title: Understanding the Hippo-LATS pathway in tumorigenesis

contributor:
Yang, Xiaolong
Pathology and Molecular Medicine

subject:
LATS
Taxol
Tumor suppressor
Cell proliferation
Cell Migration

abstract: Thesis (Ph.D, Pathology & Molecular Medicine) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-23 10:06:54.687

abstract:
The Hippo-LATS signaling pathway originally identified in Drosophila is conserved in mammalian systems and serves essential roles in mediating size control as well as tumorigenesis.  In humans, the core kinase cassette consisting of adaptor proteins WW45 and MOB1, and Ser/Thr kinases MST1/2 and LATS1/2 signal by phosphorylating and inactivating transcriptional co-activators YAP and TAZ, causing cell growth arrest.  As the central kinases within the Hippo-LATS pathway, examining the cellular and molecular phenotypes of LATS1 and LATS2 (LATS) will provide insight into the role of this pathway in tumorigenesis.
By simultaneously knocking down both LATS1 and LATS2, genes that were differentially expressed were identified through a whole human genome microarray screen.  The multitude of genes identified including CYR61, MYLK, CDKN1A, SLIT2, and TP53INP1 not only provide further evidence for the role of LATS in cell proliferation and apoptosis, but also implicate LATS in novel functions such as cell motility.  Loss of LATS1 and/or LATS2 enhances cell migration whereas overexpression of LATS1 dramatically inhibits cell migration in multiple cell lines.  The ability of LATS to regulate cell migration occurs through two potential mechanisms.  Firstly, LATS functions through its kinase substrates YAP and/or TAZ, or alternatively, LATS1 directly binds actin and inhibits actin polyermization.  Thus, through loss of functions studies, we identified a novel role for LATS in regulating cell migration as well as novel mechanisms of LATS function.
As an important signaling molecule within the cell, LATS and the Hippo-LATS pathway are tightly regulated.  Using clues from the Drosophila pathway, we examined how the previously uncharacterized gene, hEx, functions within this pathway.  Importantly, this thesis characterizes hEx as a putative tumor suppressor showing that it can inhibit cell proliferation, sensitize cancer cells to Taxol treatment as well as inhibit tumor growth in nude mice.  However, unlike Drosophila expanded, hEx functions independently of the Hippo-LATS pathway, suggesting that the mammalian signaling pathway is more complicated.
The research findings from this thesis enhance our knowledge of the Hippo-LATS pathway in tumorigenesis by elucidating new functions and mechanisms of LATS functions as well as by exploring how upstream components function in relation to this pathway.

abstract: PhD


title: Investigating cognitive impairments in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) using eye movements and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

contributor:
Melanson, Michel
Munoz, Douglas P.
Neuroscience Studies

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

subject:
BOLD Signal
Frontotemporal Dementia
Saccade
Oculomotor Network
Neuroimaging
fMRI
Cognitive Impairment
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

abstract: Thesis (Master, Neuroscience Studies) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-22 14:20:39.704

abstract:
Patients with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) often experience cognitive impairment that accompanies degeneration of the motor system. A valuable tool for assessing cognitive control over behaviour is the antisaccade task which requires: 1) inhibition of the automatic response to
look towards an eccentric visual stimulus (prosaccade) to instead 2) redirect gaze in the opposite direction of the stimulus (antisaccade). Psychometric tests were used to quantify the degree of impairment, while eye tracking, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and structural MRI were combined to identify the neural correlates of cognitive impairment in ALS. We predict
ALS patients will have executive dysfunction and grey matter loss in executive and oculomotor control areas that will affect antisaccade performance and will alter the corresponding brain activation. ALS patients and age-matched controls participated in a rapid-event-related fMRI design with interleaved pro- and antisaccade trials. Catch trials (no stimulus presented after
instructional cue to prepare pro- or antisaccade) allowed us to discern the preparatory period from the execution period. ALS patients were biased towards automatic saccade responses, and
had greater difficulty with antisaccades relative to controls in terms of correct and timely responses. We found that worsened antisaccade performance in ALS correlated with the degree of cognitive impairment. Generally, we found trends of increased brain activation during the
preparatory period of antisaccades in ALS patients compared to controls in most oculomotor areas; meanwhile few differences were seen during execution. Structural analyses revealed ALS patients had decreased grey matter thickness in frontotemporal and oculomotor regions such as the frontal and supplementary eye fields (FEF, SEF) and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). These findings suggest that loss of structural integrity and executive dysfunction may elicit compensation mechanisms to improve functional and behavioural performance. Despite this compensation, ALS patients still performed worse on antisaccades than controls. Further investigation to expand the current data set should improve our ability to assuredly identify the neural correlates of cognitive decline in ALS, and may provide a model system to use for critical evaluation of future therapies and interventions for ALS.

abstract: M.Sc.


