solute Transport in a Discrete Fracture

contributor:
Novakowski, Kent
Civil Engineering

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

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

rights: Intellectual Property Guidelines at Queen's University

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

subject:
groundwater
fractured rock
heat transport
solute transport

abstract: Two tracer experiments were conducted in a highly-transmissive discrete rock fracture to explore the transport properties of solute and heat, and the influence of fracture heterogeneities. The experiments were conducted between two boreholes located approximately 10 m apart in a granitic gneiss. The discrete fracture used for the experiments was identified from prior pulse interference testing and geophysical logging. Test sections were minimized in both boreholes to isolate the discrete feature. Heat and solute tracers were applied simultaneously in the same divergent flow field developed by injecting water (6-10 Lpm). Both solute and thermal breakthrough were observed with peak arrival within ½ hour for solute and within two hours for heat. Based on the analytical analysis of pulse interference tests that were conducted prior to the experiments (in the same test section), hydraulic conditions measured during the experiments, and the results of the solute breakthroughs, a complicated fracture geometry with channelized flow was suggested. Numerical analysis conducted with uniform aperture and a radial flow field did not fit either of the tracers, so variable aperture configurations were investigated. Channelized flow fields with variable aperture provided reasonable fits for both solute and heat breakthrough curves. The tracers, however, were fit using different fracture geometry. The best fit for the heat tracer was achieved using a 0.2 m-wide channel with a 4.0 mm aperture and an unrealistic matrix thermal conductivity of 28 W/mK. The best fit for the solute tracer was achieved using a 5 m-wide channel, 1.4 mm aperture and a longitudinal dispersivity of 1 m. Both fits were achieved with similar hydraulic head rises to those measured during the field experiments. The substantial difference in flow geometry, and the need to use an unrealistic thermal conductivity is not easily attributed to any known feature of the flow system.

abstract: M.A.Sc.


title: Distinguishing Ritual from Theatre

contributor:
Walker, Craig
Cultural Studies

subject:
ritual
performance theory
affect theory
performative utterances
indoctrination
Schechner
theatre
willing suspension of disbelief

abstract: This paper begins by analyzing Richard Schechner’s distinguishing features of ritual and theatrical performances, specifically regarding audience participation, audience belief, and intention of the performance to determine if these are truly accurate predictors of ritual and theatre. Specifically, the question of “belief” is raised.  The ways in which audiences suspend disbelief in different types of performances is questioned and alternative ways of approaching (dis)belief in performance theory are proposed. Schechner’s efficacy/entertainment theory is updated using affect theory and performative utterances, thereby bringing emotional immediacy and authenticity into Schechner’s model. Building from the emotional significance of different performance types, this thesis posits that the lasting effects of ritual and theatre differ due to the disparity between the respective emotional affects of ritual and theatre performances. The research suggests that in some cases, ritual performance has the power to indoctrinate audiences that theatrical performance usually does not. The Eight Model Plays of Cultural Revolution China and City Christian Church Toronto’s baptism and Sunday service rituals serve as case studies through which this expanded theory of performance is tested.

abstract: M.A.


title: Soil from the Yellowknife, NT Region: Spatial Distribution of Arsenic, Characterization of Solid Phase Arsenic Hosts, and Distinguishing Giant and Con Mine Contamination

contributor: Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering

subject:
arsenic
soil
Yellowknife
roaster emissions
anthropogenic arsenic

abstract: Historical gold mining in the Yellowknife, Northwest Territories region has led to a legacy of arsenic contamination in the region. Roasting of arsenopyrite hosting gold ore released arsenic trioxide (As2O3) via airborne emissions. Recent studies have highlighted the persistence of As2O3 in local sediments and surface waters. However, questions remain regarding the regional extent and nature of arsenic in soils from the region. The main objective of this research is to report the concentration and speciation of arsenic in 311 near-surface soil samples collected within 30 km of Yellowknife. Soil samples were cored from locations that were undisturbed by recent human activities to minimize the influence of recent post-mining activities and to examine the effect of natural processes and the legacy of airborne emissions from former ore roasting. Analyses in this study focused on the Public Health Layer (PHL), which is defined as the top 5 cm of material. The arsenic concentrations for the region varied widely, ranging from 1.0 to 4,700 mg/kg. Statistical analysis indicates the distance from former ore roasters, soil horizon depth, terrain unit, and the relative direction the sample was collected from Giant Mine are the most significant factors on arsenic concentrations in the PHL. The dominant arsenic species in the soil samples are roaster-derived iron oxides containing arsenic, As2O3, and natural iron oxides. Of the samples completed for detailed mineralogy, 57% (n = 44) of samples analyzed contain 80% or greater anthropogenic arsenic (i.e. a combination of roaster-derived iron oxides and arsenic trioxide). These data suggest the current background arsenic value of 150 mg/kg (GNWT, 2003), which is over 12 times the Canadian Environmental Quality Guideline of 12 mg/kg for soil (CCME, 2015), should be revisited. Additionally, the remediation guidelines of 160 and 340 mg/kg for residential and industrial areas, respectively, (GNWT, 2003) should also be revisited. This study provides data that can support future risk assessments to human and ecological health from arsenic-derived stack emissions.

abstract: M.Sc.


title: Biosynthesis of Prodiginine and Tambjamine Natural Products in Pseudoalteromonas Sp.

contributor:
Ross, Avena
Biomedical and Molecular Sciences

subject:
Biosynthesis
Natural Products
Enzymology
Biosynthetic Enzymes
Prodiginine
Tambjamine
PigC
TamQ
Pseudoalteromonas

abstract: Prodiginines and tambjamines are two classes of pigmented natural products that display structural variety and hold many useful bioactivities, making them a desirable target for pharmaceutical agents. Enzymes PigC and TamQ are responsible for the final step in prodiginine and tambjamine biosynthesis respectively, involving the coupling of a product specific intermediate to the shared intermediate 4-methoxy-2,2’-bipyrrole-5-carbaldehyde. Previous investigations have focused solely on PigC and have not successfully purified the enzyme, inciting the use of crude cell lysate to test enzyme activity. The objectives of this research were to directly compare the kinetic characteristics and substrate selectivity of PigC and TamQ. PigC was cloned from Pseudoalteromonas rubra, a known producer of several prodiginine analogues. TamQ was cloned from Pseudoalteromonas citrea, which is predicted to produce tambjamine YP1 based on genomic mining. PigC and TamQ were successfully heterologously expressed and purified, and enzymatic activities of both PigC and TamQ were reconstituted with their native and pseudo-native substrates. The true kinetic parameters of two substrates for PigC were determined, allowing for prediction of the reaction sequence and a proposed Ter Bi Ping Pong enzyme system. PigC also demonstrated some substrate flexibility by accepting a synthetic halogenated analogue in addition to its natural substrate 2-methyl-3-amyl-pyrrole (MAP). Apparent kinetic values for TamQ were obtained using a close analogue of its native substrate. Additionally, the enzyme could accept and turnover the PigC substrate MAP, though, the structure of the reaction product has yet to be determined. Three other biosynthetic enzymes involved in tambjamine YP1 (TamA, TamT, and TamH) construction were cloned from P. citrea and expressed for future functionality studies. Lastly, a novel cyclized variant of tambjamine YP1 was isolated from P. citrea. The complete structure of this compound was determined by NMR and X-ray crystallography analysis.

abstract: M.Sc.


title: Europe in Hard Times: Institutional Reconfiguration in the European Union since the 2008 Great Recession

contributor:
Amyot, Grant G.
Political Studies

subject:
European Union
Comparative Political Economy
Financial Crisis
Great Recession
2008 crisis
European Integration Theory

abstract:
The 2008 Great Recession was the trigger for the first real stress test of the European Monetary Union. The eurozone and the European Union were faced with a succession of three crises: financial, banking, and sovereign debt. Faced with the real possibility of the exit of multiple members, or the complete implosion of the common currency; members-states undertook the biggest economic institutional change since the Treaty of Maastricht. Briefly: in spite of the negative media, political and academic coverage, how can we explain that the EU responses to the euro area and to the banking and sovereign debt crisis were not only to keep the union intact, but to reinforce and expand the Europeanization process?
To make sense of the institutional outcomes of the crisis, I borrow from the approach of Peter Gourevitch in his classic Politics in Hard Times. Hard times are a catalyst for institutional change. During a crisis, the various actors enter a period of flux where the existing coalitions are subject to a realignment. The actors involved have a range of policy choices to come to terms with the crisis. These options are shaped by the institutional legacy, and by the specifics of the coalition realignment. When the crisis is resolved or when the crisis fades out, the new coalitions crystallize and they remain in place during easier times. While Gourevitch applied his framework to societal groups within a state, I bring my analysis to the second level and I look at coalitions of member-states within the European Union. In this dissertation, I argue that the international economic context of the crisis created a period of flux where existing coalitions of member-states in Europe broke down. During the crisis, new coalitions emerged along the debtor-creditor axis. The range of policy options are arranged along a security-solidarity axis. Coalitions had to enter into negotiations and the results of these negotiations are the EFSF, ESM, Six-Pack and Two-Pack, and the banking union. Between the five of them, they are the solutions to the problems created by the financial, banking, and sovereign debt crises.

abstract: PhD


title: Sleep Contributions to Hippocampal Gist Extraction

subject:
sleep
memory
gist extraction
memory reorganization

abstract: To better understand the world, humans scan the information contents of our experiences for patterns, corresponding to the extraction of gist, or essential meaning (Brainerd & Reyna, 1990). Research suggests that some forms of gist extraction require several hours, and even sleep for further processing (Ellenbogen et al., 2007; Payne et al., 2009), perhaps becoming subsequently reactivated in the hippocampus (Marshall & Born, 2007). Interestingly, the hippocampus may itself be functionally specialized for gist extraction in its anterior segment (Poppenk et al., 2013). The current study investigated the role of the anterior/posterior hippocampus and sleep stages in predicting patterns of change in gist memory over the course of a week. To assess this link, I identified four types of gist (inferential, statistical, multi-item, and single-item) that were described in recent reviews (Landmann et al., 2014; Stickgold & Walker, 2013). 104 participants were recruited, 67 of whom passed eligibility criteria and completed three behavioural sessions (evening before sleep, 12 hours later in the morning after sleep, and one week after the first session) and an MRI several weeks later as part of a broader battery of tasks. I found evidence that inferential gist in a transitive inference task increased over time, suggesting that new information is being formed. I also found that REM, rather than slow-wave sleep, predicted gist extraction in a number of different tasks. Lastly, hippocampal volumes predicted immediate rather than delayed gist extraction.

abstract: M.Sc.


title: Data Use in Ontario School Board Improvement Plans

contributor:
Pyper, Jamie
Education

subject:
Data Use
Board Improvement Plans
Ontario School Boards

abstract:
Board improvement plans (BIP) are documents which include goals and actions to improve student achievement and well-being within a school board. School boards in Ontario are encouraged to use data to make informed educational decisions about their students, educators, and schools to improve education. However, how data are used in board improvement planning is unknown. The purpose of this research is to explore the role of data in board improvement planning to gain an understanding of how data are used at the board level of the Ontario school system. To understand the role of data at the board level, the main research question is: What is the role of data in board improvement planning?

