title: Slow Wave Transmission Lines Used as Integrated Inductors with Improved Performance

abstract: Slow wave transmission lines (SWTLs) are analyzed in literature as an interconnections having the ability to slow down the propagating wave and consequently saving area, shielding substrate and lowering losses. In this thesis, on the other hand, possible ways are investigated to exploit these improvements to enhance, optimize and tune the inductive parameters of SWTLs; effective inductance (Leff), quality factor (Q), self-resonance frequency (fsrf) and area efficiency. Integrated in low-cost silicon substrate, on-chip inductors are facing crucial challenges, like design flexibility, area efficiency, conductive and substrate losses. Early studies have identified many techniques to overcome these challenges, such as post processing, magnetic core filling, ground plane modification, and others, however each technique has its drawbacks at RF frequencies which are reflected on either performance or cost. The principle of operation of SWTLs is analyzed mathematically as a periodic structure by cascading multiple capacitive-loaded transmission line unit cells. Leff and Q are extracted from the ABCD parameters. It has been proved that the distributed nature of SWTLs provides an enhanced inductive performance. A parametric study on a coplanar stripline is introduced to explore and quantify the relation between eight spacial design variables related to the TL structure, and five inductive parameters. A parametric table, considered as a guideline to build SWTLs as inductors, have been created. To validate the idea practically, various configurations of slow-wave coplanar striplines are designed, fabricated and measured on CMOS 130nm process (silicon substrate). Optimized SWTLs are applied as inductors in a generic injection locked oscillator (ILO). Using SWTLs as inductors have provided additional degrees of freedom to lay out and tune Leff, Q and fsrf efficiently. The differential balanced structure of the designed SWTLs have provided an equal single-ended inductance to both sides of the circuit without using lengthy interconnections leading to 50% enhanced Q compared to conventional transmission lines. SWTLs as inductors inductors have shown a 75% and 60% enhanced Q compared to a single and double conventional spiral inductors. Additionally, an enhanced noise performance have been demonstrated in ILO using SWTLs as inductors compared to the conventional inductors.


title: The White Settler Colonial Landscape of Toronto's Wychwood Park

abstract: Mythologized as a former artist's colony, Wychwood Park is a gated community in midtown Toronto that encompasses fifty-eight homes built at the turn of the twentieth century. Wychwood Park's landscape plan is one of Canada's earliest examples of a garden suburb - a suburban design model derived from the turn-of-the-twentieth-century English Garden City movement. The Park boasts the highest concentration of Arts and Crafts domestic architecture in Toronto. Famous early residents included artists and art patrons who were instrumental in establishing what became the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Royal Ontario Museum, the Ontario College of Art and Design, and the Ontario Society of Artists. In this dissertation, I argue that Wychwood Park is a white settler colonial landscape. This argument is informed by the idea of landscape as an actor in social and political processes, rather than a reflection of them. The physical landscape of Wychwood Park, and the extent to which it reflects the ideas and values that sustain settler colonial rule, are seriously interrogated in this project. I am interested in the ways that a neighbourhood like Wychwood Park can teach Torontonians something about how patriarchy and racism work and what it means to live in an environment shaped by gendered/racialized thinking and social organization. I am informed by Richard Schein's contentions that "discourses of racialized social relations work through landscapes" and that landscapes are the sites in which racialized discourses become "materialized." In this dissertation, I situate the patriarchal and racialized social relations of settler colonialism within the material landscape of Wychwood Park. This approach highlights Wychwood Park's engagement with the settler colonial project, addressing a gap in existing literature on the Park specifically and on Toronto history as a whole.


title: Beyond Afropolitanism: Representations of African Identities in Select 21st Century African Novels

abstract: Abstract This dissertation explores the theoretical and ideological stakes in contemporary representations of African cultural identities through "Afropolitanism" and "Afropeanism." The two concepts informed by anglophone and francophone African experience respectively—"Afropolitan" and "Afropean"—construct cultural dialogue through an over-reliance on a dualized Western-African relation. The study presents a comparative analysis of francophone and anglophone novels written at the turn of the twenty-first century by Calixthe Beyala, Sami Tchak, Chris Abani, Teju Cole, NoViolet Bulawayo, and Taiye Selasi. I examine these literary works as instantiations of a paradigm of cultural dialogue that privileges Western culture in contemporary redefinitions of African identities. The study also underlines the efforts by "Afropolitan" and "Afropean" writers to depart from atavistic African self-representation of the 1950s and 1960s generation of African writers to challenge myths of national identity, universality of Western culture, and stereotyping and marginalizing Africans in Western societies. Put differently, this work aims to show how a select group of African writers deploy "Afropolitan" and "Afropean" literary texts to reimagine alternative African identities and ways of belonging that challenge monolithic Western discourse on national identity. Yet, it interrogates the writers' model of decolonizing African representations as one that perpetuates the notion of the West as the center. Theoretically, I build on Edouard Glissant's concept of Relation and Achille Mbembe's rendering of "Afropolitanism" as alternative accounts that diversify cultural dialogue(s) and complicate identities. The "Afropolitan" and "Afropean" texts studied here inadequately engage with the cultural histories of African people. Through a close reading of these literary texts, I delineate how the writers negotiate social identities and belonging of African subjects across race, gender, and social status, and particularly, how they attempt to resist imperial domination through hybridity.


title: Three Chapters Exploring Themes in Competition and Collusion

abstract: In this thesis I present three chapters that explore various themes in competition with a focus on collusion and spatial competition. Chapter one examines whether the availability of late-stage settlements for defendants in criminal price-fixing suits has a negative impact on the effectiveness of early stage leniency programs in the context of antitrust enforcement. Our main finding is that an appropriately designed settlement program can make collusion more difficult: in equilibrium, the adoption of an optimal settlement program by an antitrust authority (AA) reduces the occurrence of cartels by decreasing the long-run gains from collusion. However, overly generous settlement policies may undermine leniency programs and encourage the formation of more cartels Chapter two explores the relationship between business-cycle fluctuations and collusive behavior. From a theoretical perspective we demonstrate that the degree of antitrust enforcement (external cartel stability) directly influences the boundary that determines whether positive demand shocks are either pro-collusive or anti-collusive. We find that as cartels become increasingly unstable, they have a preference for defecting in the presence of positive demand shocks since there is riskiness associated with continuing to collude under a strong enforcement regime. From an empirical perspective, we find that the observed collusive activity is weakly procyclical, however, much of the variation is explained by enforcement and monitoring policies. Chapter three explores spatial competition in the Canadian banking industry at the 3-digit postal-code level. We study a two-way fixed-effects spatial panel model that disentangles market concentration (i.e., concentration ratios and the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI)) from the lesser explored notion of geographic concentration. This distinction is relevant since bank branches tend to operate in spatial clusters that form sub-geographic markets, thus, altering competitive outcomes. We find that the HHI and spatial clustering are both negatively correlated with the relative size of the bank-branch network. In effect, branch proliferation is strong in geographic regions that are more competitive and more uniformly dispersed spatially.


title: ADMM Decoding of LDPC Codes: Simplification and Improvement

abstract: In this dissertation, we study linear programming (LP) decoding of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes based on the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) technique, or ADMM decoding for short. The decoding of LDPC codes is formulated as an LP model and solved efficiently by the ADMM technique. However, compared with traditional belief-propagation decoding, ADMM decoding suffers from higher complexity and worse error correction performance, which prevents the employment of ADMM decoding in reality. To reduce the complexity of ADMM decoding, we first focus on the simplification of the check polytope projection, the most complex operation in ADMM decoding. We propose an iterative check polytope projection algorithm without the sorting operation. The proposed algorithm converges with the increase of iterations. Moreover, for a fixed number of iterations, its average complexity and the worst-case complexity are linear in the input dimension. Another direction we propose to simplify ADMM decoding is to devise a better scheduling scheme than the standard flooding scheme. We start from the node-wise scheduling scheme which only updates the check node messages with the maximum message residual. Then we simplify the calculation of the message residual and propose a reduced-complexity node-wise scheduling scheme. To improve the error correction performance of ADMM decoding, we propose a novel ADMM penalized decoding algorithm whose penalty term is based on check nodes (CN). We investigate the properties of the CN penalty functions and show several examples. We make conclusions on its convergence properties and prove its failure probability is independent of the transmitted codewords for symmetric channels. Monte-Carlo simulation and the instanton analysis show its better error correction performance in the low and high SNR regions. Finally, we propose a post-processing technique to lower the error floor of LDPC codes. The output of the first stage decoder can be revised if the syndrome is found in a look-up table that contains the dominant trapping sets of this code. The most complex part of the technique, the syndrome pattern matching (SPM) operation, is simplified to a one-dimensional binary search operation. Besides, a simplified SPM algorithm is proposed for quasi-cyclic (QC) LDPC codes.


title: Measurements of Z Boson Production in Association with Two Jets using the ATLAS Run-II Dataset

abstract: The electroweak (EW) production of a Z boson in association with two jets is measured using the full Run-II dataset of the ATLAS experiment. This EW-Zjj process is a fundamental process of the Standard Model (SM), and is sensitive to vector boson fusion (VBF) Z boson production via the WWZ triple gauge vertex. The process is difficult to study, so an advanced methodology is employed to measure the EW-Zjj signal by exploiting topological features. This methodology and the large dataset collected during Run-II have made it possible to measure the cross section of EW-Zjj differentially for the first time. The cross section is measured as a function of four characteristic observables: the invariant mass of the two jet system, the rapidity interval spanned by the two jets, the signed azimuthal angle between the two jets, and the transverse momentum of the Z boson. The observed total fiducial cross section of EW-Zjj is 37.14 +/- 3.47 (stat.) +/- 5.79 (syst.) fb. The techniques developed for this analysis can be applied to the measurement of other electroweak processes such as VBF Higgs boson production. EW-Zjj is also an important background for vector boson scattering processes that are of growing interest for searches of deviations from the SM. The differential cross sections themselves provide two avenues for testing the SM. First, the measurements are sufficiently precise as to distinguish between different state-of-the-art theoretical predictions, knowledge gained here is applicable to measurements of other vector boson processes. Second, the differential cross sections are used to test deviations from the SM attributed to higher order corrections in the WWZ vertex by exploiting the sensitivity of a parity-odd observable with an effective field theory approach.