title: Academic Self-Concept, Academic Motivation, Academic Engagement, and Academic Achievement: a Mixed Methods Study of Indian Adolescents in Canada and India

contributor:
Freeman, John G.
Education

subject:
Educational Psychology
Education

abstract: Thesis (Ph.D, Education) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-22 14:23:37.559

abstract: This study, employing sequential explanatory mixed methods research design, examined: 1) the academic self-concept, academic motivation, and academic achievement of Indian immigrant adolescents in Canada in comparison to their peers in India; 2) the mediational role of academic motivation in the association between academic self-concept and academic achievement among Indian immigrant adolescents and Indian adolescents; and 3) the perspectives, beliefs, and recommendations of Indian immigrant adolescents and Indian adolescents in regard to classroom environments/instructional practices affecting their academic engagement and achievement. Surveys were administered among secondary students in Canada (N = 355) and India (N = 363) to assess their academic self-concepts, academic motivation, and academic achievement. Eight focus group interviews were conducted, four each in Canada and India, to glean the perceptions and views of Indian immigrant and Indian adolescents. Descriptive discriminant analysis (DDA) revealed that the Indian immigrant adolescents in Canada did not differ markedly from their counterparts in India. When non-standardized GPA scores were used, English and overall school GPAs and verbal self-concept were associated with group separation in DDA. When standardized GPA scores were used, however, verbal self-concept alone was associated with group separation in DDA. Mediation analyses indicated the mediational role of intrinsic motivation in the association between academic self-concept and academic achievement among Indian immigrant and Indian adolescents. Extrinsic motivation as well mediated the relations between academic self-concept and academic achievement for the Indian immigrant adolescents in Canada. Focus group discussions suggested that the Indian immigrant and Indian adolescents were primarily extrinsically motivated toward school and academics. Further, both the Indian immigrant and Indian adolescents perceived their classroom teachers as controlling rather than autonomy-supportive. Implications of the findings for educational practice and future research are discussed.

abstract: PhD


title: A numerical study of the effect of a venetian blind on the convective heat transfer rate from a recessed window with transitional and turbulent flow

contributor:
Oosthuizen, Patrick H.
Mechanical and Materials Engineering

subject:
Convective Heat Transfer
Venetian Blind
Turbulence

abstract: Thesis (Master, Mechanical and Materials Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-22 21:17:31.777

abstract: The presence of a blind adjacent to a window affects the natural convective air flow over the window and natural convective heat transfer from the window to the room. Most numerical studies of convective heat transfer between a window-blind system and a room are based on the assumption that the flow remains laminar. However, in the case of larger windows it is to be expected that transition to turbulent flow will occur in the flow over the window. The aim of the present study was to numerically determine the effect of Venetian blind on laminar-to-turbulent transition in the flow over a simple recessed window and on the convective heat transfer from the window. An approximate model of a recessed window that is covered by a venetian blind has been considered. The fluid properties have been assumed constant except for the density change with temperature that gives rise to the buoyancy forces, this being dealt with using the Boussinesq approach. Radiant and conductive heat transfer effects have been neglected. However in the present study the case where there is a constant heat generation rate in the blind slats, as the result of solar radiation absorbed by the slats of the blind, has been considered. The k-epsilon turbulence model with the full effects of the buoyancy forces being accounted for has been used in obtaining the solution. The turbulent, steady and two dimensional governing equations have been solved using the commercial finite-volume based CFD code FLUENT. Results are generated for different blind slat angles, for different distances of the pivot point of the slats from the window and for different constant heat generation rates in the slats. The results show that over a wide range of Rayleigh number, the distance of the blind to the window has a stronger effect on the convective heat transfer from the window and also on the laminar to turbulent transition in the flow over the window than the blind slat angle. Heat generation in the slats increases the Mean Nusselt number and this effect increases as the Rayleigh number decreases.

abstract: M.A.Sc.


title: Childhood abuse, criminal victimisation, sex work, and substance use among homeless street youth: An application of general strain theory

contributor:
Baron, Stephen W.
Sociology

subject:
substance use
criminal victimisation
sex work
general strain theory
youth homelessness
street youth
childhood abuse

abstract: Thesis (Master, Sociology) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-27 02:09:39.94

abstract:
Robert Agnew’s general strain theory (1992, 2001, 2006a) proposes that strain leads to crime and deviance. Substance use is a specific type of criminal behaviour that the theory attempts to explain. This thesis uses general strain theory to examine how a number of specific types of strain – homelessness, childhood abuse, criminal victimisation, and sex work – are related to substance use. In addition, the relationships between strain and negative emotions are examined. This thesis also examines how the relationships between strain and substance use are conditioned by negative emotionality/low constraint, deviant peers, deviant values, coping skills, self-esteem, and emotional support. Finally, the role of gender in all of the above-mentioned relationships is explored. In short, this thesis represents a fairly comprehensive test of general strain theory as it applies to substance use. In order to conduct this test, data was obtained between May 2009 and August 2010 by administering a survey to 400 homeless street youth in Toronto, Ontario.
	The results yield substantial support for some of GST’s main propositions. In particular, support is found for hypothesized relationships between strain and substance use as well as strain and negative emotions. Additionally, certain factors are found to condition the relationships between strain and substance use. Finally, gender differences in the relationships between strain and substance use are observed. These supportive results suggest that general strain theory is a novel way of explaining substance use by homeless street youth in Canada. Consequently, suggestions for future research and social policy are offered.

abstract: M.A.