Data were collected from three sources for this exploratory case study: three principal interviews, document analysis of relevant Ministry documents, and document analysis of 18 BIPs. Interviews were inductively coded and used to deductively analyze Ministry documents. BIPs were analyzed following the iterative process of skimming, reading, and interpretation using elements of content and thematic analysis.

The three themes discovered during interview analysis and used to explore Ministry documents were: functional development of BIPs, relational aspect of BIPs, and data path in BIPs. From document analysis, four broad types of data were found: board-wide student achievement data, board-wide student well-being data, school level data, and classroom level student data. With respect to the uses of data, data were used to identify, plan, and monitor. Lastly, data were found to be interpreted by examining trends (deconstructing and comparing) and through triangulation (multiple sources and in teams). In conclusion, the results provide evidence that multiple types of data are being used for board improvement planning, for various different uses, with different ways of interpreting the data.

abstract: M.Ed.


title: Improvement of the capabilities of inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry for the analysis of complex matrices and for single particle analysis

contributor:
Beauchemin, Diane
Chemistry

subject:
ICP-OES
Single particle analysis
Method development
12 M KOH
Base matrix
Mixed-gas plasma

abstract:
The objective of this thesis is to explore new applications of inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES).
1.	The first application involved the development of a method for the direct bulk analysis of a 12 M KOH zincate electrolyte fuel, which is used for green energy backup systems. By using flow injection analysis in combination with an inert sample introduction system, the concentrations of additives (Al, Fe, Mg, In, Si) and corrosion products (Zn2+ and CO32-) were quantified. However, accurate determination of all elemental concentrations was unsuccessful due to suppression from the matrix.
2.	The second application focused on exploring and enhancing the capabilities of single particle ICP-OES analysis for the characterization of the particles filtered from the 12 M KOH zincate electrolyte fuel. A conventional pure argon plasma and Ar-N2-N2/H2 mixed gas plasma were compared with regards to sensitivity, detection limit, and robustness to establish which operating conditions minimize the detectable particle mass. The effect of infrared heating the sample aerosol in the spray chamber and base of the torch was explored to increase transport efficiency and reduce the noise arising from aerosol processing within the plasma that would degrade detectable particle mass. Two surfactants were also explored to stabilize and disperse particles in solution.

abstract: M.Sc.


title: ‘STICKY WORDS’ AND TWISTED TONGUES: Rhetoric, Symbols, and Regime Resilience in Post-Genocide Rwanda

contributor:
McGarry, John
Political Studies

subject:
Rwanda
Great Lakes of Africa
Post-conflict state-building
Authoritarianism
Ethnic control
Political rhetoric
Discursive legitimation
Social Control

abstract:
This dissertation examines the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front’s construction and deployment of political rhetoric and symbols as key facets of authoritarian resilience and ethnic ‘control’ in post-genocide Rwanda. It identifies four overlapping and mutually reinforcing rhetorical ‘pillars’ that comprise Rwanda’s ‘public relations machine.’ These include: historical closure, and the promotion of a singular ‘Truth’; neo-traditionalism, and the ‘revival’ of pre-colonial values and practices to shape notions of model citizenship; national unity and reconciliation, and the ‘restoration’ of a unifying Rwandan identity; and economic development in line with the ‘Singaporean miracle’. Relatedly, the dissertation scrutinizes how the PR machine weaves together these pillars to craft a narrative of Rwanda’s recovery that reproduces power at home, and generates support for regime persistence abroad, despite the government of Rwanda’s questionable human rights record, authoritarian tendencies, and entrenched (albeit veiled) structures of ethnic domination. In addition to ‘building’ the PR machine, the dissertation also examines whether its content and deployment has shifted during the RPF’s nearly 25-years in power. It finds a striking continuity in the RPF’s rhetorical universe during ‘normal’ and emergency periods, the main difference being the regime’s ‘securitization’ of its rhetorical repertoire during ‘episodes of contestation’, while defining itself as the true guardian of public order.

From a theoretical perspective, the dissertation contributes to a burgeoning comparative literature on authoritarian durability by presenting Rwanda as an example of resilient ‘hegemonic authoritarianism’ and ethnic ‘control’, and by treating rhetorical displays of power as central to political processes rather than epiphenomenal. In this way, the dissertation also distinguishes itself from Ian Lustick’s classical account of ‘control’, which ignores the central role of legitimation discourse as a key endurance tool. Finally, by exploring (dis)continuities in regime rhetoric over time, the dissertation contributes to a small body of literature on rhetorical path dependency, which focuses on established democracies. My initial analysis of Rwanda suggests that autocrats, like democratic leaders, may suffer high costs when they deviate from an established rhetorical path, meaning that words, like institutions, are often ‘sticky.’ This renders wholesale transformations in publically-deployed ideology unlikely, especially when a regime experiences positive gains.

abstract: PhD


title: On the Detectability of Density Distributions of Asteroids and SAGD Reservoirs Using Gravimetry and MUON Tomography

subject:
Density Distribution
Asteroids
Itokawa
Gravimetry
Muon Tomography
SAGD reservoir

abstract:
In this thesis, the procedures of modelling density distributions for different targets are investigated. In the process of evaluating density distributions of asteroids, gravity forward modelling shows that homogeneous and heterogeneous distributions are distinguishable. Also, this study demonstrates that muon tomography forward and inversion modelling of SAGD reservoirs could be used for monitoring fluid migration and bitumen depletion in the subsurface.

Two different asteroids and spherical models with homogeneous and heterogeneous density distributions are investigated and the resulting surface gravitational accelerations are calculated. The asteroid forward modelling assists in the analysis of surface gravimetry sensitivity, by studying the heterogeneity of asteroids and surface boulder detectability. Results indicate that asteroids with heterogeneous and homogeneous density distributions are distinguishable. However, a gravimeter with sub-mGal accuracy is needed to sense asteroid surface gravity. Results show that a boulder of 8 m3 causes gravitational accelerations on the order of µGal and is not detectable using gravimetry with sub-mGal accuracy.

A real SAGD density model is used at two time steps and forward modelled using muon tomography. This results in maps of opacity and muon count in a 2D plane view of the reservoir. The forward modelled 2D image arrays, used to construct the 2D reservoir plane view at surface, estimate bitumen depletion around wellbores during the raising phase and the spreading phase.  The depletion patterns in the reservoir are studied by testing different arrays of muon sensors in the in-line and cross-line directions. Results show that depletion trends can be resolved with high resolution by using 120 sensors and also when using 60 sensors with a reduced resolution.  In the inversion modeling approach, 3D density change models are estimated using 2D opacity image arrays as observations. The depletion trends around wellbores are determined individually until the reservoir reaches the spreading phase when depletion areas become interconnected.

abstract: M.A.Sc.


title: Aldehyde Dehydrogenase 2 Knockout Mice as a   Potential Model of Vascular Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's Disease

contributor:
Bennett, Brian
Biomedical and Molecular Sciences

subject:
Alzheimer's Disease
Vascular Cognitive Impairment
Oxidative Stress

abstract: Oxidative stress causes tissue damage in several models of vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) and in age-related Alzheimer’s disease (AD). We have developed a novel oxidative stress-based mouse model of age-related cognitive impairment based on gene deletion of aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2). ALDH2 is important for the detoxification of endogenous aldehydes such as 4-hydroxynonenal (HNE), a lipid peroxidation product formed during oxidative stress that can form protein adducts, altering cell function. These mice exhibit age-related decreases in performance in recognition and spatial memory tasks beginning at 3 months of age and maximal at 6-7 months as well as changes in anxiety-like behavior. These changes are not a result of confounding changes in motor function or physical phenotype. Executive dysfunction, an early impairment seen in VCI, has also been exhibited in Aldh2-/- mice as demonstrated by a lack of reversal learning in the Morris Water Maze task and impairments in the attentional set shifting task. With respect to vascular pathologies, previous studies found that 9-12-month-old Aldh2-/- mice exhibit aortic endothelial dysfunction, and arterial hypercontractility, HNE adduct formation and age-related amyloid-β (Aβ) deposition in cerebral microvessels. Echocardiographic analysis and radiotelemetry indicated diastolic dysfunction, and elevated systolic, diastolic and mean arterial pressure at 12 months of age in male Aldh2-/- mice. Finally, we have shown that cognitive impairment can be mitigated using three novel therapeutic strategies: an HNE scavenger (AG-01), deuterated polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) to slow the lipid peroxidation chain reaction, and 4-methyl-5-(2-(nitrooxy) ethyl) thiazol-3-ium chloride (NMZ) to activate CREB signalling. A validated, oxidative stress-based animal model of cognitive impairment and age-related AD and VCI will allow greater insight into the pathogenesis and molecular/cellular mechanisms of these neurological conditions.