title: The Superiority Effect of Virtual Reality on Prospective Memory

abstract: Although failures of prospective memory have been linked to aviation accidents, prospective memory has not been integrated into pilot training or assessment. Virtual Reality (VR) offers ecologically robust flight environments for training and assessment of prospective memory, but the effects of VR, as compared to 2D displays, have yet to be studied. VR flight simulation is also an ideal environment for studying the detection of time- or event-based cues, which are key to triggering the prospective memory task. Participants (N=25, non-pilots) completed both time- and event-based prospective memory tasks along an automated route, with the percentage of completed tasks recorded. Participants were trained on the prospective memory cues in either VR or 2D but "flew" in both conditions: VR (head-mounted 3D device), and 2D (flat screen display). Results from repeated measures analysis of variance tests showed that performance was enhanced in VR only for time-based prospective memory tasks.


title: Real-Time Detection of Storage Covert Channels

abstract: Covert channnels are a class of techniques for hiding the presence of communication between parties. In the context of cybersecurity, covert channels can be used by attackers to evade detection and to exfiltrate sensitive data. In so doing, they create a need for effective detection techniques for the use of covert channels. In this thesis, we present the conception, design and implementation of a system for detecting covert messages stored in the headers of network protocols in real time. We start by identifying statistical tests that can distinguish network traffic containing certain types of covert channels with high accuracy. We then leverage that information to build a system that analyses network traffic by tapping ethernet cables in order to detect the use of covert channels with very low latency.


title: Testing the Competition Hypothesis: How Niche Overlap Between Carnivoramorphans and Creodonts Changed From the Start to the End of the Eocene

abstract: Carnivoramorphans and creodonts are two groups of ancestrally carnivorous mammals that both emerged in the Paleocene (66-56 Ma) of North America. During the Eocene (56-33.9 Ma), carnivoramorphans radiated into some of the taxonomic groups we still see today, while creodont diversity declined until the group went extinct in North America during the Oligocene (33.9-23 Ma) and worldwide during the Miocene (23-5.3 Ma). In this thesis, I test the hypothesis that competition with carnivoramorphans may have led to the extinction of the creodonts in North America by examining changes in niche overlap between the two groups from the start to the end of the Eocene. My results do not support the competition hypothesis, instead suggesting that creodonts were hyperspecialized and un-equipped for the dramatically different environments of the late Eocene and early Oligocene.


title: Multi-scale Deep Nearest Neighbors

abstract: In this thesis, we aim to learn a deep embedding space suitable for k-NN. Our approach is based on minimizing the leave-one-out 1-NN classification error in the embedding space. Directly optimizing for such a rule is not tractable due to its discontinuous nature. We propose Multi-scale Deep Nearest Neighbour (MsDNN) which is a differentiable loss function that aims to maximize the expected sample margin for every training sample. The output of MsDNN is an embedding space. We evaluate the resulting space from two angles. From the classification view, during testing, we run a k-NN classifier and report the classification accuracy. But classification accuracy does not tell us the entire story about the goodness of an embedding space. Therefore, we run k-means clustering in the embedding space. Analogous to the hierarchical clustering, subclasses might exist on different scales. Our method provides a mechanism to target subclasses in different scales.


title: A Personalized Approach to Understanding Depression: Examining the Biological and Psychosocial Basis of Symptom Clusters

abstract: Despite the prevalence and impact of depression, effective treatments lag behind that of many physical conditions owing, in part, to the complexity of this disorder. Considering the heterogeneity of depression and comorbidities with other mental illnesses, a focus on the symptoms expressed and how these relate to psychosocial and biological factors, may inform a personalized treatment strategy. We developed transdiagnostic symptom clusters spanning boundaries of anxiety and depression that mapped onto specific psychosocial and biological factors. Namely, clusters representing the neurovegetative features of depression strongly related to inflammatory profiles, suggesting that this relationship is symptom specific. Moreover, clusters representing comorbid symptomatologies were associated with increased severity of symptoms, higher early life adversity scores and suicidal behaviours. The present study suggests distinct symptomatologies have differing biological underpinnings. Thus, shifting away from diagnostic categories and further exploring personalized approaches to better understand the neurobiology of depression and inform future treatments is warranted.


title: The Affective Threshold; or, The Sensational Account of Place Through Film

abstract: Architecture is persistently present in films; most human stories must take place somewhere. Architectural environments serve essential roles in cinematic world-making, conversely making cinema an ideal device to unravel the affective qualities of architecture. This dissertation proposes that film is not only a visual medium, but that in its world-making capacities it is a conveyor of haptic and kinesthetic experiences, which in consequence reveal to us the poetic, emotional, and experiential richness of place. To this end, the dissertation focuses on two key elements to support this argument. The first is, a specific approach to filmmaking: slow-cinema,2 which uses delay and the cinematic long-take as a way of engaging our empathy with the spatial experiences that films can produce. The second element is the haunted house as a location: the dissertation considers this as an essential place for psychosomatic health, where the ghost figure underscores the affective dimension of space. Each of the three chapters in this dissertation draws from phenomenology, film hermeneutics, and atmosphere theory to study portrayals of place through four haunted houses: an urban house through Luis Buñuel's Exterminating Angel (1962); a farmhouse and a palace through Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010) and Cemetery of Splendour (2015) by Apichatpong Weerasethakul; and a suburban house through David Lowery's A Ghost Story (2016). As the text progresses, questions of memory, imagination, embodiment, and world-making become the subject matter. I paid particular attention to the processes of reciprocal co-creation between film and world, and between world and self. The dissertation concludes by shedding light on the affective entanglement we form with our houses, and the capacity of cinema to enrich critical architectural discourse on the places we dwell in our everyday lives.


title: Dose-Response Modelling and Optimization of Quantitative High-Throughput Screening Assays

abstract: Human health risk assessment is a process designed to characterize potential health risks associated with exposure to environmental agents. Classically, it involves four main steps: (1) hazard identification, (2) dose-response assessment, (3) exposure assessment, and (4) risk characterization. Traditionally, toxicological testing has relied heavily on experimental animals to predict potential human health risk. Motivated in part by the 2007 U.S. National Research Council report, Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century: A Vision and a Strategy, there has been a shift towards new approach methodologies using in vitro, in silico, and in chemico techniques. Quantitative high-throughput screening (qHTS) is one such methodology that can rapidly produce in vitro assays for thousands of chemicals that can be analyzed for hazard identification and dose-response assessment purposes. This thesis provides a statistical foundation for effectively designing qHTS assays and extends the value of information (VOI) framework to allow for more realistic comparisons in practice. Using over 8,000 qHTS assays from the Tox21 program, we develop optimal designs that maximize the efficiency of BMD estimates. Further, we extend the framework for a VOI analysis to compare the benefits realized by collecting information to aid in health risk decision-making, including variables such as timeliness, cost, and reduction in uncertainty. Initially, the statistical properties of maximum likelihood estimators (MLEs) of the BMDs and underlying Hill model parameters are studied. A simulation study is performed to investigate the relationship between the properties of the MLEs and the observed concentration response curve (CRC). The development of optimal designs based on BMD estimates for qHTS assays and the comparison of efficiencies for six fixed designs (FDs) is considered next. The relatively low median relative efficiencies for the FDs suggests that without some knowledge of the model parameters, no fixed design can consistently deliver high efficiency across all shapes of CRCs. Finally, the VOI framework is extended by calculating the total social cost (TSC) over a specified time horizon instead of the annualized social cost (ASC) traditionally used in practice. The TSC uses the timeliness of information collected, thereby allowing for a more complete comparison of alternative toxicological testing methodologies.


title: Discrete Multitone Modulation for VSR and MR Electrical Interconnects and Optical Links

abstract: A rich modulation scheme based transceiver is designed and implemented with throughput and error rate being given a high priority in order to target the continued exponential growth in the demand of data traffic ranging from intrachip high speed busses to metropolitan scale data center interconnects. A thorough analysis of the selection of key design details is performed both through analytical derivations and measurements in both an electrical and an optical channel that have not been previously done. This work also work merges optimization techniques and introduces some that has not been used in previous work. This resulted in a transceiver achieving 250 Gbps, 3.5e-4 BER, spectral efficiency of 5.8 b/s/Hz, and an estimated power consumption of 5.1 pJ/b , qualifying it be superior to prior art as well as suitable for both low power and high throughput applications in both coherent and non-coherent flavours of transceivers.