title: Emulsion Polymerization Using Switchable Surfactants

contributor:
Jessop, Philip G.
Cunningham, Michael F.
Chemistry

subject:
Styrene
Cationic Surfactants
butyl methacrylate
switchable
Polymerization
Methyl methacrylate

abstract: Thesis (Master, Chemistry) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-26 11:10:14.053

abstract:
The work presented herein focuses on expanding the use of CO2-triggered switchable surfactants in emulsion polymerization of hydrophobic and hydrophilic
monomers. Bicarbonate salts of the following compounds were employed as surfactants in the emulsion polymerization of styrene, methyl methacrylate (MMA) and/or butyl methacrylate (BMA): N’-hexadecyl-N,N-dimethylacetamidine (1a), N’-dodecyl N,N-dimethylacetamidine (2a) and N’-(4-decylphenyl)-N,N-dimethylacetamidine (3a). A systematic study of the effects of surfactant and initiator concentrations and solids
content on the resulting particle size and ζ-potential was carried out, showing that a wide range of particle sizes (40 – 470 nm) can be obtained. It was found that as the basicity of the surfactant decreased, the particle size generated from emulsion polymerization increased. Destabilization of these latexes did not require the addition of salts and was carried out using only non-acidic gases and heat. It was shown that solids content,
temperature, particle size and surfactant basicity greatly affect the rate of destabilization of latexes. The area occupied by N’-dodecyl-N,N-dimethylacetamidinium acetate on PMMA particles was determined to be 104 Å2. The monomer-D2O partition coefficient of 2a was determined to be 21 for styrene and 2.2 for MMA. The monomer-D2O partition coefficient of the bicarbonate salt of 2a was determined to be 1.2 for styrene and
0.85 for MMA. An initial assessment of the use of switchable surfactants in the generation of inverse emulsions was carried out. It was determined that butylated polyethyleneimine (BPEI) can successfully stabilize inverse emulsions of cyclohexane and aqueous 2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate. Upon CO2 introduction, this emulsion separates into two distinct phases.

abstract: Possibility of obtaining a patent from the research findings in the thesis.

abstract: M.Sc.


title: Detection of Chemical Compounds Using Amplified Fiber Loop Ring-Down Spectroscopy

contributor:
Loock, Hans-Peter
Chemistry

subject:
Fiber Optics
Ringdown Spectroscopy

abstract: Thesis (Master, Chemistry) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-23 18:27:47.65

abstract:
Cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS) is an absorption spectroscopic technique. In
CRDS the concentration of an analyte is determined by measuring the reduction in finesse of an optical cavity made from two highly reflective (R>99.9%) mirrors once a sample is introduced.
Optical loss is traditionally determined from the exponential intensity decay of a short laser pulse that was injected into the cavity. This decay is the longest for an empty, high finesse cavity and
is reduced when the sample absorbs or scatters light.
In this project, the optical cavity is made from fiber optic waveguides and the light source is a continuous wave (cw) diode laser. It is used to detect analytes such as acetylene, ammonia
and other amines through their overtone absorption in the telecom region at 1500 nm. The experiment is done by increasing the ratio of desired loss (extinction caused by the sample), to undesirable loss (from the waveguide or solvents) through amplification of the ringdown signal using an erbium doped fiber amplifier (EDFA). The EDFA is inserted into a fiber-optic loop and its gain is increased above the lasing threshold. The gain of the, now lasing, fiber loop is "clamped" to a high and constant value, thereby removing unwanted gain fluctuations, and all losses in the loop are compensated for. If one now inserts a laser light pulse at the lasing wavelength of the loop it would circulate through the loop indefinitely, whereas a light pulse at a wavelength that is being absorbed by an analyte would experience a decrease with time at a rate that depends only on the magnitude of the sample absorption. By enclosing the sample gap with a gas cell both acetylene and ammonia have been detected down to ~25 ppm and ~5.9 Torr respectively. Subsequently, a 1% solution of aminotoluene was detected in an interrogation
volume of 5.65 pL by having inserted a fiber with a hole drilled in it as the sample gap. At present, the drilled fiber has been replaced with photonic crystal fiber such that small volumes of gases may be detected with a longer effective path length.

abstract: M.Sc.


title: Reinhardt, Martin, Richter : Colour in the Grid of Contemporary Painting

contributor:
Romba, Katherin
Art History

subject:
Ad Reinhardt
contemporary painting
abstract
Gerhard Richter
Johannes Itten
art
colour
abstract expressionism
geometric abstraction
Agnes Martin
grid
painting

abstract: Thesis (Master, Art History) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-27 12:34:58.813

abstract:
The objective of my thesis is to extend the scholarship on colour in painting by focusing on how it is employed within the structuring framework of the orthogonal grid in the paintings of three contemporary artists, Ad Reinhardt, Agnes Martin and Gerhard Richter. Form and colour are essential elements in painting, and within the “essentialist” grid painting, the presence and function of colour have not received the full discussion they deserve. Structuralist, post-structuralist and anthropological modes of critical analysis in the latter part of the twentieth century, framed by postwar disillusionment and skepticism, have contributed to the effective foreclosure of examination of metaphysical, spiritual and utopian dimensions promised by the grid and its colour earlier in the century.
Artists working with the grid have explored, and continue to explore the same eternally vexing problems and mysteries of our existence, but analyses of their art are cloaked in an atmosphere and language of rationalism. Critics and scholars have devoted their attention to discussing the properties of form, giving the behavior and status of colour, as a property affecting mind and body, little mention. The position of colour deserves to be re-dressed, so that we may have a more complete understanding of grid painting as a discrete kind of abstract painting.
Each of the three artists I have examined here employed colour and grid in strategies unique to their work and its purposes. Ad Reinhardt arrived at his 1960s “black” paintings out of a background that included strong political beliefs, resistance to the dominant strain of 1950s Abstract Expressionism, and a deep interest in eastern religions and Buddhism. Agnes Martin shared Reinhardt’s interest in Buddhism and eastern religions, but chose to move toward the light in the atmospheric colour of her paintings, speaking of the quest for perfection of the mind in her writings and interviews. Gerhard Richter’s colour charts, a longstanding major subset of the vast range of this prolific artist’s work, speak to a need to go beyond his love of painting to the ungraspable substance of colour itself.