abstract: PhD


title: Characterization and modeling of near-field BLEVE overpressure and ground loading hazards

contributor:
Birk, Albrecht Michael
Heymes, Frédéric
Mechanical and Materials Engineering

subject:
BLEVE
explosion
experiment
modeling
fluid mechanics
thermodynamics
phase change
superheat
shock wave

abstract: Boiling Liquid Exploding Vapor Explosion (BLEVE) is one of the most feared accident in the industry. Even though it has been studied for over 6 decades, many safety questions remain poorly answered: what happens if a BLEVE occurs in a congested urban or industrial area? What if a road tanker BLEVE happens on a bridge? These questions require to look closer to the vessel. This work focuses on understanding the physics involved in overpressure generation in the near field surrounding of the vessel, to understand the contribution of the fluid phases (liquid and vapor) in the near-field hazards of a BLEVE. For this purpose, a small scale experimental prototype was designed to reproduce realistic BLEVE failure. Twenty-four propane BLEVEs were performed. A wide range of data was recorded from these tests: blast overpressure all around the vessel, transient pressure inside the vessel, ground loading under the vessel, and high speed imaging through various angles. Results give more insight on the anisotropy of the pressure field around the cylindrical vessel. It also shows a strong dependency between vapor content and maximum overpressure from the lead shock. Moreover, the chronology of the phase change observed through transient pressure measurements show that the main contributor of the maximum overpressure is the vapor phase. The phase change is studied through pressure transient in the vessel and high speed imaging, giving a better understanding of the time scales involved with this phenomenon. Finally, ground loading measurements are analyzed to give insight on the order of magnitude involved in this hazard.

abstract: PhD


title: Making 'Mr. Hockey': Race, Gender, Class, and Nation in Media Representations of Gordie Howe

contributor:
Adams, Mary Louise
Kinesiology and Health Studies

subject:
Hockey
Canadian History
Race
Gender
Class
Canadian National Identity
Whiteness
Gordie Howe
Masculinity

abstract:
In this dissertation I study media representations of Gordie Howe, also known as
‘Mr. Hockey,’ who has been an idealized image of a hockey player and a ‘true’ Canadian
during the Canadian postwar era. By taking Howe as my subject of research, I investigate
the cultural meanings of white hockey playing men and their connection to Canadian
national identity. My primary research question is: What can we learn about white
masculinity and its persistent centrality to Canadian national identity by looking at cultural
representations of Gordie Howe? To address this question, I conducted a discourse analysis
of media representations of Howe during his playing career (1946-1980) in order to
understand the raced, gendered, and classed processes that perpetually exalt white men
like Howe as symbols of a dominant, Anglo Canadian identity. My central argument is that
Gordie Howe’s image reproduced discourses of nation, class, gender, and race that
positioned white, Anglo Canadian men as naturally ‘civilized’ and superior to women and
non-Anglo and/or racialized men, and that his image, therefore, contributed to discursive
formations in which white, Anglo masculinity was central to dominant, Anglo Canadian
identity in the postwar era. Ultimately, this dissertation demonstrates that it is not ‘natural’
or inevitable that white male hockey players like Howe, Wayne Gretzky, and Sidney Crosby
continually emerge as powerful representations of dominant, Anglo Canadianness, but that
they are products of broader processes of colonialism, patriarchy, racialization and
capitalism that have and continue to reproduce hockey players as ‘heroes’ whose
whiteness and maleness makes them somehow more Canadian than people who are
represented through ‘other’ categories of identity.

abstract: PhD


title: The biological treatment of synthetic fracking fluid in an extractive membrane bioreactor: selective transport and biodegradation of hydrophobic and hydrophilic contaminants

contributor:
Daugulis, Andrew
Chemical Engineering

subject:
Biodegradation
Bioreactors
Extractive Membrane Bioreactors
Membranes
Separation
Hydraulic Fracturing
Environmental Remediation
Biological Treatment
Waste Water
Biochemical Engineering

abstract:
Hydraulic fracturing involves the use of horizontal drilling techniques and high-pressure liquid injections to stimulate the production of natural gas through the resultant micro-fracturing networks in tight formations. Hydraulic fracturing wastewaters (HFWs) often contain a diverse hydrocarbon profile, low molecular weight organic acids, and geogenic inorganic materials (salts) at low pH.

The diversity and variation of recalcitrant compounds within HFWs have made them difficult to remediate biologically due to the inhibitory effects imparted on microbial systems. Currently, there is a lack of effective remediation/disposal strategies capable of treating these heterogeneous wastes. This work proposes extractive membrane bioreactors (EMBs) as an innovative HFW treatment method. EMBs operate by selectively separating toxic waste streams from microbial systems preventing inhibition, while simultaneously sequestering and transporting the organic content via thermodynamic partitioning across polymer membranes.

Characterization of the suitability of various grades of Hytrel™ polymer tubing for EMB applications was undertaken based on polymer water content, molecular transport/retention, and thermodynamic affinity for a range of putative HFW components including acids, bases, salts, organic acids and other organic species. High water content polymers (=30% equilibrated water) were able to transport ionic species, facilitating the rapid transport of monovalent salts, while low water content polymers did not. A demonstration of the transport/retention capabilities of organic species and ions by low water content Hytrel™ tubing was exploited to concentrate dilute butyric acid, achieving a 220% concentration increase from initial dilute aqueous concentrations through chemical dissociation after 48 hours.

An EMB utilizing Hytrel™ 3548 tubing was employed for the biological treatment of frequently occurring, representative hydrophilic and hydrophobic organic contaminants at hyper-saline salt
concentrations. A microbial consortium capable of degrading representative HFW compounds (benzene, phenol, methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) and acetic acid) was generated and identified using genetic sequencing. EMBs were then operated in both batch and continuous configurations, obtaining 99% biodegradation ofiii benzene and phenol after 72 hours, MEK biodegradation of =96% and acetic acid removal up to its ionization point. Successful treatment of synthetic hydraulic fracturing wastewater demonstrated the effectiveness in utilizing amphiphilic polymers in EMBs when treating complex fluids containing hydrophilic and hydrophobic organic fractions.

abstract: M.A.Sc.


title: Characterization the Laser Cleaning Effects on Sandstone From the Canadian Parliament Building

contributor:
Murray, Alison
Art Conservation

subject:
laser cleaning
sandstone
black crust

abstract: Laser cleaning has been used in the rehabilitation and conservation program of the Canadian Parliament Buildings in order to remove the black crust on sandstone surfaces. This study was carried out to characterize the effect of laser cleaning on sandstone from the Canadian Parliament Buildings. First, characteristics of the sandstone and the black crust itself were studied using microscopy, x-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS). Two kinds of sandstone samples, Berea/Ohio sandstone and Nepean sandstone, were taken from the West Block of the Parliament Buildings for testing. The results showed that the black crust was a very thin layer covering the surface of the quartz grains and also filling the gaps between the quartz grains on the surface of the sandstone. The characteristic elements of the black crust were sulfur (S), calcium (Ca), iron (Fe), and lead (Pb). Copper (Cu) and chlorine Cl were detected in some samples. Gypsum in the black crust was confirmed by the back-scattered electron (BSE) images. The Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy results indicated that the organic materials of the black crust contained hydrocarbon oil. Second, surface morphology and elemental composition before and after laser cleaning were studied by microscopy, XRF, and SEM-EDS. The cleaning effect of three laser cleaning systems was discussed in terms of cleaning effectiveness and damage to the sandstone. The results showed that the black crust on the Berea/Ohio sandstone and the Nepean sandstone can be removed by using the LaserArt-100 Cleaning System, the main focus of the study, but that residues of the black crust were still found on the cleaned surface and caused the color of cleaned surface was darker than the fresh sandstone surface. Gypsum crystals were also identified on the cleaned surfaces. XRF and SEM-EDS results indicated that the characteristic elements of the black crust still existed in the residues. No direct damage was found on the cleaned surface. The results of the RILEM tests showed the water absorption rate of the cleaned Berea/Ohio sandstone was increased significantly after laser cleaning. The water absorption rate of the cleaned Nepean sandstone was a little higher than that of the black crust surface, which was near zero. The sandstone would be vulnerable to weathering caused by water when water absorption rate increased. Therefore, keeping some residues during the laser cleaning would benefit the long-term preservation of the sandstone surface because the residues can prevent water infiltration

abstract: M.A.C.


title: Zinc exposure increases resistance to polymyxins in Pseudomonas aeruginosa through activation of the arn operon and two-component regulatory systems

contributor:
Poole, Keith
Biomedical and Molecular Sciences

rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States

subject:
Pseudomonas
Zinc
Polymyxin
Antibiotic resistance

abstract: Metal cations have long been known to play a role in driving antibiotic resistance.  The metal cation Zn2+ has previously been shown to drive antibiotic resistance in various bacterial species, including the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa, but never to polymyxins.  Here, we have investigated the effect of ZnCl2 on polymyxin resistance in P. aeruginosa.  Weeklong exposure to 2 mM ZnCl2 elicited thousand-fold increases in polymyxin resistance frequency in P. aeruginosa wild type lab strain K767 and clinical strain K2153, but not wild type lab strain PA14; this effect is Zn-specific and could not be reproduced with MgCl2.  Additionally, this effect appears to be specific to P. aeruginosa, as Zn-driven polymyxin resistance could not be elicited in Stenotrophomonas maltophilia strain K1199, nor Escherichia coli strain K193 and K155.  However, ZnCl2-exposed polymyxin-resistant strains did not show increased tolerance to growth in 2mM ZnCl2.  Using knockout strains, the two-component regulatory systems ColRS, PmrAB, and ParRS were found to be necessary for the increase in polymyxin resistance frequency to occur in response to ZnCl2; the arnBCADTEF operon which controls polymyxin resistance is also necessary.  arnB was found to be upregulated 2 to 3-fold in several of the ZnCl2-exposed, polymyxin-resistant mutant strains.  As well, those strains where arnB was upregulated also harboured a parR point mutation, suggesting this mutation may be responsible for polymyxin resistance.  Using a parR knockout strain, ParR was found to be necessary for the upregulation of arnB by Zn.  Overall, these data suggest that ZnCl2 plays an important role in driving polymyxin resistance in P. aeruginosa.