title: Care Has Limits: Women's Moral Lives and Revised Meanings of Care Work

abstract: What exactly keeps women 'in' inequitable care relationships, and how do we get 'out'? This dissertation offers a timely response to a pressing societal problem - that of how to understand and organize care. Feminist scholarship and debates focus on the redistribution of care, considering how to shift care responsibilities from women to men or from individuals to the state. My research expands this work by critically reflecting on (shifting) relationships between women and the care economy with a focus on the moral dimensions of care work and on the narrative, intrasubjective work that women do. The research mobilizes sociological theories of care work, gender and moral worth, and uses feminist life history and arts-based, auto-ethnographic methods to contribute to a conceptual reimagining of "care." Taking an interpretive, narrative, feminist approach, I draw on 20 in-depth life history interviews with 12 participants, as well as on my own autoethnographic experiences as a live-in care worker at L'Arche. I analyze how women narrate renegotiating care responsibilities or expectations across our lives and in different paid and unpaid care contexts in Ontario, Canada. Making links to class, gender and conditions in the caring economy, the project contextualizes women's narratives of orienting to projects of care, negotiating moral dilemmas at the limits of care, and stepping back from or renegotiating care responsibilities. The study enriches feminist theories of care by developing a theorized account of the "relational care economy" that makes intrasubjective conditions, and the contradictions that people negotiate, central. I also contribute to a conceptual reimagining of "care" both by raising questions about whether "care as an ethic" should apply at the level of individual women's lives, as well as by calling for a conception of care that makes limits central. Aiming to foster solidarity amongst carers in different roles, I ask tough questions about what we expect of ourselves and others, how we can stop setting women up for such intimate losses, and how our lives can be otherwise.


title: Examining the Contribution of Responsivity Factors to the Dynamic Risk Assessment for Offender Re-entry

abstract: The RNR model is an effective method for reducing recidivism rates (Andrews & Bonta, 2010). While risk and need principles have garnered attention, responsivity factors are not as well understood. This study examined the use of specific responsivity factors - trauma, mental health, and self-efficacy in conjunction with the Dynamic Risk Assessment for Offender Re-entry (DRAOR) in predicting recidivism. Archival data were used from the Iowa Department of Corrections database to create a sample of male justice-involved persons (N = 3,703). Linear regressions revealed relationships between responsivity factors and total DRAOR scores and items of interest. Logistic regressions revealed relationships between responsivity factors and recidivism. Only trauma and self-efficacy incrementally predicted recidivism in addition to the DRAOR. The best model for predicting recidivism included DRAOR scores, trauma, and self-efficacy. This study demonstrates the usefulness of these items in case management as well as the importance of considering specific responsivity factors.


title: Patient-Specific Planning Target Volume Margins for Liver Stereotactic Robotic Radiosurgery

abstract: Purpose: To implement patient-specific planning target volume (PTV) margins for liver radiation therapy treatments. Methods and Materials: Treatment log files are analyzed to assess tumour motion-tracking accuracy. A uniform PTV margin is estimated that considers motion-tracking errors and deformations, provided that the impact of uncorrected rotations is minimized. A supervised machine learning algorithm is used to investigate if motion-tracking errors are less than 2 mm, and consequently, the standard PTV margins can be reduced by 2 mm. We employ a warning system that quantifies the probability of a geographic miss if the PTV margin is reduced for every subsequent fraction. A dosimetric analytical tool is proposed to retrospectively assess the dose to a target against different types of delivery errors. The tool is validated by radiochromic film measurements for liver and trigeminal neuralgia treatments. Case studies are conducted to access the suitability of a selected PTV margin based on the geometrical and dosimetric coverage of targets. The range of rotations that can be safely allowed for trigeminal neuralgia treatments is quantified since rotational corrections cannot be applied by the system for this specific disease site. Results: Isotropic 4 mm PTV margins are sufficient to account for tracking errors and deformations for 95% of patients. The accuracy of predicting if motion-tracking errors are less than 2 mm is 0.84 ± 0.06 using 5-fold cross-validation. Using the warning system, 11 out of 64 cases predicted to be treated with 2 mm reduced PTV margins might require replanning, but for each fraction they have more than 96% of target(s) encompassed by the reduced PTV. For experiments with different types of geometrical errors the dose measurements agree well (2%/2 mm level) with the dose distributions estimated using the dosimetric analytical tool. Dose to targets considering delivery errors can be significantly improved if treatments are planned following certain guidelines. For trigeminal neuralgia treatments, target rotations of up to 1° can be safe for some patients. Conclusions: It is feasible to implement patient-specific PTV margins in the clinic, assisted with an early-warning system and dosimetric analytical tool to warn of a potential geographic miss and underdosing of target(s).


title: Emotion Dynamics of Solitude: How Spending Time Alone Affects the Way We Experience and Manage Affect

abstract: Whether we are meeting friends or scrolling through social media, we spend most of our time entrenched in social activity. This is not surprising, as people tend to happier when they are with others. But is it possible that spending time alone can also make us feel better in some situations? The goal of this dissertation is to explore how solitude affects the way we experience and regulate emotions in daily life. Through the lens of emotion dynamics, solitude is conceptualized as a context in which emotions are deactivated, such that solitude helps reduce heightened emotional arousal (e.g., stress, excitation). However, the effects of solitude on emotions may be different depending on how one spends their time alone and their dispositions toward solitude. This dissertation research uses a Bayesian approach to explore the situational and individual factors that underlie the emotion dynamics of solitude.


title: Intruder Alert: Dimension Reduction and Density-Based Clustering for a Cybersecurity Application

abstract: This thesis examines the use of Principal Component Analysis, Robust Principal Component Analysis, and simple autoencoders for dimension reduction on a synthetic cybersecurity dataset. Each is tested as a precur- sor to Independent Component Analysis. Stable independent components are obtained by iterative random- ized starts to FastICA and selecting the centroids of the hierarchically clustered components. A density-based clustering method is then applied to the results with the goal of isolating malicious observations from benign ones using greatest distance between centroids as a heuristic metric of success. The method is then applied to a real-world cybersecurity dataset from an industry partner.


title: Development of Testing Facilities and Procedures for Seismic Performance of Suspended Ceilings

abstract: This study presents the initiation of Phase II of an international joint collaborative research project that is being carried out by researchers in Japan, China and Canada on the seismic performance of suspended non-structural components in supertall buildings. Research infrastructure was developed in this study for testing and evaluation of seismic performance of non-structural components. In addition to the development of the new research infrastructure, the development of a research program on testing of suspended ceiling systems by using the new research facilities was also included in this research. In this study, previous experimental and numerical analysis research on the seismic performance of suspended ceilings are reviewed. This study also investigates the variation in design codes between the National Building Code of Canada and the International Building Code. Finally, the current seismic testing procedure is evaluated with simulated floor response records.


title: Gender Mobility on Guatemala City's Transmetro:  Women's lived experiences of public transportation

abstract: Research interest in gender mobility is increasing, emphasizing the need to incorporate women's perspectives and experiences in the planning and design of public transportation. This project aims to understand women's experiences on Guatemala City's Transmetro, the local bus rapid transit (BRT) system, to contribute to safer, more equitable, and inclusive transportation. Using a case study approach and feminist methodologies, this study captures participants' perceptions of safety, everyday coping strategies on transit, and access issues. While Transmetro is considered safe both in actual and perceived terms, participants expressed mobility constraints based on safety perceptions, namely sexual harassment and theft, as contributing to insecurity and fear. Fear and insecurity throughout the whole journey are two of the greatest challenges for women's mobility. I argue that women's mobility should be framed as a rights issue of access to public goods and provide recommendations at different scales to address women's safety.


title: Attachment Anxiety is Associated with Restrictive Eating via Low Global Self-Esteem and Appearance Overvaluation

abstract: This research explored the relationship between attachment, appearance overvaluation, global self-esteem, and restrictive eating in a secondary analysis of a community sample of undergraduate women. Participants (N = 527) completed the Experiences in Close Relationships questionnaire (Lafontaine et al., 2016), Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES; Rosenberg, 1965), Beliefs About Appearance Scale (Spangler & Stice, 2001), and the restriction subscale of the Eating Disorders Examination-Questionnaire (EDE-Q; Fairburn & Beglin, 1994). A serial mediation analysis was conducted to examine associations between these variables. Women higher in attachment anxiety reported greater appearance overvaluation, via lower global self-esteem, and reported more restrictive eating through lower global self-esteem and higher appearance overvaluation. Attachment avoidance was not related to appearance overvaluation or restrictive eating but was associated with lower global self-esteem. These results may inform prevention efforts, by identifying individuals with attachment anxiety, who may be more vulnerable to low global self-esteem, appearance overvaluation, and restrictive eating.


title: The Reception of The Ladies Paradise in Nineteenth-Century England and the Fight Against Sensual Capitalism

abstract: This thesis shows how through studying Emile Zola's The Ladies Paradise (1883), we can develop a stronger understanding of late Victorian political economy. Further, some late Victorians were very hesitant to embrace unbridled sensual capitalism for fear of enticing increased women's right movements. I discuss this through exploring the reception of the novel and writings produced by late Victorian conservative thinker and anti-feminist Lynn Linton. This thesis applies the theory of fetishisation of commodities, value theory, value augmentation and accumulation, as provided by Karl Marx, along with theories of political economy provided by Walter Bagehot, to show how these theories were ultimately limited in their scope and understanding of Victorian political economy. A theoretical approach on sensual capitalism as outlined by the Bryan Nelson and David Howes, combined with twentieth-century consumption theorists, will inform my arguments throughout in order to fill the silences in Bagehot and Marx's theories.