abstract: need to get copyright permissions and possible publication.

abstract: M.A.


title: Robust Lossy Source Coding for Correlated Fading Channels

contributor:
Alajaji, Fady
Linder, Tamás
Electrical and Computer Engineering

subject:
channel with Markovian memory
quantization
Fading channels
soft-decision demodulation
MAP decoding
Joint source-channel coding

abstract: Thesis (Master, Electrical & Computer Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-25 19:43:28.785

abstract:
Most of the conventional communication systems use channel interleaving as well as hard decision decoding in their designs, which lead to discarding channel memory and soft-decision information. This simplification is usually done since the complexity of handling the memory or soft-decision information is rather high.

In this work, we design two lossy joint source-channel coding (JSCC) schemes that do not use explicit algebraic channel coding for a recently introduced channel model, in order to take advantage of both channel memory and soft-decision information.
The channel model, called the non-binary noise discrete channel with queue based noise (NBNDC-QB), obtains closed form expressions for the channel transition distribution, correlation coefficient, and many other channel properties. The channel has binary input and $2^q$-ary output and the noise is a $2^q$-ary Markovian stationary ergodic process, based on a finite queue, where $q$ is the output's soft-decision resolution.

We also numerically show that the NBNDC-QB model can effectively approximate correlated Rayleigh fading channels without losing its analytical tractability. The first JSCC scheme is the so called channel optimized vector quantizer (COVQ) and the second scheme consists of a scalar quantizer, a proper index assignment, and a sequence maximum a posteriori (MAP) decoder, designed to harness the redundancy left in the quantizer's indices, the channel's soft-decision output, and noise time correlation. We also find necessary and sufficient condition when the sequence MAP decoder is reduced to an instantaneous symbol-by-symbol decoder, i.e., a simple instantaneous mapping.

abstract: M.A.Sc.


title: RET Mediated Gene Expression and Cell-Migration

contributor:
Mulligan, Lois M.
Pathology and Molecular Medicine

subject:
Cell-Migration
RET
Gene Expression
Cancer

abstract: Thesis (Ph.D, Pathology & Molecular Medicine) -- Queen's University, 2011-11-08 13:53:32.474

abstract: The RET receptor tyrosine kinase is important during development of neural crest-derived tissues, particularly the enteric and sympathetic nervous systems, and in kidney morphogenesis.  Activation of RET requires complex formation between a member of the Glial cell line-Derived Neurotrophic Factor family of ligands and a member of the GDNF-Family Receptor α co-receptors. Upon complex formation, RET becomes phosphorylated and subsequently activates multiple downstream signaling pathways, including those for cell-survival, differentiation, and migration. Mutations in RET can either interfere with or enhance normal RET signaling. Inhibiting RET mutations are associated with development of Hirschsprung disease, which is characterized by a lack of mature ganglia in the gut. Conversely, activating RET mutations are associated with several thyroid cancers. Papillary thyroid carcinoma is frequently associated with sporadic translocations between RET and other genes, known collectively as RET/PTC. A variety of heritable RET missense mutations lead to Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia type 2, which is associated with development of medullary thyroid carcinoma. Two cellular processes disrupted downstream of RET in these diseases are gene-expression and cell-migration. In order to clarify the effects of oncogenic mutations on gene-expression downstream of RET, we analyzed expression microarrays in a model using single mutant and isoform RET expression. We also examined the molecular mechanisms of cell-migration, using both functional cell-based assays and examination of integrins, cell-adhesion molecules important for cell-migration. Finally, we used a large cohort of thyroid tissues to examine RET and integrin expression. We showed that different forms of oncogenic RET do not affect transcription of different target genes, but rather target-gene transcription is proportional to phosphorylatability of mutant RET. We were also able to show that RET leads to activation of at least two integrin subunits (ITGB1 and ITGB3), and that they have unique activation patterns downstream of RET that correlate with cell-adhesion and migration. Finally, we showed that co-expression between RET, ITGB1, and ITGB3 is more frequent in malignant subtypes of thyroid tissues and that their co-expression is correlated to more aggressive thyroid cancer subtypes. Together, we have clarified how RET is able to mediate two important processes, gene-expression and cell-migration.

abstract: Two chapters of this thesis are to be submitted for publication. We do not wish for this data to be available before we are able to publish it in a peer-reviewed journal.