abstract: M.Sc.


title: A New Approach to Make Starch Graft Copolymers via Nitroxide-Mediated Polymerization

contributor:
Cunningham, Michael
Chemical Engineering

subject:
Polymerization
Starch
Nitroxide-Mediated Polymerization
RDRP
Grafting
Polysaccharides
Modification

abstract:
Starch is one of the most abundant polysaccharides worldwide next to cellulose. Starch bio-polymers are sustainable, biodegradable, and abundant, but are often chemically modified to improve the physical or chemical properties. Cold water-soluble starch (CWS) is a starch variant of industrial relevance for applications including paper coatings, but the high viscosity of starch solutions limits the amount of starch that can be incorporated. It was hypothesized that the graft modification of CWS would make it more industrially useful. Starch was modified using both grafting from and grafting to approaches using nitroxide-mediated polymerization (NMP). NMP is a type of reversible-deactivation radical polymerization which allows greater control over molecular weight distribution and dispersity compared to free radical polymerization. In this work, bio-synthetic copolymers of starch were targeted with high starch contents to preserve the sustainability of the materials. The bio-synthetic polymers could have applications in sustainable paper coating latexes, in green emulsion formulations, or in wastewater treatment.
In the grafting from approach, CWS was modified with 4-vinylbenzyl chloride (VBC) and 2-methyl-2-[N-tertbutyl-N-(diethoxy-phosphoryl-2,2-dimethylpropyl)-aminoxy] propionic acid initiator before graft polymerization with methyl methacrylate-co-styrene, methyl acrylate, and acrylic acid. The (co)polymerisations were well controlled showing linear reaction kinetics and relatively low dispersities (<1.5). Decreasing the monomer concentrations decreased the grafted polymer dispersity. By varying the polymerization time or monomer concentration, bio-synthetic polymeric materials with tunable graft polymer content were produced.
In the grafting to approach, poly(2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate) (PDMAEMA) or poly(2-(diethylaminoethyl) methacrylate) (PDEAEMA) were synthesized via NMP and reacted with VBC modified CWS. Low grafting reaction substitutions and thereby the low grafting densities were observed which were inherently due to the grafting to method used. The final grafted materials had high starch contents. The grafted materials were shown to be pH-responsive by titration, switching from positive zeta-potential at low pH to negative zeta-potential at high pH.  The measured zero zeta-potential intersect at the polymer pKaH corresponded well with literature for PDMAEMA but poorly for PDEAEMA, indicating precipitation of the PDEAEMA grafted CWS. PDMAEMA and PDEAEMA grafted CWS were shown to be good candidates for CO2-switchable bio-materials.

abstract: M.A.Sc.


title: Advances in objectively measured movement behaviours in children

contributor:
Janssen, Ian
Kinesiology and Health Studies

subject:
Physical activity
Sedentary behaviour
Sleep
Movement behaviours
Children
Adolescents
Pediatric
Methodology
Accelerometer
Actigraphy
Health

abstract:
The objectives of this thesis were: 1) to develop and apply a novel method for objectively measuring the time children and adolescents spend engaged in different types of physical activity, 2) to develop and validate an algorithm that can be used to assess sleep efficiency in children and adolescents using a waist-worn accelerometer, and 3) to determine if using multiple imputation to replace missing accelerometer data influences estimates of sedentary time and associations with health indicators in children and adolescents.
Manuscript one describes the development of a methodological approach that can be used to concurrently measure the time that children and adolescents participate in outdoor active play, active travel, curriculum-based physical activity, and organized sport. This measurement approach provides researchers with a new opportunity to measure and study the time that children and adolescents spend in different types of physical activity.
In manuscript two, the methodological approach developed in manuscript one was applied to the full sample of children and adolescents from the Active Play Study. This paper provides descriptive estimates of the time that children spend participating in different types of physical activity, the movement intensity composition of these different types of physical activity, and the extent to which these types of physical activity contribute to children’s overall movement.
Manuscript three describes the development and cross-validation of a sleep efficiency algorithm for the waist-worn Actical accelerometer. This algorithm will allow researchers to use the same waist-worn accelerometer to measure children and adolescents’ 24-hour movement behaviours.
	Manuscript four describes the application of a multiple imputation approach to impute accelerometer epochs that occurred during “non-wear” periods. These results suggest that removing non-wear accelerometer data leads to meaningfully lower estimates of sedentary time and biases the association between sedentary time and cardiometabolic risk towards the null.
	Collectively, this thesis research has developed and applied novel measurement and analytical tools to overcome some of the major limitations in assessing the 24-hour movement behaviours of children and adolescents. This opens up many new possibilities for researchers to continue to explore how 24-hour movement behaviours are related to health in children and adolescents.

abstract: PhD


title: Making Home: Performance, Sociability, and Identity in St. John’s, Newfoundland, 1810-1860.

contributor:
Errington, Jane
History

subject:
Newfoundland
St. John's
Nineteenth Century
Social History
Colonial Societies

abstract:
St. John’s, Newfoundland underwent an economic and cultural transformation in the early nineteenth century. With a growing year-round resident population, and mercantile operations increasingly headquartered out the town, St. John’s began to take on the appearance and infrastructure of a colonial town rather than a temporary summer fishing outpost. “Making Home” explores an emerging middle class’s attempts to change the town itself to reflect their values and ideals, and it charts the performances and expressions of identity that took place on the ground. The thesis examines how, in the years between 1810 and 1860, St. John’s rising middle class created a sense of space and place: how they thought of their local environment, and how they defined it in relation to the wider world. In short, how they made a home and how they saw themselves within that home. It does this by analyzing a selection of the events and sites that compelled people to move through the city: the activities of fraternal and benevolent clubs and societies, the cornerstone-laying and consecration ceremonies of cathedrals, various parades, and the wharfside ceremonies to greet visiting dignitaries. These were the moments during which people performed identities and created imagined communities of club, church, city, and colony, while simultaneously creating literal spaces for those communities by staking claim to city streets.
The city’s geographic and economic location (deeply rooted in patterns of Atlantic trade, yet relatively isolated from other major centres by climate and geography) shaped many residents’ ongoing feelings about their home. As a case study of sociability and identity in a colonial setting, “Making Home” explores how both local and Atlantic contexts created a sense of place in a nineteenth-century port town.

abstract: PhD


title: Migration and its Impact on the Household: Medieval Valencia after the Black Death Plague, 1348-1453

contributor:
Husain, Adnan
History

subject:
household
medieval history
Black Death Plague
migration
Valencia

abstract: The 1348 Black Death Plague killed at least twenty percent of Valencia’s population, and the effects were devastating: reduced reproduction, raised mortality, massive shifts in migration, intense growth in city population, and an altered structure of the family and the society.  The urban household had to adopt new strategies to deal with the demographic collapse.  Domestic servants, slaves, and foreigners were incorporated into the household to meet needs, and the composition of households changed as internal migration, Mediterranean migration from North Africa and Eastern Europe, and labour migrations all accelerated.  These migrations led to urban reform and to more complex households as many families began to offer lodging and provisions to newcomers.  Christian and Muslim slaves were brought into Valencia as households tried to meet the demographic need for more labour.  Servant numbers also increased, and foreigners migrated to Valencia and began to integrate into the society.  During a century of changes, there was one important constant: the attempt to maintain the centrality and significance of the household within the social organization and the economy.  Masters and mistresses tried to retain responsibility for the everyday management of their households, and they aimed to keep the traditional hierarchical structures of authority in place over their staff, male and female slaves, and non-family members.  However, the increase in the number of complex households in the period brought new relationships between masters, slaves and servants, and more connections were forged with foreigners.  All these changes challenged traditional patriarchal control within households.  Therefore, migration, spurred by the Black Death Plague, had a significant effect on the household structure in late medieval Valencia.  High rates of mortality caused by plague created a lack of domestic labourers and caused economic upheaval; masters needed to incorporate extra-familial members into the household to complete essential household tasks.  The influx of migrant workers and enslaved labourers altered the household’s traditional, kin-based structure and expanded the domestic economy, and these changes challenged the societal order.