title: Code-Independent Error Floor Estimation Techniques for Flooding and Layered Decoders of LDPC Codes

abstract: Finite-length low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes under iterative message passing algorithms suffer from error floor. In this thesis, we study the harmfulness of problematic graphical structures of LDPC codes, collectively referred to as trapping sets (TSs), which play important roles in the error floor performance of LDPC codes. Our proposed methods fit in the code-independent category of techniques in estimation and analysis of TSs. The linear state-space model is a well-known code-independent method to estimate the contribution of a trapping set structure to the error floor of LDPC codes. In this thesis we first provide an in-depth analysis of this method by incorporating a more accurate model of a TS in the error floor region. We then propose an alternate code-independent technique for the error floor estimation that is applicable to any saturating iterative message-passing decoder, symmetrically quantized or unquantized, over any memoryless binary-input output-symmetric channel We also analyze and optimize the error floor of quasi-cyclic (QC) LDPC codes decoded by the sum-product algorithm (SPA) with row layered message-passing scheduling. By developing a linear model we demonstrate that the contribution of each TS to the error floor is not only a function of the topology of the TS, but also depends on the row layers in which different check nodes of the TS are located. We extend the model of row layered schedule to the column layered decoders and demonstrate that the model parameters for the latter are derived differently than those of the former. We also show that, depending on TS structures and their layer profiles, the error floor of column layered decoders can be better or worse than that of their row layered counterparts. Finally, we propose a semi-linear state-space model of TSs in which, rather than the fixed operating point of zero, used in the original linear state-space model, the operational points are estimated dynamically. Compared to the linear state-space model, the proposed method is not only more accurate, but also has the advantage of error extrapolation, i.e., error floor estimation at different signal to noise ratios (SNRs) based on the estimated error rate at a specific SNR.


title: The Implications of Degrees of Belief in Free Will

abstract: Belief in free will (whatever free will may exactly be) seems to influence our attitudes and behaviors, from cognition all the way up to meta-cognition. Several researchers recognized the importance of this area a little more than a decade ago and set up camps within the boundaries of philosophy and psychology to examine belief in free will in the general public. But as could be expected, this area, like every other up-and-coming field of study, has its fair share of problems. This thesis is, first, a critique of the prominent instruments being employed in the field, and second, presents a novel approach that bypasses the many problems that exist within the current literature. Subsequently, after employing our proposed free will item along with several other measures, we were able to demonstrate that different degrees of belief in free will only sometimes influence laypeople's attitudes and behaviors.


title: Characterization of Proteins Involved in MYB Transcription Factor Complexes that Regulate Suberin Deposition in Arabidopsis thaliana

abstract: Terrestrial plants deposit cell wall-associated, glycerolipid-based polymeric barriers in specific tissue layers to help protect themselves from various environmental stresses. One of these layers, suberin, influences water uptake and retention, ion transport, and gas exchange within roots. A set of myeloblastosis (MYB)-type transcription factors (TFs) have been found to regulate suberin production. The main focus of this study was to characterize protein-protein interactions involving MYB TFs that regulate suberin deposition in root endodermis. Results indicate that: 1) MYB92 and MYB93 interact directly with bHLH111 (a basic helix-loop-helix TF); 2) expression pattern of the bHLH111 gene was consistent with a role in regulating suberin deposition; and 3) knock-out mutations of bHLH111 and the related bHLH112 gene were found to have reduced levels of suberin in Arabidopsis roots. Altogether, these findings provide evidence for bHLH proteins working together with MYB TFs to regulate suberin production in the root endodermis of Arabidopsis.


title: Three Essays in Macroeconomics with a Focus on Market Power

abstract: This thesis includes three essays on macroeconomics. In the first essay, I study the impacts of the rising market power. The market power, which is measured by markups, has risen in the last 35 years of the U.S. corporate sector. Over the same time, the labour and capital shares of income and the real rate of return on capital have declined, while the wealth-output ratio has increased. I argue that in the presence of income inequality, the rise of market power can be one of the main drivers of these trends. To study the trends jointly, I combine the incomplete market model of Aiyagari (1994) with the imperfect competition model of Dixit and Stiglitz (1997). The results suggest that the increasing profit of the corporate sector and its unequal distribution among households, who have a heterogeneous marginal propensity to consume, provide a unified explanation for the above stylized facts of the U.S. economy. In the second essay, I examine the evolution of markups in the Canadian economy. The literature on firm-level markup estimation suffers from two problems: The lack of a reliable measure of variable input and the sample selection bias due to using only publicly-traded firms. To address these issues, I use the T2-Longitudinal Employment Analysis Program (T2-LEAP) database, which has the universe of Canadian firms and the record of wage bill for each firm. The wage bill is more reliable than the commonly used measures of variable inputs, i.e. the cost of goods sold and the operating expenses. The result indicates that the average gross (value-added) output markups increased mildly from 6% (24%) in 2002 to 9% (29%) in 2015. In the third essay, I introduce a new approach to estimate firm-level markups from accounting data. The new approach, which uses economic profit rates and returns to scale of firms, is less sensitive to the choice of the measure of variable inputs. The findings suggest that, in the U.S., the average markups increased by six percentage points, from 7% in 1980 to around 13% in 2018, and the production technology exhibits constant returns to scale.


title: Biotransformation of 8:2 Monosubstituted Polyfluoroalkyl Phosphate in Rat & Human Liver, Intestine, and Fecal in Vitro Suspensions

abstract: Polyfluoroalkyl phosphate esters (PAPs) have been used in many commercial and industrial applications due to their grease and water repellency, and surfactant properties. However, these compounds yield transformation products such as fluorotelomer alcohols (FTOHs) and perfluorinated carboxylic acids (PFCAs) that are environmentally persistent, bioaccumulative, and potentially toxic. Given that PAPs metabolize to bioactive products, it is important to understand the sites and kinetics of this metabolism. This research compares the biotransformation of a representative PAP, the 8:2 monosubstituted polyfluoroalkyl phosphate (8:2 monoPAP) in typical host biotransformation sites, the liver and intestine, to the mammalian microbiome. The 8:2 monoPAP was incubated in human and rat (male Sprague-Dawley) liver and intestine S9 fractions, and its immediate hydrolysis products, 8:2 fluorotelomer alcohol (8:2 FTOH) was monitored by GC-MS. Human and rat fecal samples were also collected, used as a surrogate for the gastrointestinal microbiome. Enzyme hydrolysis kinetics were measured and compared. Results show that the rat and human gut phosphatases have 2-fold and 1.3-fold more affinity for 8:2 monoPAP transformation, respectively (KM(rat)= (1.2 ± 0.3) ×103nM; KM(human)= 34(1.6 ± 0.4) ×103 nM) compared to liver (KM(rat)= (4.0 ± 1.5) ×103nM; KM(human)= (4.9 ± 3.3) ×103 nM). Results also show the microbiome contributes to 8:2 monoPAP hydrolysis. While the liver and intestine are the primary sites for metabolism, the microbiome playsa role and should not be overlooked. This may impact the relative risk of PAP exposure, given that levels of bioactive products, including PFCAs, may fluctuate depending on environmental and genetic factors leading to microbial diversity across individuals.


title: Photonic Integrated Circuits for Application in Optical Routing, Computing and Beamforming

abstract: The Phase of the guided light is a fundamental and important property to control and operate a photonic integrated circuit (PIC). Silicon photonic PICs provide potential for low-cost, scalable solutions to a myriad of applications such as optical logic, optical communications and routing. This thesis presents a theoretical and experimental demonstration of controlling an on-chip optical phased array (OPA) - a photonic device for optical beamforming and beam steering. This thesis also presents a work on optical logic architectures where two different phase control schemes are applied on the same device. Finally, optical routing architectures are proposed that has ultracompact photonic switches as the building block. All these devices fall under the umbrella of programmable PICs and this thesis is focused on the design and control of programmable PICS for various applications.


title: Is Phonological Short-term Memory Related to Orthographic Learning?

abstract: This thesis examined orthographic learning in university students and asked: (a) To what extent do university students demonstrate orthographic learning of novel words encountered through text? (b) What are the sources of individual differences in university student's orthographic learning? The participants had an average accuracy of 63% and 74% for the orthographic form on day one of testing and three days later, respectively. Logistic regression revealed that students who were better spellers had higher accuracy on the orthographic learning task and suggested that phonological STM might also be related to delayed retention of orthographic forms. Taken together, these results illustrate that university students learn the orthographic form of words encountered through texts. These results also help clarify some of the skills that university students might draw on to support their orthographic learning through text, namely existing orthographic knowledge and skill with remembering the phonological form of newly heard words.


title: Fire performance of concealed wood-steel-wood connections with perpendicular to grain reinforcement

abstract: This study aimed to investigate the fire behaviour of concealed connections by considering the effects of parameters such as the number of bolts, bolt pattern and load ratios. The connections used for this study were fire-protected glulam beam-to-column reinforced concealed connections loaded perpendicular-to-grain in flexure bending. Eight (8) full-scale fire tests were conducted involving four different connection configurations. The load ratios applied during fire testing were 60%, 100% and 130% of the ultimate design load capacity of the weakest unreinforced connection configuration. The test results showed that the failure times of all the tested beam-to-column concealed connections were more than 50 minutes. Specimens with bolt pattern P1 performed better than bolt pattern P2. The results showed that increasing the number of bolts improved the failure time. Increasing the load ratio decreased the failure time of the connections. The brittle failure modes encountered in unreinforced concealed connections was prevented using STS.


title: Modeling of CFRP-Strengthened RC Shear Walls with a Focus on End-Anchor Effects

abstract: This paper first provides an overview of a series of experimental studies carried out at Carleton University over the past two decades on reinforced concrete (RC) shear walls strengthened or repaired with carbon fibre-reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheets. These studies have led to several unique contributions including the development of a novel tube anchor system, which improves the load transfer mechanism between the CFRP and RC supporting structural elements. The paper then presents a new finite element modelling technique to analyze CFRP strengthened RC shear walls with the newly developed tube anchor system. Two different modelling approaches are proposed to consider the effects of the tube anchor system. Additionally, a number of other important CFRP- and RC-related mechanisms including CFRP debonding effects, tension stiffening, compression softening, and strength and stiffness degradation under cyclic loads are also considered in the model. The numerical models were able to replicate accurately the measured results.