abstract: PhD


title: Clarity and Cacophony in Canadian Literacy Discourse: New Directions for a National Literacy Policy

contributor:
Burney, Shehla
Cultural Studies

subject:
policy
Canada
education
Cultural Studies
literacy

abstract: Thesis (Master, Cultural Studies) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-26 00:05:43.78

abstract: This thesis explores the varied and often conflicting ways in which literacy is addressed in Canadian discourse in order to propose a progressive way forward for Canadian literacy policy.  The historically conventional meaning of literacy, that of the ability to read and write, is increasingly falling out of favour among theorists, educators and policymakers alike.  It remains, however, a dominant influence in how literacy is written about today, and more progressive theories, such as notions of critical literacy, multiliteracies, and literacy as communication across difference, rest in the peripheries.  This thesis examines the ways in which current organizations in Canada are negotiating between literacy’s conventional meaning and the myriad of progressive literacy theories that have been developed in academia.  The conceptual framework that informs the research is influenced by cultural theorists Stuart Hall, Paulo Freire, Henry A. Giroux, Edward Said and Michel Foucault, and work that they have done relating to communication, education, difference and power.  This thesis gathers data from the websites of three national literacy organizations, Frontier College, World Literacy Canada, and ABC Life Literacy, as well as from  Bill C-401, “An Act to establish a national literacy policy.”  Taken together, they allow for generalized conclusions about what literacy theories have been incorporated into contemporary Canadian discourse, and what further work and challenges lie ahead for a progressive national literacy policy.

abstract: M.A.


title: Polymolecular and Unimolecular Micelles of Triblock Copolymers

contributor:
Liu, Guojun
Chemistry

subject:
mesogen-driven
cylinder
micelle
macrocycle
triblock copolymer

abstract: Thesis (Ph.D, Chemistry) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-26 12:08:28.263

abstract:
Reported in this thesis are the studies of micellar aggregates of four triblock copolymers and the unimolecular micelles of a triblock copolymer.
The micelles were prepared from BCF and ACF copolymers.  Here A, B, C, and F denote poly(acrylic acid), poly(tert-butyl acrylate), poly(2-cinnamoyloxylethyl methacrylate), and the liquid crystalline poly(perfluorooctylethyl methacrylate) block, respectively.  At room temperature (21 oC) in solvents that were selective for the A or B blocks, three of the four copolymers formed exclusively cylindrical micelles regardless of their block ratios.  Cylindrical micelles were formed because their geometries best accommodated the mesogen-ordering requirement of the core-forming F block, as supported by the results from wide angle X-ray scattering and differential scanning calorimetric studies.  Mesogen-driven cylinder formation was further supported by the observation of ridges formed by collapsed coronal chains on the surfaces of dried cylinders.  We also observed a morphological transformation from other micellar morphologies to cylindrical micelles at 70 oC, which is near the isotropic-to-smectic A phase transition temperature for the F blocks.  This inter-conversion between the vesicular and cylindrical micelles of an ACF sample could be reversed repeatly by temperature cycling.   These results provided additional evidence for the mesogen-driven micellization hypothesis.
Unimolecular micelles were prepared from CDC triblock copolymers, where D and C denote poly(dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate) and poly(2-cinnamoyloxylethyl methacrylate), respectively.  In selective solvents for the D block at high dilutions, the D chain formed a loop, and the terminal C blocks of the isolated unimer chain associated together as a globule, thus closing the loop and rendering a cyclic structure.  Alternatively, the terminal C blocks formed individual globules, thus yielding a pompom-coil-pompom structure.  To lock in these structures, the globules were photo-crosslinked.  The D block chain was subsequently enlarged for AFM observation through a quaternization step, which increased the chain’s diameter and introduced cations to the chain.  The semi-flexible thickened polymer chains and the globules were observed by AFM, confirming unambiguously the hypothesized architectures of the unimolecular micelles.  The AFM images also allowed the quantification of the macrocyclic structures, and a correlation between the direct AFM results and determined from a traditional size exclusion chromatography technique.

abstract: PhD


title: Attention and Executive Functions Performance in Postsecondary Students with AD/HD and Dyslexia

contributor:
Kirby, John R.
Education

subject:
Executive Functions
AD/HD
Dyslexia
Attention

abstract: Thesis (Ph.D, Education) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-26 12:27:59.503

abstract: There is a dearth of studies investigating attention and cognitive executive functions (EFs) in adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD), dyslexia, and AD/HD with comorbid dyslexia. Of the available studies, few have compared cognitive performance based on comprehensive theoretical models of attention and EFs and addressed methodological limitations of past research (e.g., sample inclusion and task validity confounds). This dissertation  reports the findings from  two studies which examined attention performance and performance pertaining to EFs and  related cognitive processes of vigilance and processing speed for  four groups of postsecondary students, those with AD/HD, dyslexia, AD/HD with comorbid dyslexia, and  normal controls. Using a diagnostically referred sample to ensure distinct disability groups and attention and EFs measures with demonstrated construct validity, cognitive task performance was examined in Study 1 based on Posner and Raichle’s (1994) model of attention which is composed of alerting, orienting, and executive attention networks. In Study 2, Pennington and Ozonoff’s (1996) conceptualization of EFs that includes inhibition, set shifting, and working memory components was applied to the students’ performance on attention, EFs (inhibition, set shifting, and working memory), vigilance, and processing speed measures. Results from the two studies showed that the groups with attention deficits (AD/HD and comorbid groups) exhibited vigilance, executive attention, and EFs deficits related to inhibition and set shifting. The groups with reading impairments (dyslexic and comorbid groups) displayed a specific EF deficit in auditory working memory and a processing speed response time deficit. The common etiology hypothesis, which posits that cognitive deficits in comorbid groups are the sum of deficits found in AD/HD and dyslexia alone, best described the performance of the comorbid group.  The results are discussed with respect to identification/assessment, compensatory strategies, and educational interventions in postsecondary students with AD/HD and dyslexia. The studies emphasize that comparing cognitive performance based on comprehensive theoretical models of attention and EFs and addressing sample inclusion and task validity confounds can effectively delineate cognitive deficits in adults with AD/HD and dyslexia.