abstract: PhD


title: Aspects of Intimacy: Authority and Integrity in the Modernist Novel

contributor:
McIntire, Gabrielle
English Language and Literature

subject:
One's Own
Authority
Integrity
Appropriate Form
Provisional Tonality
Approximate, Inexhaustible Address
The Self
Prosaics
Drawing Near
Participation and Articulation
Stance Towards Ideas
Identity
Russian Orthodox Theology
Tradition
Intimacy
Modernist Novel
Modernism
Prose

abstract: In the following thesis I strive to offer renewed ways of construing “one’s own,” authority, integrity, and intimacy as literary themes, and appropriate form, provisional tonality, and approximate, inexhaustible address as formal aspects of literary works or methodological tools for literary scholars. Part One involves a consideration of contexts for our current understanding of the self, identity/integrity, theology, tradition, and intimacy, which I cast in a fresh light through critical readings of Nietzsche, Freud, Charles Taylor, Amélie Oksenberg Rorty, Thomas Mann, H.-G. Gadamer, Jaroslav Pelikan, Vladimir Lossky, and others. Part Two contains my development of these ideas, in tandem with passages from Bakhtin, as they lead to and are augmented by my own original considerations of prosaic form, tradition, integrity, intimacy. Part Three is devoted to close readings of novels by Virginia Woolf and D.H. Lawrence. I have deliberately chosen to address these two central authors whose work has proved defining in significant ways for modernist literature and its legacy. As I am working to fundamentally reconsider aspects of modernity and our comprehension of it, I focus on the prosaic centre of its English literature, so to speak. Beginning with Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway (1925), I consider how friendship (friendly intimacy) is conditioned by social and individual ethics, the effect of the weight of political (civil) tradition on the individual’s comportment, and how heightened “moments of being” alter a person and translate into grounds for individual character and activity. Second, in Lawrence’s Women in Love (1920), I consider how eros (erotic intimacy) is conditioned and threatened by cultural traditions, how the weight of assumed aesthetic and ontological forms challenge individual freedom, and how certain habitual absolutes by which a person may live can take an abstract, “deathly” form. In both cases, I am interested in how the novelist depicts the struggles between absolutes and temporal forms of authority and specific characters, how this confrontation and struggle is conditioned by the intimate spheres of the characters’ lives, and how this shared, relational intimate sphere becomes the arena for the process of integration, which in turn allows the character (and reader) to make sense of their own self and helps to determine their relationships with other characters in the work.

abstract: PhD


title: “A New Race, Invincible and Vast”: An Exploration of the National Socialist Thingspiel Das Frankenburger Würfelspiel's Methods to Create Community

contributor:
Hosek, Jennifer
Cultural Studies

subject:
Theatre
Third Reich
Theatre history
Nazi theatre
Das Frankenburger Würfelspiel
Thingspiel

abstract: This project investigates the 1936 Berlin Olympics theatre production Das Frankenburger Würfelspiel, an example of the National Socialist theatre movement the Thingspiel. The goal is to explore the methods intended by Das Frankenburger Würfelspiel to create a national community. This has been done by examining how the production’s narrative, the participants’ experiences, and the production’s use of site contributed to creating this community. Upon this examination, it becomes clear that the plot of the production presented a revised historical narrative, imbued with ideological content, intended to modify German social memory. Additionally, this research found that the production’s performance style enabled its participants to internalise the production’s messages. The performance style also helped to bond participants into a community. Finally, the production’s use of site allowed participants to solidify their connection to National Socialist ideology and each other. This research has also unveiled similarities between the tactics of the Thingspiel and how United States President Donald Trump courted voters during his electoral campaign and into the present day. Through showing how the Nazi party conceptualised the Thingspiel to create community, this research highlights the cultural machinations of fascism.

abstract: M.A.


title: Nation, Race, and the Cultural Political Economy of Art for Social Change Philanthropy in Canada

contributor:
Murray, Laura
Cultural Studies

subject:
Philanthropy
Canada
Nation
Art
Social Change
Race

abstract: The arts are increasingly celebrated as a powerful mechanism for a philanthropic sector seeking to address some of society’s most pressing social and economic challenges. Over the past decade, “art for social change” [AFSC] charities and artists have become key sites of investment for some of the wealthiest philanthropic foundations in Canada and the United States. However, existing scholarship on the AFSC primarily serves as an exercise in mapping the field, or as a source of uncritical AFSC advocacy. In response, this dissertation provides the first critical exploration of the possibilities, tensions, and limits of the institution of AFSC philanthropy, specifically as it pertains to addressing contemporary issues of social injustice in Canada. This dissertation enriches the Marxian-inspired critiques of neoliberalism that dominate the critical literature on philanthropy by situating AFSC philanthropy more specifically within racialized and colonial histories of the Canadian nation-state. Offering a range of cases and combining methodological approaches including ethnographic study, discourse analysis, and analysis of public databases, this dissertation considers the manifold ways in which the intersecting dynamics of nation-building, racism, white settler-colonialism, and capitalist development articulate within AFSC philanthropy. This is accomplished by attending to the material aspects of racism and colonialism as they pertain to the capitalist accumulation strategies that serve as the economic engine of AFSC philanthropy. Equally important, however, are the ways in which discourses of Canadian identity—multiculturalism, diversity, tolerance, and international peacekeeping, for example—shape philanthropic policy, practice, and branding at the level of AFSC funder, community organization, and artist. Specifically, I argue that racist and colonial discourses of the nation and national “goodness” are mobilized by AFSC philanthropic funders, charities, and artists in ways that de-historicize and de-race the political-economic and cultural contradictions underlying AFSC philanthropy. Ultimately, this dissertation makes the case for centering questions of nation and race in studies of the AFSC, as well as in critical examinations of philanthropy more broadly.

abstract: PhD


title: Deformation-Induced Phase Transformation in a Quaternary Zirconium Alloy

contributor:
Daymond, Mark R
Mechanical and Materials Engineering

subject:
Diffraction
Phase Transformation
Zirconium

abstract:
Zirconium alloys are used extensively in the nuclear industry, largely due to the very low neutron capture cross-section of zirconium. Alloying of zirconium with substitutional solutes, like Sn, Mo or Nb, is common to assist in strengthening the material, through either direct solute strengthening, or enhancing control of the microstructure through the introduction of the β phase. One such alloy, Zr-3.2Sn-0.8Mo-0.8Nb, known as Excel, has been the subject of recent study as a possible replacement for the more common Zr-2.5wt%Nb alloy. This dissertation presents a body of research investigating the metastability of the β phase within this alloy, and exploring the decomposition of this phase under mechanical and thermal treatment.
This thesis is presented in manuscript format, composed of six manuscript chapters. Chapter 3 presents work investigating the thermal α + β to β phase transformation, establishing the transus temperature and the nature of solute redistribution during cooling from the fully β microstructure. Chapter 4 investigates the nature of retention of a metastable β phase to room temperature, with a focus on understanding the effect of cooling rate and providing a framework for understanding why this process is achievable in this particular alloy system. Chapter 5 provides evidence for a mechanically-induced β to α phase transformation, with a combination of neutron and electron diffraction data, supported by a simple and effective new model that directly relates the experimental data to crystallographic properties of the phase transformation. The next two chapters present studies that further probe the nature of this phase transformation, with a focus on temperature and loading orientation in Chapter 6, and the effect of strain and dislocation dynamics in Chapter 7. Both chapters further develop the model and demonstrate the unique behaviour of the deformation-induced phase transformation. Chapter 8, the final manuscript chapter, presents a study on the thermal decomposition of the metastable β phase. The six manuscript chapters are followed by Chapter 9, which presents a summary of the major conclusions of each work, a discussion on how each chapter is related, and recommendations for future research.

abstract: PhD


title: Talking Plant

contributor:
Jessup, Lynda
Smith, Sarah E.K.
Cultural Studies

subject:
Cultural Studies
Art
Contemporary Art
Critical Plant Studies
Plants
Research-Creation
Interdisciplinary
Environmental Humanities
Multi-species
Project Option

abstract:
This doctoral research-creation project focuses on plants in the context of larger efforts by artists and scholars to denaturalize the anthropocentric and hierarchical ordering of species that objectify non-human life. Through the lens of Cultural Studies and artistic practice, this project looks at the relationship between people and plants—the symbiotic partnerships, everyday encounters, imaginings, and hybrid possibilities that exist between human and vegetal worlds. This exploration is rooted in the following questions: Why is looking at plants appropriate in this particular cultural moment? How are forms of artistic production positioned such that they may allow for exploring new ways of imagining human relationships to plant life? And finally, can we get to know plants differently?
This doctoral thesis takes a rhizomatic approach. It includes six completed artworks developed since 2014, each exploring distinct entry points into the questions posed above: the immersive installation and major project, A Breathing Room (2017) and Movement Compositions (2017) respectively, a series of cyanotype works on paper referencing early botanical science; Plant Radio for Plants (2014–2016) with Brad Isaacs, which created a means of communication between communities of indoor and outdoor plants; PARKhive (2015–2016) with artists Teresa Carlesimo and Michael DiRisio, a public, socially-engaged project promoting citizen involvement in the expansion of urban green-space; Audible Garden (2014–2015), a project with musician Adam Phipps that used biometric sensing devices and micro-controllers in an attempt to translate the real-time responses of human-plant interactions into sound; and Adopt-A-Plant and the Windsor Workshop Series (2014), a community-based plant adoption project and workshop series developed for the Neighbourhood Spaces Residency program in Windsor, Ontario.
The parallel text examines imaginings of plant-being in theoretical, cultural, and artistic contexts, and considers concurrent research in the sciences, juxtaposing and extrapolating potential meanings. The elements of this work combine to ask many questions, presenting these to readers, participants, and viewers along with proposals for new ways of imagining plant being and interacting with more-than-human plant worlds.

abstract: PhD


title: The First Moving Load Simulator for Testing Bridges in Canada and its Application on a Full Scale Precast Box Girder

contributor:
Fam, Amir
Civil Engineering

subject:
cyclic
moving load
pulsating load
fatigue
truck load
simulator

abstract: This thesis describes the development of a unique Moving Load Simulator (MLS) for testing bridge superstructure with a footprint up to 4x17 m, and its first application to test a full scale B900 prestressed concrete box girder. The aim of the experiment was to verify that the MLS can apply cyclic loading in a controlled laboratory environment, under realistic highway scale 'rolling wheel loads', determined through code procedures as well as through finite element analysis of a real bridge. The MLS has two half-axles of a large tandem, each comprising a dual air-inflated tires spaced at either 1.2 or 2.4 m. Each half-axle can apply up to 125 kN, representing the heaviest half-axle load of the CL-625 design truck of CHBDC. The maximum travel range and speed are 14.9 m and 6 ms, respectively. A bridge design of eight adjacent B900 girders of 27.6 m span was used as a case study. Load distribution analyses were conducted using both; a finite element model of the full bridge under various CL-625 truck loading configurations and the CHBDC load distribution method, and both agreed well. Load scaling analysis of the girder share was then conducted to account for shortening it to 16 m, resulting in two-115 kN MLS design loads, 1.2 m apart. This verifies that the MLS is indeed capable of applying full scale highway loads in a laboratory environment, which is novel.  Multiple passes were conducted at various loads of 40-100% of design load and at speeds of 1-5 ms to examine the machine and girder behaviours. It was found that load fluctuates by less than 10% of full capacity and a 0.13 sec/cycle time lag occurs. The measured girder deflection and elastic strains were 11-20% lower than predicted theoretically. The estimated time to complete 3M cycles in approximately 4.5 months. With this machine now verified, future tests will involve fatigue tests for months at a time.