title: Financial Inclusion in Africa

abstract: Financial inclusion is a relatively new phenomenon. Today, more than sixty countries around the world have a financial inclusion strategy, and still, 1.7 billion people around the world remain unbanked. Various influences impact the degree of financial inclusion in a country, i.e. education. Although financial inclusion is most commonly found in developing countries, scholars have found that a lack of education is an explanation for financial exclusion in developed countries. The paper tries to answer the question; does more educational spending lead to more financial inclusion? Although there is evidence from different countries that education remains an important issue in the whole financial inclusion debate, this paper demonstrates that there is no direct relationship between governmental expenditures on education and financial inclusion. Still, the four-country analysis investigates various issues such as the role of government and concludes that financial inclusion does not always mean financial inclusion.


title: Analyzing Incomplete Longitudinal Binary Data Using Approximate Likelihood Methods

abstract: Nonignorable missingness in the outcome variable complicates the longitudinal data analysis, as it is necessary to incorporate the missing data model into the observed data likelihood function. We investigate two approximate likelihood methods, bivariate pseudo-likelihood (BPL) of Sinha et al. (2011) and independent pseudo-likelihood (IPL) of Troxel et al. (1998), along with the exact likelihood, for analyzing longitudinal data with nonignorable and nonmonotone missing responses. Our numerical study shows that the BPL is more efficient than the IPL method in terms of both smaller biases and MSEs, especially when the within-subject correlation is high. Investigating the standard errors of estimators in an application with real world data, we also get similar findings. Overall, similarly to Sinha et al. (2011), our study confirms better performance of the BPL method over the IPL method when the number of longitudinal outcomes from a given subject is small.


title: The Dispossession of the Míkmaq Indians from Chignecto to Elsipogtog: A Case Study Analysis of the Health Determinants of the Physical Environment

abstract: Traditionally, the Míkmaq enjoyed an interconnected relationship with the land, harvesting what they needed from the earth and the ocean, guided by the concept of Netukulimk, the practice of sustainability. Upon the arrival of European settlers, new trade practices were introduced, and what was once plentiful was quickly depleted. Although the original inhabitants were assured that their lands would be protected by agreements and treaties, these assurances proved to be false, and the traditional relationship with the land was threatened, as the Míkmaq—presaging the fate of most Indigenous  Peoples in Canada—were dispossessed of their historical lands and forced to live on reserves; many of them far away from the environments to which they had had biological and spiritual ties. Land is central to our understanding of current Indigenous health issues; centering around how the Míkmaq traditionally employed land and resources, what changes in that relationship were brought about by colonization, and how their removal to reserves influenced their relationship vis-à-vis their environment. In addressing the ways that land policies, post-first contact, were developed and implemented  over time, it is possible and necessary to juxtapose that history with the story of the forced mobilization of the Míkmaq, and examine the effects that the dispossession of land had upon their livelihood and economic activity. Informed by McGibbon's paradigm of the cycles of oppression, Boyer's study of the determinants of health is used as a lens to undertake an historical analysis of the habitation patterns of the Míkmaq who formerly resided in Sikniktuk (currently concentrated in Elsipogtog, once known as Big Cove Reserve and Richibucto Reserve #15). This critical ethnography argues that  while dispossession from traditional lands and the subsequent decline of the Míkmaq population constitute a profoundly negative social determinant of health, the Elsipogtog community has responded to these conditions with resilience and perseverance.


title: Selective Thermoplasmonic Embedment Of Supported Silver Nanocrystals

abstract: Noble metal nanocrystals are known for their unique optical and electronic properties which stem from their ability to support localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR). In the past twenty years there has been an increase in the interest in the field of thermoplasmonics which focuses on harnessing the LSPR properties of nanoparticles for localized heating applications. The goal of this work was to investigate the selective thermoplasmonic embedment of silver nanocubes (AgNCs) and silver nanocube clusters (AgClusters) in supported monolayers. Wavelengths of 458 nm and 568 nm were chosen to selectively thermoplasmonically excite and embed individual AgNCs and AgClusters respectively. Based on the embedment patterns achieved with the respective wavelengths, it was determined that both types of selective embedment were attained. In addition to being the first reported instance of spatially resolved thermoplasmonics in supported nanoparticle monolayers, these selective embedment techniques show promise for future applications in nanopatterning.


title: Automated Identification of Myenteric Ganglia in Histopathology Images for the Study of Hirschsprung’s Disease

abstract: Automating digital pathology processing to identify ganglia in seromuscular biopsies from patients with Hirschsprung's disease may be able to provide objective measures and minimize evaluation time for expert pathologists. This adjunctive tool has the potential to improve surgical success for treatment. With thirty patient images, we proposed and evaluated an image processing pipeline that identifies colon tissue structures containing myenteric ganglia. This is an undertaking that is the first of its kind. From whole slide images of calretinin-stained colon sections, we initially segmented the muscularis propria using a convolutional neural network resulting in a mean inclusion of myenteric plexus of 95.96%. Then, colour thresholding identified myenteric plexus regions with a mean inclusion of ganglia of 99.2%. Finally, within these ideal search spaces, we segmented and classified ganglia candidates to achieve an overall mean precision and recall of 64.8% and 80.2%, respectively. Preliminary results encourage further development of these algorithms.


title: Perfectionism, Goal Pursuit, and Work-Related Outcomes: A Self-Determination Theory Perspective

abstract: Adopting a self-determination theory perspective, the present study sought to investigate how two forms of perfectionism at work, personal standards and self-critical perfectionism, differentially impact goal pursuit, motivation, and various work-related outcomes among employees. One hundred and eighty-one working adults participated, and two time points were used in our analyses. Results show that perfectionism does not predict goal progress for work-related goals. Personal standards perfectionism was associated with increased subjective well-being, whereas self-critical perfectionism was related to increased burnout and workaholism, and decreased subjective well-being over time. Results show that these relationships are not reciprocal in nature, thus perfectionism can be viewed as an antecedent to these work outcomes. Moreover, work motivation was shown to mediate the relationship between both forms of perfectionism and job satisfaction, and the relationship between self-critical perfectionism and subjective well-being. Implications of our findings are discussed in the context of organizations and work adjustment programs.


title: The History, Mechanics, and Strength of Stone Buttresses in Canada

abstract: Stone buildings are important representations of the history of the country and should be preserved for future generations. One of the major concerns with these structures is the out-of-plane strength of the walls under earthquake loads. Many of these buildings, notably churches, include buttresses which were originally included to improve the out-of-plane strength of the walls. Current Codes and Standards in Canada do not provide guidance for engineers to assess the out-of-plane strength of walls with buttresses. An Applied Element Method(AEM) software was then used to recreate existing experimental data on the out-of-plane and in plane strength of stone masonry walls, and the model was modiﬁed to analyze the behaviour of buttresses. The results from the modelling programme are related back to historic and modern analysis methods obtained from a thorough literature review.


title: Resident Inclusion in the Age of Participation: A Study of Toronto’s Participatory Budgeting Pilot Project 2015-2017

abstract: Participatory budgeting and other participatory forms of public engagement have reached a high point of popularity as a best practice of democratic government. This gives some cause for celebration for those seeking to democratize democracy. However, recent scholarship has revealed a perplexing paradox in how new opportunities for resident involvement remain countered by pre-existing approaches to decision-making guided by abstract notions of public interest. This dissertation investigates this paradox by focusing on one of the newest cases of participatory budgeting in North America emerging from one of North America's biggest cities. As an investigation of the City of Toronto's participatory budgeting pilot project, running from 2015 to 2017, this dissertation demonstrates that this paradox is indeed taking place in Toronto. Using a Gramscian analysis of power with a particular focus on the construction of knowledge, this dissertation provides a plausible narrative of how participatory ideals are mobilized alongside prevailing forms of authority to provide new participatory opportunities for involvement without a significant transition of power.


title: Soil moisture variability: a field application of time domain reflectometry

abstract:
Soil moisture variability and available water content are influenced by grain size distribution, organic content, bulk density and soil structure. Each of these soil character!' sties is discussed in relationship to one another and soil moisture variability. A mathematical model is derived for estimating moisture content at field capacity, permanent wilting point and maximum available water content. Seven soil classes are included, ranging from clay to sandy loam.
A brief description of four methods for determining moisture content are presented: Time Domain Reflectometry (TDR), gravimetrics, porous resistance blocks and neutron scattering. The advantages and disadvantages of each method are discussed.
The design of a field study using TDR for determining in situ soil moisture content is presented. TDR lends itself to this application, since it is a non-destructive procedure allowing for repetitive moisture determinations at the same location. Field portability and ease of operation enhance its use.