abstract: PhD


title: Effects of Heatshock on the Na+/K+-ATPase in Locusta migratoria

contributor:
Robertson, R. M.
Moyes, Christopher D.
Biology

subject:
Locusta migratoria
ventilation
ventilatory motor pattern
Heatshock
enzymatic activity
immunohistochemistry
Na+/K+-ATPase
electrophysiology
localization

abstract: Thesis (Master, Biology) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-26 13:14:48.472

abstract:
Most vertebrates suffer permanent damage after minutes of anoxia. Many insects however, have part of their life cycle in anoxia or constant hypoxia, such as during their egg-hatching phase, by living as deep burrowers, or at high altitudes. Insects are able to survive in anoxia from hours to days, or even months by developing various strategies through evolution. For example, the locusts (Locusta migratoria) enter a reversible coma during anoxia that is associated with an arrest of ventilation, and a reinitiation of ventilation when returned to normoxia. This coma is correlated with a surge in the concentration of extracellular potassium ions ([K+]o), and recovery from this reversible coma is dependent on re-establishing the functional [K+]o. Prior exposure to a sublethal heatshock (HS)-preconditioning grants locusts a temporary resilience to anoxia; however, the molecular mechanisms of this protection are still unclear.
This project investigated the effects of HS-preconditioning on locusts’ ventilation, the total enzymatic activity of the Na+/K+-ATPase, as well as its distribution within the metathoracic ganglion and tested the hypothesis that HS-preconditioning alters locusts’ ventilation and increases the totally Na+/K+-ATPase activity and its concentration within neuronal membranes. I
recorded electromyograms of locusts’ ventilatory motor patterns in the presence and absence of anoxic coma by placing a copper wire electrode on ventilatory muscles 161 or 173 in control and HS-preconditioned animals. In addition, I studied the enzymatic activity of the Na+/K+-ATPase using a pyruvate kinase/lactate dehydrogenase assay and the localization of the Na+/K+-ATPase
using immunohistochemistry in control and HS-preconditioned locusts at different stages of
coma. I found that the ventilatory cycle period was decreased and the ventilatory muscle burst duration was increased after recovery from anoxic coma in HS-preconditioned locusts. I also found that anoxia did not affect the activity or the localization of the Na+/K+-ATPase. However,
HS-preconditioning increased the total activity of the Na+/K+-ATPase and the localization of the Na+/K+-ATPase within the neuronal membranes. From this project, I concluded that HSpreconditioning affected locusts’ ventilatory motor pattern after recover from anoxia and increased the total activity and the neuronal membrane localization of the Na+/K+-ATPase.

abstract: M.Sc.


title: Livelihood Strategies of Dock Workers in Durban, c. 1900-1959

contributor:
Epprecht, Marc
Shenton, Robert W.
History

subject:
labor migration
African history
stevedoring
South Africa
dock labor
labor
informal economy

abstract: Thesis (Ph.D, History) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-26 17:14:17.474

abstract:
This dissertation examines the livelihood strategies of African dock workers in Durban, South Africa, between the Anglo-Boer War and the 1959 strikes. These labourers did not conform to common conceptions of radical dock workers or conservative African migrant workers. While Marxist scholars have been correct to stress the working class consciousness of Durban’s dock workers, this consciousness was also more ambiguous. These workers and their leaders displayed a peculiar mix of concern for workers’ issues and defences of the rights and interests of African traders.
	Many of Durban’s dock workers were not only wage labourers. In fact, only a minority had wages as their only source of income. The Reserve economy played a role in sustaining the consumption levels of their households and, more importantly, more than half of the former dock workers interviewed for this research engaged in some form of commercial enterprise, often based on the pilferage and sale of cargoes. Some also teamed up with township women who sold pilfered goods while the men were at work. This combination of commercial strategies and wage labour has often been overlooked in the literature. By looking at these livelihood strategies, this dissertation considers how rural and urban economies interacted in households’ strategies and reinterprets the reproduction of labour and the household in order to move beyond dichotomies of proletarian versus rural consciousness.
	The dock workers’ households were neither proletarian households that were forced to reside in the countryside because of apartheid, nor traditional rural homesteads with a missing migrant member. The households were reproduced in three geographically separate spheres of production and consumption, none of which could reproduce the household on its own. These spheres were dependent on each other, but also separate, as physical distance gave the different household members some autonomy. Such multi-nodal households not only bridged the rural and the urban, but equally straddled the formal/informal divide. For many, their employment on the docks made their commercial enterprises possible, which allowed them to retire early from urban wage labour. Consequently, the interests of wage labourers could not be divorced from those of African small-scale entrepreneurs.

abstract: I wish to control the form and the forum in which my work will enter the public domain. Two of my ten chapters are being published as articles and these are the versions that I want people to read first. In the next few years I wish to explore opportunities to rework this research into a monograph. Colleagues before me have been made aware that open access to your research may make publication more difficult.