abstract: M.A.Sc.


title: Apologists, Prohibitionists, and Systemic Inertia: The Origins of Global Drug Control, 1900-1945

contributor:
den Otter, Sandra
Chowdhury, Amitava
History

subject: Opium

subject: Cocaine

subject: Cannabis

subject: League of Nations

subject: British Empire

subject: Drugs

subject: Narcotics

subject: Smuggling

subject: South Africa

subject: Stephen Porter

subject: Sassoon

subject: Shanghai

subject: Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade

subject: Opium Wars

subject: United Kingdom

subject: United States

subject: United Nations

subject: Opium Advisory Committee

subject: Ganja

subject: Charas

subject: Charles H. Brent

subject: Malwa

subject: Manchukuo

subject: Malcolm Delevinge

subject: Marijuana

subject: Rolleston

subject: Royal Commission on Opium

subject: H.G. Monfreid

subject: Harrison Act

subject: Harry Anslinger

subject: Indian Hemp Drugs Commission

subject: India

subject: International Reform Bureau

subject: Indian Hemp

subject: China

subject: Japan

subject: Egypt

subject: Malaya

subject: Philippines

subject: Permanent Control Opium Board

subject: Persia

subject: Philippines Opium Commission

subject: British North Borneo

subject: Hong Kong

subject: The Hague

subject: Theodore Roosevelt

subject: Geneva

subject: B.A. Renborg

subject: Formosa

subject: Singapore

subject: Ten Year Agreement

subject: Wilbur Crafts

subject: Hamilton Wright

subject: Cecil Clementi Smith

subject: Alexander Hosie

subject: Organized Crime

subject: Illicit Substances

abstract: This thesis examines the early evolution of the global prohibitory regime surrounding the production, manufacture, distribution, and consumption of illicit drugs --notably opium, cocaine, and cannabis. The primary focus of my historical analysis is the series of international conferences at which this legal edifice was first conceived during the early twentieth-century, with particular emphasis placed on those meetings held under the auspices of the League of Nations Opium Advisory Committee. Contextualizing these summits at Shanghai (1909), The Hague (1912-1914), and Geneva (1924-1936) as an unforeseen consequence of the Indo-Chinese opium trade, I explore how the treaties which resulted from these multilateral negotiations were overwhelmingly shaped by the competing economic and geopolitical interests of Great Britain, the United States, and China. Building upon the predominant themes of the existing historiography concerning international drug control, I construct my historical narrative from a wide array of archival source material, including conference minutes, national delegation reports, governmental commissions, private correspondence, and contemporary press articles. I argue that contemporary practical realities and diplomatic exigencies worked to formulate a misguided and ineffective global legal framework which premised its entire operation on the enforcement of supply control measures, rather than the treatment of drug addiction itself.

abstract: PhD


title: Deep Cancer Classifier: Exploring microRNA Regulation of Cancer with Deep Learning

contributor:
Mousavi, Parvin
Computing

rights: Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 United States

subject:
Artificial Intelligence
Deep learning
miRNA
Cancer diagnosis
Bioinformatics
Transcriptomics

abstract:
Background: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, non-coding RNAs that negatively regulate gene expression. Differential expression observed in miRNAs, combined with advancements in deep learning (DL), have the potential to improve cancer classification by modelling non-linear miRNA-phenotype associations. We propose a novel miRNA-based deep cancer classifier (DCC) incorporating genomic and hierarchical tissue annotation, capable of accurately predicting the presence of cancer in wide range of human tissues.
Methods: miRNA expression profiles were analyzed for 2530 neoplastic and 5184 non-neoplastic samples, across 38 organ types involving 78 organ sub-structures and 173 cell types. Specificity of miRNA expression was explored in relation to tissue type and neoplasticity, adjusting for sampling bias using three levels of hierarchical annotation. A DL architecture composed of stacked autoencoders (AE) and a multi-layer perceptron (MLP) was trained to predict neoplasticity using 845 high-confidence miRNAs. Additional DCCs were trained using expression of miRNA cistrons and sequence families, and combined as a diagnostic ensemble. Predictive importance of miRNAs was measured using backpropagation, and top miRNAs analyzed in Cytoscape using iCTNet and BiNGO.
Results: Performance of the DCC was tested on an unseen, randomly selected set of 1511 samples. The model classified cancer with 94.73% accuracy, 98.6% AUC/ROC, 95.1% sensitivity, and 94.3% specificity. A concise assay of the 20 most predictive miRNAs achieved 85.0% accuracy, 93.3% AUC/ROC, 92.3% sensitivity and 74.9% specificity.
Conclusion: Deep autoencoder networks are a powerful tool for modelling complex miRNA-phenotype associations in cancer. The proposed DCC improves classification accuracy by learning from the biological context of both samples and miRNAs, using genomic and anatomic annotation. Analyzing the trained DCC also provides estimates of miRNAs importance for cancer prediction, which can be used for feature selection and biological discovery, by performing gene ontology searches on the most highly significant features.

abstract: M.Sc.


title: The Roles of the Neuropeptide Receptor NPR-14 in the Regulation of Sleep Behaviours in Caenorhabditis elegans

subject:
Caenorhabditis elegans
sleep

abstract: Most animals with a nervous system exhibit sleep behaviour(s) during their life cycle, which appears as a decreased level of physical activity and changes in metabolism. Even animals with a simple nervous system like Caenorhabditis elegans have shown sleep behaviour. Two types of sleep have been characterized in C. elegans. The first is a developmentally timed quiescence (DTS), known as lethargus; and the second is a stress induced quiescence (SIS). Each type of sleep functions through different neuronal pathways and utilizes a variety of neuropeptide signaling molecules. The DTS pathway uses the expression of the neuropeptide gene nlp-22 and that of the SIS pathway uses the neuropeptide flp-13. Our lab has discovered a neuropeptide receptor gene called npr-14 that, when mutated, displays quiescence behaviour. We seek to answer the question: How does npr-14 fit in the DTS or SIS sleep pathways? The role of npr-14 in the sleep circuit was tested using experiments that analyze the behaviour of npr-14 (LF) (loss of function) and npr-14(OE)(overexpression) alone and in combination with loss of function alleles of - flp-13, nlp-22, and other known components in the sleep pathway. Results of this research will enhance our understanding of the sleep circuit in C. elegans. Understanding this sleep circuit is important because it may contribute to the understanding of many sleep disorders.

abstract: M.Sc.


title: Heretics and Martyrs: Picturing Early Anabaptism in Visual Culture of the Dutch Republic

contributor:
Dickey, Stephanie
Art History

subject:
Dutch Art History
Anabaptism
Anabaptist Studies
Mennonite Studies
Dutch Baroque Art
Van Sichem
Hortensius
Jan Luyken
Martyrs Mirror
Martyrology
Dutch Republic
Printmaking
Polemics
Satire
Book history
Church history
Material culture
Book illustration
Van Braght

abstract:
This dissertation explores the representation of early Anabaptism and Mennonitism in the visual culture of the Dutch Republic (1585-1795). Polemical and satirical imagery critical of Anabaptism circulated alongside artworks presenting Anabaptist theological heritage in a positive light. Book illustrations offer the most frequent site for representation, joined by broadsheets, print series, and a few drawings and paintings. While historians and theologians, working from literary and archival materials, have traced the complex evolution of Dutch Mennonite theology and culture from the sixteenth century through the Enlightenment, this study brings a new, interdisciplinary application of these findings to the analysis of visual representations that interpreted 16th-century Dutch Anabaptism for 17th- and 18th-century viewers.
Polemical critiques were the first to represent the group’s early history, establishing iconographical conventions that persisted for centuries. Most widely depicted were early Anabaptist insurrections at Münster and Amsterdam, portraits of Münsterite leaders, and the controversial practice of adult baptism. Illustrations appeared in historical accounts, anti-sectarian treatises, heretic biographies, city descriptions, and religious ethnographies, as well as emblems and allegories. Meanwhile, Mennonites themselves were slower to produce or commission apologetical imagery supporting their long-established efforts to distance themselves from Münsterite violence and promote the pacifist ideals advocated by leaders such as Menno Simons. Martyrology illustrations, beginning with frontispieces and culminating in depictions of specific events engraved by Jan Luyken for the Martyrs Mirror (1685), boldly aligned the suffering and executions of 16th-century Anabaptists with the martyrs of the apostolic age and the early church.
The images considered here, many of which have not been examined before, were produced and circulated at a time when Mennonites were becoming increasingly assimilated and engaged in the cultural and economic fabric of Dutch society. Consideration of a range of images in relationship to their literary and socio-historical contexts of display demonstrates the diverse roles played by visual representation in supporting, spreading, and sometimes challenging prevailing attitudes toward Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition in the Dutch Republic. This analysis demonstrates how the opposing visual tropes of the Anabaptist as heretic and as martyr both operated as powerful polemical and apologetical tools in Dutch literature and visual art.