title: Exploring the Potential of a Formula-Enhanced Approach for Speech Act Teaching in Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada

abstract: Pragmatic formulas can augment both pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic aspects of second language (L2) pragmatic competence and serve as linguistic building blocks necessary for successful speech act performance (Bardovi-Harlig, 2012). Major approaches to speech act teaching (e.g., Martinez-Flor & Uso-Juan, 2006) encourage explicit meta-pragmatic explanations aimed at drawing learners' attention to degrees of power, distance, and imposition; however, these approaches make vague references to pragmatic formulas despite their pragmalinguistic value, promoting an unbalanced view of pragmatics instruction. In addition, there is an urgent need for classroom-based studies targeting L2 pragmatics in community-based language programs, such as Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) since the majority of existing teaching intervention studies in this area have been conducted in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) settings (e.g., Bardovi-Harlig & Vellenga, 2012). To address these gaps, an approach to teaching L2 pragmatics that goes beyond awareness-raising and consists of a carefully planned instructional sequence enhanced by an explicit focus on pragmatic formulas was developed for this study; this approach was contrasted with the more widely recommended awareness-raising approach. A two-cycle qualitative utterance analysis was conducted to determine how pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic abilities of the students in both treatment groups evolved after the intervention. In addition, three trained expert judges evaluated students' pragmatic performance to complement the findings of the qualitative utterance analysis. To determine which pedagogical features of the formula-enhanced approach make it more effective, eight instructional treatment sessions were observed, and the recorded classroom episodes were qualitatively analyzed. The results showed that formula-enhanced pragmatics instruction can help L2 learners achieve higher levels of both pragmatic and grammatical proficiency by contributing to lexical richness and nativelikeness of expression and preventing negative transfer from the first language or overreliance on the same formula when producing various speech acts. The findings of the classroom observation analysis revealed that the main pedagogical advantage of the formula-enhanced approach is that it provides L2 learners with multiple opportunities to build appropriate form-function-context connections which can facilitate higher levels of cognitive processing of input leading to bottom-up discovery of the target pragmatic conventions and long-term retention of nativelike pragmatic formulas.


title: Real-Time Path Planning for Needle Insertion With Multiple Targets

abstract: Needle insertion into soft tissue has gained considerable attention in recent years in medical applications due to its ever-increasing potential in minimally invasive procedures. Steerable bevel-tip needles offer higher maneuverability independent of the insertion depth and, consequently, are preferable in many needle steering applications compared to symmetric-tip needles. However, due to the nonholonomic kinematics of the bevel-tip needle inside soft tissue, its path planning poses a considerable challenge. Though the topic of single-target path planning is rather well studied and researched, the multiple-target path-planning problem remains under-researched. In this work, we study the path-planning problem for multiple targets based on Rapidly-Exploring-Random-Tree (RRT) algorithms. These algorithms are proper candidates for intra-operative planning of needle motion due to their fast computation and simple implementations. They also work well in high-dimensional configuration spaces and under nonholonomic kinematic constraints, both of which are the characteristics of steerable bevel-tip needle motion inside soft tissue. We present two novel RRT-based path-planning approaches to steerable bevel-tip needles to reach multiple targets inside soft tissue: a 2D path planner for preoperative applications and a 3D real-time path planner for intraoperative applications. In both planners, without the needle having to completely retract and reinsert toward each separate target, the amount of tissue damage compared to the conventional sequential insertion of the needle toward each target decreases significantly. Particularly, our 3D planner works well in real-world applications where tissue and anatomical structures may vary due to tissue deformation during insertion, patient's motion, or physiological changes. In addition, our 3D planner accounts for the needle's natural curvature variation during insertion due to tissue inhomogeneity. Moreover, both of the proposed planners have real clinical applications, where the limited size of the workspace as well as the needle's limited natural curvature impose significant limitations on the needle's path-planning problem inside soft tissue. Unlike the optimization-based methods with exponential time complexity, our planners work well with as many targets as required. Simulations demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed planners in terms of minimum targeting error and decreased needle insertion length vis-a-vis the sequential insertion of the needle for each target.


title: Communicating HVAC Operation Through a Thermostat Interface: An In-Situ Implementation to Improve Perceived Control and Thermal Comfort in Offices

abstract: Personal control through thermostats is well understood to increase thermal comfort; however, the usability of thermostats can play a role in realizing these benefits. This thesis contributes to the understanding of how thermostat interfaces and the operation of HVAC control systems can affect perceived control in offices. Phase 1 applied an analysis of the building performance combined with a survey to identify barriers to usability in the offices. Phase 2 involved the development and implementation of three features, using design techniques from the field of human factors, which addressed the usability issues found in Phase 1. Phase 3 aimed to measure the operation and gather feedback on these implemented features. The research was performed on 25 offices in an institutional building. It is expected that the issues found in this building are widespread, and the solutions developed can be iterated and applied to other institutional and commercial buildings with offices.


title: Perceiver – A Five-view Stereo System for High-quality Disparity Generation and its Application in Video Post-Production

abstract: Element extraction from videos has always been a time-consuming process in the entertainment industry. In this research, we explored the possibility of simplifying the video object extraction technique with corresponding depth sequences. Based on post-production quality requirements, we developed our disparity enhancing system by integrating our two-axis-multi-view-stereo method that perceives an environment from five different perspectives on both x and y axes. Our research results have shown that the disparity quality of our approach is both visually and quantitatively more accurate than the traditional one-stereo-pair method, and its object extraction (i.e., matting) quality is comparable with existing mature matting technique to a certain extent. This research output can be applied in video object cut-out, visual effects composition, video's 2D to 3D conversion, and image post-processing. With further improvement, our system might be applicable in AR, VR, machine vision, and auto-pilot areas.


title: An Apple Out of Reach: The Unattainable Ideal Beloved and Sappho’s Poetics in the Poetry of Marguerite Yourcenar and Anne Carson

abstract: The way the Archaic Greek poet Sappho and her poetry is represented and engaged with in the writing of Anne Carson and Marguerite Yourcenar appears on the surface to be decidedly disparate. However, when the thematic elements of Yourcenar and Carson's respective Sapphic texts are excavated, the two authors in fact demonstrate resemblance, specifically in how they both engage with Sappho and her poetry as a way to push eroticism beyond the profane and into the realm of the sacred. By drawing on criticism of Sappho, moral philosophy, and other writings from Yourcenar and Carson, I argue that both Youcenar and Carson invoke Sappho as an incarnation of the ideal beloved inside the text and in their biographies.


title: Frozen but alive: Molecular responses to autophagy, angiogenesis and energy metabolism in the stress-tolerant wood frog, Rana sylvatica

abstract: The freeze-tolerant wood frogs (Rana sylvatica) are incredible creatures that can tolerate the freezing of up to ~70% of their total body water during winter. Once frozen, these frogs are considered clinically dead, exhibiting no signs of breathing, heartbeat, muscle movement and nerve conductance; yet, they come back to life, unharmed, after a few hours of thawing. Freezing is associated with ischemia due to the freezing of the blood, with hyperglycemia due to the production of large quantities of glucose for cryoprotection, and with dehydration as water moves from inside the cell to the extracellular space to prevent intracellular freezing. Interestingly, wood frogs can tolerate all these stresses independently of freezing, thereby creating a multifactorial model for studying vertebrate freeze-tolerance. Oxygen availability is very low to non-existing during freezing, anoxia, and dehydration; therefore, wood frogs are hypothesized to reduce their overall metabolic rates to balance energy production with energy expenditure in a process called metabolic rate depression (MRD). Animals that undergo MRD reduce energy expensive or detrimental processes and allocate the limited energy available only to pro-survival responses. This thesis examined the effects of freezing and its associated stress on responses to autophagy, angiogenesis, select group of antioxidant enzymes, and energy metabolism. Molecular responses to autophagy demonstrate a significant reduction in autophagosome formation and lysosomal biogenesis in response to anoxia/reoxygenation and to a lesser degree in response to dehydration/rehydration in liver, whereas these two processes were significantly reduced under all conditions in skeletal muscle. Current results also indicate that angiogenesis is regulated in a temporal and stress-dependent manner, where wood frogs increase the expression of certain pro- and anti-angiogenic factors in anticipation of potential damage to capillaries or injury to tissues. Investigation into the role of ETS1 as a transcriptional activator and repressor demonstrated its potential involvement in promoting the expression of select antioxidant enzymes, while repressing the expression of certain nuclear-encoded mitochondrial proteins. Overall, findings in this thesis demonstrate the complexity of the mechanisms involved in controlling metabolic rate depression in adaptive responses in wood frogs.


title: Data-Driven Patient Motion Compensation in Cardiac Positron Emission Tomography

abstract: Positron emission tomography (PET) is a molecular imaging modality that has been demonstrated to be a powerful, non-invasive, tool for the assessment and diagnosis of cardiac pathologies like coronary artery disease. The accuracy of these clinical examinations for detecting and prognosticating disease can be marred in cases where patient motion is severe. Clinical use of motion tracking/compensation tools, however, is relatively uncommon partly due to the increases in complexity and time of patient setup prior to imaging. The purpose of the work described here was to develop and evaluate new methods of patient motion detection and compensation in the context of cardiac PET imaging studies that are less complex than standard commercial options in the hope of reducing barriers to clinical adoption. The proposed methods are based on measuring and tracking the motion of a low-activity radioactive marker placed on patients using the positron emission tracking (PeTrack) algorithm. Motion information was employed to compensate and/or correct for either respiratory or whole-body patient motion. The performance of PeTrack for respiratory tracking and motion compensation was evaluated in a clinical population in comparison with a commonly used commercial optical tracking device. Within a practical comparison framework PeTrack was shown to perform comparably to the commercial system. From this comparison shortcomings of both PeTrack and the commercial system were identified; knowledge of the former can inform future development and improvement. A method for whole-body patient motion correction (WBMC) in static cardiac perfusion studies using PeTrack was developed. Motion corrected images demonstrated significantly less blurring of the myocardial walls and improved contrast. Relative perfusion measurements among the clinical data sets were not significantly affected although the extent of patient motion was limited. The WBMC algorithm was extended for dynamic acquisitions used for quantification of myocardial blood flow. Motion detection and estimation with PeTrack was compared to that of another data-driven motion tracking algorithm within a clinical population. Body motion estimation with PeTrack was more robust than the alternative method. Motion correction using PeTrack demonstrated improvement among various quality indicators of the kinetic modelling used to estimate blood flow.