abstract: PhD


title: Regulation of the Gene Encoding Thrombin-Activable Fibrinolysis Inhibitor in Non-Hepatic Cells

contributor:
Koschinsky, Marlys
Boffa, Michael
Biochemistry

subject: Platelets Fibrinolysis Megakaryocytes Monocytes TAFI Inflammation

abstract: Thesis (Ph.D, Biochemistry) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-26 21:22:33.348

abstract:
Thrombin-activable fibrinolysis inhibitor (TAFI) is a carboxypeptidase B-like pro-enzyme that, once activated, attenuates fibrinolysis. TAFIa also possesses anti-inflammatory properties. Although liver is the main source of plasma TAFI, platelet-derived TAFI has also been reported. An alternatively spliced TAFI variant resulted from the skipping of exon 6 and a 52-base deletion in exon 10 of CPB2 mRNA (∆6+10) was described to be brain specific. This TAFI variant is reputed to possess a secretase-like activity that cleaves β-amyloid precursor protein to form β-amyloid, a process involved in the onset of Alzheimer's disease.
	In this thesis, we report the identification of CPB2 mRNA and TAFI protein in various vascular and inflammatory cells. Specifically, we describe the expression of CPB2 mRNA in the megakaryocytic cell lines MEG-01 and Dami, the monocytic cell line THP-1, and peripheral blood mononuclear cells. TAFI protein was detected in differentiated Dami and THP-1 cells.
	We next describe the effect of external stimuli such as phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) on CPB2 expression in Dami and THP-1 cells. We found that PMA treatment increases both CPB2 mRNA abundance and promoter activity in Dami cells, and decreases both CPB2 mRNA abundance and promoter activity in THP-1 cells. Deletion analysis of the CPB2 promoter indicated cell-type specific regulation of CPB2 gene expression.
	Finally, we evaluated the expression of alternatively spliced CPB2 mRNA variants in hepatic and non hepatic cells. We found that exon 6 skipping variants are expressed in all cell types of interest. The variant previously reported to be brain specific was also found to be expressed in platelets. We found that the alternatively spliced TAFI variants accumulated inside the cells in a non-secretable, hypoglycosylated form and showed no carboxypeptidase activity.
	 Taken together, this thesis provides further evidence supporting the hypothesis that platelet-derived TAFI is originated from CPB2 gene expression in megakaryocytes. Moreover, our data imply a potential for site-specific anti-inflammatory control provided by macrophage-derived TAFI. Alternative splicing of the CPB2 mRNA may give rise to variants with an intracellular role, perhaps as a peptidase chaperone, and may modulate the synthesis of secretable TAFI.

abstract: Manuscript in Chapter 4 is currently been prepared for peer-review.

abstract: PhD


title: Design and Implementation of a Cognitive Wireless Sensor Network: Application to Environment Monitoring

contributor:
Ibnkahla, Mohamed
Electrical and Computer Engineering

subject:
Wireless Sensor Network
Cognition

abstract: Thesis (Master, Electrical & Computer Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-27 00:38:12.455

abstract: Wireless sensor networks have applications in many places from wildlife environments to urban areas. Implementation of such a network is a challenging task because each specific application may require different constraints and objectives. To better meet the application requirements, cognitive wireless sensor network has been recently introduced. However, almost all the previous work in this area has been in theory or by simulation. Hence there is a demand to provide implementable ideas of cognition, implement, and analyze the results. The goal of this thesis is to implement a cognitive wireless sensor network with application in environment monitoring which is aware of the surrounding environment, updates its information based on the dynamic changes in the network status, makes appropriate decisions based on the gained awareness, and forwards required actions to involving nodes. An implementable cognitive idea is proposed based on the characteristics and goals of a cognitive system. Since transmission is one of the most power consuming processes in sensor nodes and non-efficient transmissions of data can lead to a shorter lifetime, this work tries to schedule nodes' transmission rate by the means of cognition and benefits from efficient scheduling of the redundant nodes to improve lifetime. To enhance a wireless sensor network with cognition, new nodes should be added to the architecture called cognitive nodes. Cognitive nodes will take care of most of the tasks in the cognition process while still there is a need to add a level of cognition to each individual node. The main contribution of this work is that it provides an implementable approach to cognition in wireless sensor networks, proposes a low complexity and low cost implementable idea for cognition, addresses implementation issues, and provides experimental results of different setups of the cognitive wireless sensor network.

abstract: M.Sc.


title: 2D-3D Registration Methods for Computer-Assisted Orthopaedic Surgery

contributor:
Abolmaesumi, Purang
Stewart, James
Sellens, Rick
Computing

subject:
2D-3D Registration
Computer-Assisted Orthopaedic Surgery

abstract: Thesis (Ph.D, Computing) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-28 10:58:04.406

abstract:
2D-3D registration is one of the underpinning technologies that enables image-guided intervention in computer-assisted orthopaedic surgery (CAOS). Preoperative 3D images and surgical plans need to be mapped to the patient in the operating room before they can be used to augment the surgical intervention, and this task is generally fulfilled by using 2D-3D registration which spatially aligns a preoperative 3D image to a set of intraoperative fluoroscopic images.