abstract: PhD


title: Study of Kinetics and Mechanism of Pyrite Oxidation in Sulfuric Acid Solution

contributor:
Ahmad, Ghahreman
Mining Engineering

subject: Pyrite; ferric-ferrous couple redox reaction; kinetics; mixed potential theory; chronoamperometry; cyclic voltammetry; Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy

abstract:
There is a significant interest in studying pyrite oxidation in terms of refractory gold ore processing and acid mine drainage (AMD) treatment. However, the mechanism of pyrite oxidation has not been well understood yet. Most of the kinetics studies of pyrite oxidation focus on the corrosion process of pyrite, neglecting the kinetics of Fe3+/Fe2+ redox reaction on the surface of pyrite. In this work, based on the mixed potential theory, the chronoamperometry and cyclic voltammetry methods were used to isolate the Fe3+/Fe2+ reaction from other interfering reactions to study pyrite oxidation kinetics.
As part of the kinetics study, the effects of the pyrite origin, the Fe3+ and Fe2+ ions concentrations, and the operating temperature on the Fe3+/Fe2+ reaction on the pyrite surface were investigated. The exchange current densities of the Fe3+/Fe2+ redox reaction in this study had the same magnitude of 10-5 Acm-2 for all the experiments; increasing iron concentration by an order of magnitude or the test temperature from 22 to 65 °C did not have significant effects on the Fe3+/Fe2+ couple redox reaction exchange current density nor on the value of the cathodic transfer coefficients of the reaction. Nevertheless, the anodic transfer coefficients had increased substantially with increasing the total Fe concentration and the test temperature. The activation energy for Fe2+ oxidation and Fe3+ reduction on the pyrite surfaces were calculated to be 102.0 and 32.7 kJ mol-1, respectively.
In order to study about the effect of Ag on the pyrite electrodissolution process kinetics, Ag-doped pyrite was fabricated by hydrothermal method. The electrochemical dissolution kinetics of the Ag-doped pyrite were studied in different sulfuric acid electrolytes, with or without the addition of Fe and Cu cations. The experimental results showed a reduced pyrite electrochemical reactivity with increasing the Ag content of the Ag-doped pyrites. However, the anodic dissolution of the Ag-doped pyrite electrode showed a substantial increase in the Cu and Fe-containing sulfuric acid solution.

abstract: PhD


title: Spatial variations of pressure-temperature-timing-deformation conditions of ductile thrusts: Examples from the Himalayan and Variscan orogens

contributor: Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering

subject:
Structural Geology
Geochronology
Himalaya
Ductile shear zone
Main Central thrust
Variscan orogen

abstract:
Orogen-scale thrust-sense shear zones evolve dynamically through time and space as they accommodate crustal shortening during continental collision. When these shear zones activate in different parts of an orogen is central to the understanding of how orogenic systems evolve. These shear zones carry rocks from the deep metamorphic core (hinterland) towards the toe of the orogenic wedge (foreland). Rocks therefore record different pressure (P), temperature (T), timing and deformation conditions as they move through segments of a shear zone. These recorded conditions are used here to track deformation on crustal-scale shear zones in the direction of tectonic transport, from the hinterland towards the foreland, of two orogenic systems, the Himalaya and the Variscan orogen.
In the western Nepal Himalaya, a major shear zone, the Main Central thrust (MCT), is exposed multiple times in the transport direction. U-Th/Pb monazite petrochronology, U/Pb zircon geochronology, 40Ar/39Ar muscovite thermochronology, metamorphic P-T analyses, and quartz microstructures are used to complement field mapping and determine the recorded conditions of metamorphism and deformation in the MCT zone. Each of the three studied MCT transects reached peak P-T conditions and cooled through 450-350°C at different times. These data indicate that deformation on the MCT was diachronous in the transport direction and that a single shear zone transect is not representative of the timing and duration of deformation on the MCT.
Field mapping, microstructures and both in situ and step-heating 40Ar/39Ar white mica geochronology are used to examine a series of successive thrust-sense shear zones exposed on the island of Sardinia, Italy. These shear zones are located intermediate to the hinterland and foreland of the Variscan orogen and record a common timing of mylonite formation and ductile deformation from 325-318 Ma on all three thrusts.
The results from this thesis indicate that P-T, timing and deformation conditions can be used effectively to track ductile deformation of rocks as they move through a shear zone that evolves through different kinematic regimes. The timing and duration of ductile deformation may be diachronous in the transport direction and may not evolve unidirectionally from hinterland to foreland.

abstract: PhD


title: Mining development knowledge to understand and support software logging practices

contributor:
Hassan, Ahmed E.
Computing

subject:
Software engineering
Mining software repositories
Software analytics
Log analytics
Data mining
Program analysis
Machine learning
Software logging
Natural language processing

abstract:
Developers insert logging statements in their source code to trace the runtime behaviors of software systems. Logging statements print runtime log messages, which play a critical role in monitoring system status, diagnosing field failures, and bookkeeping user activities. However, developers typically insert logging statements in an ad hoc manner, which usually results in fragile logging code, i.e., insufficient logging in some code snippets and excessive logging in other code snippets. Insufficient logging can significantly increase the difficulty of diagnosing field failures, while excessive logging can cause performance overhead and hide truly important information. The goal of this thesis is to help developers improve their logging practices and the quality of their logging code. We believe that development knowledge (i.e., source code, code change history, and issue reports) contains valuable information that explains developers' rationale of logging, which can help us understand existing logging practices and provide helpful tooling support for such logging practices.

Therefore, this thesis proposes to mine different aspects of development knowledge to understand and support software logging practices. We mine issue reports to understand developers' logging concerns, i.e., the benefits and costs of logging from developers' perspective. Our findings shed lights on future research opportunities for helping developers leverage the benefits of logging while minimizing logging costs. We mine source code to learn how developers distribute logging statements in their source code, and propose an approach to provide automated suggestions about where to log. We find that the semantic topics of a code snippet provide another dimension to explain the likelihood of logging a code snippet. We mine code change history to understand how developers develop and maintain their logging code, and propose an automated approach that can provide developers with log change suggestions when they change their code. We also mine code change history to understand how developers choose log levels for their logging statements, and propose an automated approach that can help developers determine the appropriate log level when they add a new logging statement. This thesis highlights the need for standard logging guidelines and automated tooling support for logging.

abstract: PhD


title: The Many Ways to Evaluate Income Taxes: Canadian Income Tax Compliance with Attention to Surplus Stripping: 1917-1972

contributor:
McNairn, Jeffrey
History

subject:
Income tax
Tax avoidance
Surplus stripping
Dividend stripping
Tax compliance
Asset stripping
Tax evasion

abstract: This study of the relationship between the Canadian taxpayer and the income tax regime examines the manner in which the federal income tax, first established by Finance Minister Sir Thomas White of the Robert Borden Conservative government in 1917, evolved into a complex and onerous obligation. Its central narrative is a longer history of the mechanics of tax compliance and its evolution. This evolution altered the ramifications of tax compliance creating particular tensions around the taxation of retained corporate earnings and dividend income. Using newspaper articles, chiefly from The Globe and Mail, and the reported cases available on income tax compliance between 1917 and 1931 and the reported cases on surplus stripping between 1942 and 1972, the mechanics and tensions of the administrative tax relationship will be examined. It is proposed that these tensions and taxpayers’ resulting choices should be considered in a framework that does not overly favour the matrix and rhetoric influenced by John Stuart Mill’s equality of sacrifice principles, but that considers Adam Smith’s tenants of taxation, namely a consideration of the presentation and value of tax neutrality, simplicity and certainty.

abstract: M.A.


title: Interests and Rights: Minority Communities, Parents, and Children

contributor:
Kymlicka, Will
Philosophy

subject:
Children's Rights
Multiculturalism

abstract: Children play an integral role in the reproduction and maintenance of cultures. Simultaneously, culture groups inform the identify formation and development of children. For this reason, one would think that theories discussing children would take culture into consideration, and theories concerning cultural justice would take children into consideration. This has largely not been the case up to now. As the beginnings of a remedy to this, I will put forward a liberal multicultural theory of children’s rights, arguing that children have a right to culture, and that culture groups have a right to children; these rights need to be balanced, while also taking parents, and their rights, into consideration. My examination will require asking how existing theories of children's rights, and existing theories of multiculturalism, address such a balance. The core of the investigation will consider what legitimate claims cultural groups can make re: children, and what legitimate claims children can make re: cultural groups. I will conclude by taking this largely theoretical discussion into a more practical domain, looking at some implications that arise from this balance of rights in specific cases. These cases will, importantly, include intercultural adoption, education, and male infant circumcision. While other cases can be discussed, my intention is to give a brief overview of the implications that arise from my liberal multicultural theory of children’s rights. My arguments will contribute both to the literature on children’s rights, and to the literature on multiculturalism, bringing the two fields closer together and in discussion with one another.

abstract: PhD


title: Reading Development: Exploring the Lived Experiences of Individuals with High Functioning Autism

contributor:
Beach, Pamela
Education

subject:
Reading
autism
lived experiences

abstract: Reading expands learning opportunities for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) by improving their communication and functional skills, and, in the long run, improving their quality of life.  Research is needed to gain a better understanding of how individuals with autism experience their reading development from their own perspectives and the perspectives of their parents.  Our knowledge of the experiences of individuals with ASD can be expanded by listening to and reflecting on their voices.  Therefore, this study empowered four young adults with High Functioning Autism (HFA) and their parents to share stories and experiences about these young adults’ reading development from early childhood through adolescence.  A qualitative multiple-case design was used.  Data sources included eight one-on-one semi-structured interviews, researcher’s field notes, and a reflective journal.  Qualitative analysis led to eight emergent cross-case themes: 1) differences and similarities in reading profiles, 2) advantage in expository text, 3) challenges in reading, 4) reading strategies, 5) behaviour support, 6) interest and motivation, 7) supportive parents, and 8) different school experiences. Based on rich, in-depth descriptions, this study sheds light on the diverse and varied experiences of four young adults with HFA in their reading development from early childhood through adolescence. The findings of this study help to fill the gap by adding voices of individuals with HFA and their parents. The findings provide researchers with recommendations on case study design and interviews with individuals with HFA, educators with suggestions for instructional practices, and parents with practical guidance.