title: “They Just Don’t Get It”: Snapshots from Siblings of Children with Life Limiting Conditions

abstract: Using photovoice, this thesis investigates the lived experiences of siblings of children with life limiting conditions (LLCs). Using the participant-produced photos to guide the thesis, I present their stories in a way that will allow readers to visually understand what it means to be a sibling to a child with an LLC. This thesis dissects the various emotions that are experienced by these siblings every day and discusses their importance. It also examines the daily lives of these siblings and how they care for their brothers and sisters. This thesis challenges previous beliefs that having a sibling with a disability is always detrimental to the siblings' well-being. Additionally, I will challenge my own use of photovoice and discuss complications with the method. This thesis fills a gap in existing literature while showcasing the beautiful snapshots of these siblings' lives while challenging ableist narratives of sibling relationships.


title: Error Correcting Codes in Post-Quantum Cryptography

abstract: This thesis gives an overview of the currently most mature key encapsulation mecha- nisms (KEMs) based on the theory of error correcting codes. It includes an introduc- tion to the theory of error correcting codes in so much as it applies to these systems and how it can be used to encapsulate keys through a public key (PK) cryptosystem. In order to add context to the KEMs, first the required basics of coding theory and a selection of some of the most common error correcting codes are covered. Then, we revisit public key cryptosystems, key encapsulation, and the security threat models that are being used. This is followed by a thorough description of the current NIST candidates for KEM using post-quantum cryptography: Classic McEliece, BIKE, LEDAcrypt, and HQC.


title: Large scale investigation in yeast to identify novel gene(s) involved in mRNA non-stop decay pathway

abstract: Nonstop decay is an mRNA degradation pathway involved in identifying and eliminating nonstop transcripts. Compared to other RNA degradation pathways, very little is known about the NSD mechanism. To identify novel genes involved in NSD, we performed a large-scale analysis, and identified 68 gene candidates. From these results we picked three helicases, NAM7, ECM32, and SKI2 to further investigate. Spot test and colony count assay confirmed the role of selected candidates in NSD. The abundance of the nonstop mRNA was then evaluated using qRT-PCR method, and it was confirmed that the deletions of the selected candidates had no significant effect on nonstop gene at the transcriptional level when compared to the wildtype strain. Negative genetic interaction revealed association between candidate genes and translational regulation genes. The results of this study confirm the role of candidates in NSD but further research to characterize the genes.


title: Bashful Behaviours: The Association Between Perceived Vulnerability and the Dark Tetrad Personality Traits

abstract: The current study sought to examine how nonverbal cues relate to self-perceptions of vulnerability (Study 1) as well as how personality constructs, like the Dark Tetrad (i.e., Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy, sadism), influence the detection and assessment of vulnerability within others (Study 2). Results from Study 1 suggest that women lacking in assertiveness are more likely to perceive themselves as vulnerable and engage in specific nonverbal behaviours (e.g., self-touch), while Study 2 indicates that although the dark traits do not appear to have an enhanced ability to detect self-perceived vulnerability in others, they are more likely to rely on intuition or non-behavioural cues (e.g., physical appearance) when assessing vulnerability. Alternatively, those high in honesty-humility personality traits were more likely to utilize behavioural cues including facial expressions, emotional appearance, and posture. Taken together, this research suggests that personality traits and nonverbal behaviours are relevant and important indicators of vulnerability.


title: Mock Jurors’ Perceptions of Eyewitness Evidence: The Role of Familiarity with the Defendant, Race of the Defendant, and Eyewitness Confidence

abstract: Almost exclusively, eyewitness research in the context of juror decision-making has examined the situation where the eyewitness and defendant are strangers. The purpose of the current study was to examine how prior familiarity with the defendant together with eyewitness confidence and defendant race influence mock jurors' perceptions of the eyewitness evidence and defendant guilt. Mock jurors (N = 427) read a trial transcript from a mock robbery case that involved eyewitness dentification evidence. Both defendant race and eyewitness confidence were found to influence jurors' judgments with more positive perceptions of the eyewitness and higher perceptions of the defendant's guilt when the eyewitness identified the same-race defendant and when he expressed high identification confidence, respectively. Although familiarity was not influential in their legal judgments, mock jurors' subjective perceptions of the eyewitness-defendant familiarity were associated with their judgments and verdict decisions. The implications of these findings and future directions are discussed.


title: Design and development of group 13 precursors for improved vapour deposition of metal nitride thin films

abstract: Atomic layer deposition (ALD) and chemical vapour deposition (CVD) are important techniques to deposit thin films for a variety of applications. Metal oxides and nitrides are used as passivation layers and as dielectrics, and due to the increasingly small sizes of microelectronic devices, their depositions must be precise, conformal, and of high purity. This work examines how precursor design can reduce impurities in deposited films. Several novel precursors have been designed, synthesized, and characterized, and used to deposit a variety of group 13 nitride thin films. Bidentate ligands such as guanidinates, NacNacs and azenides have been explored, as have simpler ligand systems such as amides and hydrides. The importance of precursor design is emphasized due to the fact that it enables the development of new, volatile, and thermally stable compounds and ALD processes that will deposit pure, high-quality films in a cost- and time-efficient manner.


title: Effect of Touchscreen Gestures on Number Line Performance

abstract: The goal of this study was to examine whether the type of touchscreen gesture (i.e., drag or tap) affected adults' accuracy in integer and fractional number line tasks. In previous research, the drag gesture was hypothesized to be a more embodied way in which people interact with number lines. Seventy-eight undergraduate students participated in three phases. Phase 1 involved experience placing whole number targets on several number lines (i.e., 0-10, 0-25, 0-50, and 0-75). Phase 2 involved placing fractional amounts (e.g., 5/8) on the same number lines, and Phase 3 involved assessment of the participants' fraction knowledge. The results showed that participants were significantly more accurate using the drag gesture than the tap gesture on fraction number line task (Phase 2). However, using either the tap or drag gesture in Phase 1 (integer number line tasks) did not influence performance in Phase 2 (fraction number line tasks) or Phase 3 (fraction knowledge assessment).


title: Advanced precursor design for atomic layer deposition and chemical vapour deposition of gold metal

abstract: This thesis first outlines the current state-of-the-art of gold CVD and ALD precursors based on their precursor figures of merit (σ). Then, this thesis demonstrates the ability to control the structure of deposited nanoparticles by CVD, using a combination of thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to elucidate the mechanism of growth. With the help of expert collaborators, this thesis then summarizes multiple ALD studies on the first gold ALD precursor, (PMe3)AuMe3 including an assessment on its mechanism of ALD growth. In order to improve on the existing state-of-the-art of gold precursors, this thesis then describes a systematic assessment of gold(I) precursor design. Using a combination of TGA, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), x-ray crystallography, and density functional theory (DFT) computational techniques, we attempt to delineate why certain ligands work well for gold(I) and we develop the precursor figure of merit (σ). With a knowledge of the design factors that make a good precursor from the standpoint of thermolysis, this thesis then describes a study where the rate of CVD of various gold(I) precursors is compared by in situ monitoring using a combination of quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) and quadrupole mass spectrometry (QMS). This study culminates in a new idea in the field of ALD: the rational design of a kinetically-limited ALD process. We then show that the kinetic implications of steric bulk that are ubiquitous in solution-phase synthetic chemistry can also be exploited in the fields of CVD and ALD. Finally, this thesis describes a study where a self-limiting gold(I) precursor is rationally designed. A family of these types of precursors is presented, and the self-limiting capability of these precursors is demonstrated using our in-situ monitoring methodology. We then show that highly conductive and high-purity gold thin films can be deposited with one precursor, and the films rival or best the current body of literature of gold films that are deposited by ALD.


title: The Business of Resilience: Philanthropy, Partnerships, and Politics

abstract: The concept of resilience has entered into the lexicon of the everyday while enjoying an ever-expanding range of applications and associations within the public, private, and philanthropic sectors. This dissertation critically engages resilience discourses and practices by tracing a network of relations composed of both people and things. Taking cues from Actor-Network Theory, I bring into focus a latticework of actants that has enabled the concept of resilience to function, be mobile, expand and stabilize into what I call 'philanthropic resilience' and 'financialized resilience'. I offer a novel reading of the career of resilience by shedding light on how the concept has been deployed across a diverse set of fields and assemblages. To illustrate key features of the philanthropic form of resilience I turn to the Rockefeller Foundation's 100 Resilient Cities initiative (100RC), to date the most expansive experiment in incubating city resilience interventions. I show how the 100RC successfully grew a resilience network through philanthropic partnerships, how it created the Chief Resilience Officer position as an embedded municipal actor, and how it enrolled a selective set of actants tasked with solving the problem of resilience valuation theoretically and practically. I argue that the idea of 'resilience dividends', once confined to the philanthropic sector, has been incorporated into the financialized resilience form through speculative investment products such as bonds. I contend that resilience bonds, along with the issuance of profit-generating climate resilience bonds, show that the concept of resilience has materialized in powerful social practices beyond metaphorical and metonymical applications. This dissertation offers theoretical and empirical lenses to better parse the political and social ramifications of the business of resilience.