abstract: M.Ed.


title: Role of the Cadherin-11/Rac1/Stat3 Axis in Src-Mediated Transformation and in Adipocytic Differentiation

contributor:
Raptis, Leda
Pathology and Molecular Medicine

subject: Stat3

subject: Src transformation

subject: Adipocytic differentiation

subject: Cadherin-11

subject: Rac1

abstract:
Stat3 (signal transducer and activator of transcription-3) is activated by phosphorylation on tyrosine-705 (Stat3-ptyr705) downstream of cytokines, growth factors, and oncogenes. Our lab has demonstrated that engagement of cadherins, a calcium-dependent family of cell-cell adhesion receptors, can also activate Stat3 via upregulation of the Rac1 and Cdc42 small GTPases and IL6 family cytokines, resulting in increased expression of genes involved in cell division and survival.
Oncogenes such as Src have been shown to negatively regulate the epithelial (E)-cadherin through a number of different mechanisms. Results presented in this thesis reveal, for the first time, that activated Src can also negatively affect levels of the mesenchymal cadherin-11 (Cad11), which is associated with metastasis in cancers such as breast and prostate. Indeed, stable expression of different levels of activated Src showed an inverse correlation between Src and Cad11 protein levels. Interestingly, cells expressing the highest Src levels had no Cad11 and low levels of Stat3-ptyr705, and Stat3-ptyr705 levels did not increase in Cad11-knockdown cells in which activated Src was expressed, suggesting that Src requires Cad11 to activate Stat3. Most importantly, we report that Src-expressing cells deficient in Cad11 succumb to apoptosis at high densities, pointing to a significant role of the Cad11/Stat3 axis in tumour cell survival signalling.
Stat3 activation at confluence was also shown to be important for adipocytic differentiation. Inhibition of Stat3 at the onset of differentiation dramatically reduced the levels of adipocyte protein 2 (aP2) and lipid accumulation, while inhibition of Stat3 after several days of differentiation had no effect. Inhibition of Rac1, an effector of Cad11, was also shown to reduce aP2 and lipid levels, and activated Rac promoted early expression of aP2. Taken together, our results suggest that the survival signal initiated by cadherin engagement is critical for both differentiation and neoplastic transformation. It is especially critical for the survival of tumour cells, which may be overly dependent upon constitutively activated Stat3. Inhibition of Cad11 in cancer therapy would promote apoptosis of metastatic cells specifically (through Stat3 inactivation), a finding which could have important therapeutic implications.

abstract: PhD


title: 3-D Design for Additive Manufacturing Utilizing Topology Optimization

contributor:
Kim, Il-Yong
Mechanical and Materials Engineering

subject:
Topology Optimization
Additive Manufacturing
Aerospace Engineering
Computational Methods

abstract:
As the frontier of modern-day engineering challenges pushes forward, the integration of multiple strategies to reduce manufacturing cost and increase component performance has engineers turning to tools such as topology optimization (TO) and additive manufacturing (AM). Recent focus on synthesizing AM and TO has led to efforts aimed at integrating these topics into the conventional design cycle.  This manuscript combines two separate research efforts that address the current roadblocks preventing the proliferation of AM technology:
The first topic of 3D Topology Optimization for Cost and Time Minimization in Additive Manufacturing expands upon existing mathematical constructs by providing an algorithm to minimize the cost and time associated with AM parts. The formulation has been constructed in such a manner to accommodate topology optimization problems with high element counts; this includes a filtering scheme requiring minimal computational storage and an iterative finite element solver. In order to determine the optimal contribution of AM factors to minimize build time, a rigorous trade-off analysis is conducted. It was found that build time could be decreased by over half for only small decreases in performance – on the order of 7-18% – when the method was applied to academic test problems.
The second topic of Void Region Restriction for Additive Manufacturing via Diffusion Physics Approach addresses the issue of eliminating the emergence of void regions TO results in order to render the designs manufacturable by AM. By developing better, computationally efficient solutions to this problem, the integration of these two advanced technologies can be fully realized. A particle diffusion-void restriction (PDVR) method is presented in this work, capable of encouraging the optimization scheme to generate final designs that are fully accessible. Additionally, this method empowers the user to choose the type of post-processing method to clear support material (e.g. three-axis/five-axis milling operations, number and orientation of part set-ups) and therefore quantify the level of costs associated with the post-processing operation. Applied to test problems physically fabricated by AM, baseline designs that possessed inaccessible regions were made to be almost completely accessible by utilizing PDVR for increases in compliance on the order of 10%.

abstract: M.A.Sc.


title: Inclusive Education for Children with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities in Accra, Ghana

contributor:
Aldersey, Heather Michelle
Lysaght, Rosemary
Rehabilitation Science

subject: Inclusive Education

subject: Childhood Disability Research

subject: Qualitative Research

abstract: Inclusive education is the best form of education for all children including those with disabilities, however, children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are often educated in segregated settings or institutionalized in low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs). Inclusion research in Ghana has rarely focused on children with IDD, and those that have were limited to examining teacher attitudes and beliefs. Therefore, the overall purpose of this dissertation was to examine the experiences of implementation of inclusive education from the perspectives of children with IDD and their teachers in Accra, Ghana. I conducted three studies as part of this dissertation; a) a scoping review that explored the scope of current literature on inclusive education implementation with children with IDD in African countries, b) a qualitative descriptive study that explored the experiences of children with IDD in inclusive schools in Accra, Ghana and c) a qualitative descriptive study that explored the experiences of teachers of children with IDD in inclusive schools in Accra, Ghana. I gathered data from 16 children and 18 teachers through in-depth interviews. I supplemented children interviews with drawing and observation. I analyzed the data using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) thematic analysis approach. I employed Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological framework and the social model of disability as theoretical perspectives to examine and interpret emerging findings. The results indicate that although children with IDD benefit from opportunities in inclusion, they experience many challenges. The results also suggest an overall stressful classroom environment that makes it challenging for teachers to respond to the additional needs of children with IDD. Findings demonstrate the critical need for improvement of inclusion best practices with children with IDD. The ongoing challenges experienced by children with IDD and their teachers in inclusion suggest that the success of inclusive practices in Ghana is dependent on strong commitments of all stakeholders and a model of specific and appropriate strategies that supports the inclusion of children with IDD.

abstract: PhD


title: Unfinished Business: The New Wave of Women's Horror Cinema

contributor:
MacDonald, Eleanor
Cultural Studies

subject:
Horror Studies
Film Studies
Feminist Film Studies
Feminist Studies
Gender and Sexuality
Horror Cinema
Feminist Cinema
Feminist Horror Studies

abstract:
My doctoral dissertation, “Unfinished Business: The New Wave of Women’s Horror Cinema,” responds to early considerations in feminist horror studies via the recent surge of horror films directed by women filmmakers for a primarily female audience. Placing this new wave of horror cinema in dialogue with the canonical works of Linda Williams, Carol Clover, and Barbara Creed, I re-evaluate the assumption that horror forecloses the possibility of female spectatorship in favour of male audiences. I argue that a change in authorship from almost exclusively male directors to women artists produces a markedly different form of address previously underrepresented in American and Canadian horror cinemas.

Now, for the first time in the genre’s history, women directors are developing a globally substantial body of work that explicitly centres the ‘feminine’ and uses the conventions of horror to bridge topics such as sexuality, menstruation, virginity, gender-based violence, trauma/PTSD, eating disorders, pregnancy, and motherhood all from a woman’s perspective and for a female audience. The result is a cinema that affirms women’s experiences of fear, paranoia, anxiety, and desire, and addresses the ways in which living within patriarchy constitutes its own horror. Given this unprecedented development, the primary aim of this dissertation is to document the ways in which this new body of women-authored/women-driven horror re-inscribes the genre’s primary mode of address as distinctly female/feminine and constructs a tenable subject position for the female spectator. I stake a claim in recording this phenomenon as a crucial cultural moment in the genre’s development and suggest more work needs to be done to account for this cinema’s representational and political offerings.

abstract: PhD


title: Non-circular flows in HIghMass Galaxies in a Test of the Late Accretion Hypothesis

contributor: Physics, Engineering Physics and Astronomy

subject:
galaxies
extragalactic astronomy
HIghMass
ALFALFA
CFHT
SITELLE
galaxy dynamics
ORCS
DiskFit

abstract: This thesis investigates the late accretion hypothesis as an explanation for the unusual gas-richness of the HIghMass sample, a collection of 34 galaxies from the recently completed Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA survey. Accretion is vital to galaxy evolution models as it explains several galaxy properties, including but not limited to the relatively constant metallicity distribution in disk galaxies as well as their extended star formation histories. As such, we search for the indirect signatures of accretion of extraplanar gas in H-alpha velocity fields of three HIghMass galaxies (UGC 7899, UGC 8475, and UGC 9037), obtained with the SITELLE Imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. Only the data for UGC 7899 and UGC 9037 are amenable to a direct search of non-circular flows in their inner disk using the DiskFit algorithm. We applied rotation-only, bisymmetric, and radial flow models separately to UGC 7899 and UGC 9037, and a rotation-only model to UGC 8475. Using the kinematic data, and comparison with DiskFit runs on photometric images of each galaxy, we conclude that a bar-like model best describes the kinematics of UGC 7899, and that UGC 9037 exhibits radial flows in its inner disk. A radial flow model for UGC 9037 is consisted with previous results obtained at lower resolution from H I maps. Though this work further constrained the non-circular flows in the inner disk of two HIghMass galaxies, we find no direct evidence to support the late accretion hypothesis for the origin of their unusual gas-richness.

abstract: M.Sc.