title: Is it all in the details? Effect of psychopathy communication format on laypeople's perceptions of legal outcomes

abstract: Past findings that laypeople's perceptions of psychopathy can negatively influence trial outcomes are exacerbated by the fact that there are no standards for how psychopathy- related information should be presented in risk assessment reports. This problem results in inconsistencies and misinterpretation of information by jurors. The current studies explored how different ways of communicating psychopathy evidence affect decisions concerning risk, management, and treatment amenability among laypeople in two online studies of community members. When psychopathy scores were low, the formatting of information did not seem to matter for decision-making. However, when psychopathy scores were high, providing more information appeared to play more of a role in final outcomes. Importantly, risk level mattered over psychopathy information. These results suggest that the way psychopathy is discussed in legal settings may need to be altered, with focus placed on the relevancy of including psychopathy information in specific contexts.


title: Evaluating the impact of snow fencing on snow conditions and ground temperatures in Hurricane Alley, Dempster Highway, Yukon, Canada

abstract: Snow fences were installed at two sites near the Dempster Highway, Yukon, ~ 10 km south of the territorial border, to examine their impact on snow accumulation and ground temperatures. Temperature sensors were installed in August 2018 and snow surveys were conducted throughout winter 2018‒19. Natural snow accumulation ranged from a shallow snowpack of low density in wind-scoured upland, to high density, deep snow in the lee of a large hill. The snow fences accumulated wind-blown snow in large drifts of high density, which neared capacity by December. Topographic factors were not found to significantly alter drift characteristics at the fences. By late winter, thermal resistance was no greater in snow fence drifts than in natural tundra, however mean winter (Dec.-Feb.) ground temperature was higher beneath snow fence drifts than tundra by 3.5°C at 10 cm depth and 2.7°C at 50 cm depth.


title: Investigating Indigeneity within Incarceration: Healing Lodges in the Canadian Media

abstract: My research examines the media portrayals of Indigenous healing lodges within Canada, through a critical discourse analysis of relevant Canadian news media sources, spanning from 2009 to 2019. I utilize both intersectionality and settler colonialism as my theoretical approaches for this research to contextualize media discourses to the longstanding history of colonialism in Canadian society, as well as intersections of identity. I also analyze research questions relevant to settler versus Indigenous-led media, as well as the constructions of healing lodges as a form of punishment and the ways in which Indigenous offenders were depicted. In addition, I explore how narratives about healing lodges further solidified claims regarding Indigenous sovereignty. I conclude with a multi-faceted approach moving forward through support for the implementation of more Indigenous-led healing lodges, as well as cultural resurgence, as advocated by a number of prominent Indigenous scholars in the field.


title: Detecting and Comparing the Incremental Changes of Three Aspects of Word Knowledge in Educational and Naturalistic Settings

abstract: Knowing words involves knowing multiple aspects of word knowledge (Nation, 2013). Most previous research focused on single aspects and measured the ultimate gains at single points of time. The uniqueness of this dissertation lies in detecting and comparing the productive incre-mental changes of three aspects of word knowledge (meaning, spelling, and word part) in Educa-tional (e.g. school) and naturalistic settings (e.g. workplace) at different time intervals over a 24-month period. Using Nation's (2013) Word Knowledge Framework, two main studies and a follow-up study were conducted from January 2018 to January 2020. Five upper-intermediate Arabic speaking learners participated in Study 1, and two advanced Arabic speaking learners participat-ed in Study 2. Three participants from Study 1 and both participants From Study 2 participated in the Follow-up Study. The same battery of pen-and-paper tests (i.e., spelling, multiple choice and fill-in-the-blanks) was used to elicit quantitative data from participants in both the two main and the fol-low-up studies, which were then analyzed statistically. Qualitative data, drawn from semi-structured interviews and classroom observations were analyzed using Saldaña's (2013) first cy-cle and top down coding method. Results countered those previously reported (e.g., González-Fernández & Schmitt, 2019; Schmitt, 1998). A developmental hierarchy was detected among the three measured aspects of word knowledge. They developed concurrently and in varying proportions. Basic meaning knowledge always enjoyed the highest gains followed by spelling knowledge and word part knowledge. A relationship between the incremental changes of the three measured aspects of word knowledge and participants' vocabulary size was also detected. Several vocabulary learning strategies including (but not limited to) word lists, word parts, and orthographic repetition seemed to play a positive role in word knowledge develop-ment. Several factors such as lack of adequate word exposure opportunities as well as learners' first language (L1) transfer were found to negatively affect word knowledge development. This study concludes that certain aspects require more attention and time than others. Learners need to be exposed several times to the target words and in different contexts. They need to be taught and trained to use the different vocabulary learning strategies to enhance attainment.


title: Dual-Wavelength Polarization Independent Grating Coupler Design Based on Silicon-on-Insulator

abstract: Silicon photonics has emerged as one of the most popular areas in integrated optics because of its compatibility with CMOS fabrication processes and its potential for low cost and mass production. To enable efficient fiber-to-chip coupling of light, one key component is a grating coupler. With an increasing demand for wavelength-division-multiplexing systems in fiber-to-the-home network services, low-cost dual-band (O- and C-bands) chip transceivers are required. In this thesis, the universal design methodology of conventional and subwavelength grating couplers has been presented. Firstly, a vertical incident wavelength splitting grating coupler that can split 1310 nm and 1550 nm wavelength light into two directions is shown. Afterward, a polarization splitting grating coupler that can work for both C- and O- band with a flexible incident angle is also demonstrated. In the last part of this thesis, a novel dual-band subwavelength polarization independent grating coupler works as a wavelength demultiplexer is proposed.


title: Enhancing Body-Mounted LiDAR SLAM using an IMU-based Pedestrian Dead Reckoning (PDR) Model

abstract: With the reduction in motion sensors' cost and power, Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) has emerged as a core technology in several applications such as search-and-rescue, first-responders, and defence. Existing SLAM methods were designed mainly for robotic platforms that use wheel odometry. However, wheel odometry is not available for body-mounted platforms. This thesis addresses the challenge of body-mounted SLAM by proposing an integrated sensor fusion scheme. A Pedestrian Dead Reckoning (PDR) model based on inertial sensors is used to enhance LiDAR-based SLAM. This proposed fusion uses the PDR model as a replacement for wheel odometry in vehicular platforms. A system prototype has been developed and used for data collection and experiments. The implemented PDR model was integrated into the Google Cartographer SLAM engine and tested against different tracking systems. Experiments demonstrated that the integration of PDR has significantly enhanced head-mounted SLAM accuracy leading to accurate positioning under different motion scenarios.


title: Determination of Wair value in high energy electron beam

abstract: Purpose: The mean energy expended by a charged particle slowing to a stop in air to created ion pair, Wair, is a key value in radiation dosimetry standards. It is used to convert the charge created into the energy deposited. The ICRU report 90 has reaffirmed the accepted value to be 33.97(12) eV and to be energetically independent above 10 keV. However, a recent publication by Tessier et al. (DOI: 10.1002/mp.12660) has shown a possible energy dependence. The present work aims to determine the value of Wair in high-energy electron beams and to investigate the assumption that Wair is energy independent. Methods: Wair can be evaluated by combining ionometric and calorimetric measurements with a calculated ratio of the absorbed dose in the detectors. Graphite and aluminum detectors were used and the dose ratio was calculated using the EGSnrc Monte Carlo code. A range of average energies at the measurement point were obtained by inserting absorber plates in the primary beam. Results: The overall standard uncertainty in the determination of Wair was approximately 0.5 %, and similar for both sets of detectors. Good agreement was obtained between the two separate experiments, but the data appear to separate into two sets. The smaller (9 points) yielding a value for Wair of 33.76(16) eV, consistent with the current consensus value of 33.97(12) eV; the larger (31 points) reproducing the energy dependency observed by Tessier et al.. Conclusion: This investigation cannot rule out a possible energy dependence of Wair in high-energy electron beams of -0.18(3) per MeV. Although not supported by theory, a systematic review of the methods used and the parameters influencing the overall result did not identify any experimental error that could explain the unexpected energy dependence.


title: Unfamiliar Neighbours: Re-Thinking Residential Buildings for Meaningful Social Interaction

abstract: Loneliness and social isolation are becoming a widespread problem in Canada today. Researchers have found that chronic loneliness can have similar consequences as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Yet, building regulations do little to assure mental wellbeing to the extent they regulate physical health. Centuries ago, people who lived around us would be our source of community. However, in the last 35 years the number of Canadians living alone has more than doubled, and most don't know many of their neighbours. The current multi-unit high-rise residential building model leaves little room to meet and get to know people, ultimately forming a sense of community, security and belonging. This thesis focuses on these buildings, with their narrow hallways and awkward elevator rides. The aim is to propose an alternative which creates more socially conducive spaces through public-private gradation, proximity to common areas, attracting motivated residents, grouping, program, and exposure to nature.


title: Numerical and Experimental Optimization for Specific Fatigue Life Maximization of Additively Manufactured Ti-6Al-4V Aerospace Components

abstract: Computer Aided Design (CAD) in combination with structural optimization has allowed the rapid development of engineering prototypes. Topology and multi-scale design optimization techniques are capable of shaping highly efficient load paths. However, the resulting geometries are complex and can only be manufactured by Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology. One of the main downfalls of AM parts is their poor fatigue life which hinders the potential merits of design optimization. This thesis investigates experimental and numerical strategies to extend the fatigue life of DMLS Ti-6Al-4V components. Two stages to develop fatigue resistant AM parts are introduced. The first experimental stage is concerned with the application of Ultrasonic Impact Treatment (UIT) to enhance the fatigue life of AM parts and to derive the fatigue behavior of Ti-6AL-4V. The second numerical stage applies topology optimization with lattice material to minimize damage and mass using the newly derive material properties.