The key problem in 2D-3D registration is to define an accurate similarity metric between the 2D and 3D data, and choose an appropriate optimization algorithm. Various similarity metrics and optimization algorithms have been proposed for 2D-3D registration; however, current techniques have several critical limitations. First, a good initial guess - usually within a few millimetres from the true solution - is required, and such capture range is often not wide enough for clinical use. Second, for currently used optimization algorithms, it is difficult to achieve a good balance between the computation efficiency and registration accuracy. Third, most current techniques register a 3D image of a single bone to a set of fluoroscopic images, but in many CAOS procedures, such as a multi-fragment fracture treatment, multiple bone pieces are involved.

In this thesis, research has been conducted to investigate the above problems: 1) two new registration techniques are proposed that use recently developed optimization techniques, i.e. Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) and Covariance Matrix Adaptation Evolution Strategy (CMA-ES), to improve the capture range for the 2D-3D registration problem; 2) a multiple-object 2D-3D registration technique is proposed that simultaneously aligns multiple 3D images of fracture fragments to a set of fluoroscopic images of fracture ensemble; 3) a new method is developed for fast and efficient construction of anatomical atlases; and 4) a new atlas-based multiple-object 2D-3D registration technique is proposed to aid fracture reduction in the absence of preoperative 3D images. Experimental results showed that: 1) by using the new optimization algorithms, the robustness against noise and outliers was improved, and the registrations could be performed more efficiently; 2) the simultaneous registration of multiple bone fragments could achieve a clinically acceptable global alignment among all objects with reasonable computation cost; and 3) the new atlas construction method could construct and update intensity atlases accurately and efficiently; and 4) the use of atlas in multiple-object 2D-3D registration is feasible.

abstract: PhD


title: Investigation Into the Source and Progression of Railway Track Ballast Layer Fouling Material for the CN Joliette, QC Subdivision

contributor: Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering

subject:
Sub-Ballast
LA Abrasion
Fouling
Grain Size Distribution
Railway Track
Ballast

abstract: Thesis (Master, Geological Sciences & Geological Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-27 10:01:46.141

abstract:
Railway track ballast fouling is an ongoing issue without a clear understanding regarding either the cause for generation or the source of the fouling materials. This study was conducted to determine what physical processes are likely causing ballast fouling, where in the track sub-structure fouling material is concentrating, and what factors affect the severity of ballast fouling.
A field investigation on a CN railway track was conducted in Joliette, QC during undercutting maintenance operations. Data for in-situ ballast, sub-ballast, and subgrade samples were gathered from a series of trenches excavated through the track embankment. The geotechnical and mineralogical characteristics of a selected set of ballast samples were gathered through a regime of laboratory testing. Grain size distribution data for the select samples was collected from sieve and hydrometer testing. Three sets of LA abrasion tests were conducted on both in-situ and freshly quarried ballast rock to determine the degradation characteristics of the various ballast types. The petrographic analysis of the sample types was conducted using bulk hand sample characterization, thin-section analysis, and X-Ray Diffraction Analysis.
The petrographic, grain size, and LA abrasion combined analysis indicated that ballast fouling was primarily caused through degradation of the ballast. The fouling material within the ballast pores was sourced to the abraded pieces of ballast that had degraded over time through XRD and grain size distribution analysis. It was found with statistical confidence that ballast layers with harder, structureless rock types have less fouling material form within the ballast void spaces compared to ballast rock types that are soft on the Mohs hardness scale or have planes of weakness due to structural factors. Analysis of the grain size data also showed that ballast fouling was generally concentrated within the section of the ballast layer directly underlying the steel rail, within the topmost parts of the ballast layers. Overall it was recommended that the effects of chemical degradation on ballast rock types and the historical operational duration of ballast be incorporated into future ballast fouling studies.

abstract: M.A.Sc.


title: Statistical Methods for Testing Treatment-Covariate Interactions in Cancer Clinical Trials

contributor:
Tu, Dongsheng
Mathematics and Statistics

subject:
Jackknife estimate
Monte-Carlo simulation
nonparametric measure of interaction
Kernel smooth

abstract: Thesis (Ph.D, Mathematics & Statistics) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-27 11:09:28.449

abstract: Treatment–covariate interaction is often used in clinical trials to assess the homogeneity of treatment effects over these subgroups defined by a baseline covariate, which is frequently conducted after primary analysis including all patients is completed.  When the endpoint is the time to an event, as in the cancer clinical trials, the Cox proportional hazard model with an interaction term has been used exclusively to test the significance of treatment-covariate interaction in oncology literature. But the proportional hazards assumption may not be satisfied by the data from clinical trials. Although there are several procedures proposed in statistical literature to assess the interaction based on a nonparametric measure of interaction or nonparametric models, some of these procedures do not take into the account of the nature of the data well, while some are very complicated which may have limited their applications in practice.  In this thesis, a non-parametric procedure based on the smoothed estimate of Patel–Hoel measure is first derived to test the interaction between the treatment and a binary covariate with censored data. The theoretical distribution of the test statistic of the proposed procedure is derived.  The proposed procedure is also evaluated through Monte-Carlo simulations and applications to data from a cancer clinical trial.  Jackknifed versions of two test statistics based on nonparametric models are then derived by simplifying these test statistics and applying the jackknife method to estimate their variances.  These jackknifed tests are also compared with the smoothed test and other related tests.

abstract: PhD


title: Obtaining the Best Model Predictions and Parameter Estimates Using Limited Data

contributor:
McAuley, Kimberly B.
Chemical Engineering

subject:
Parameter Subset Selection
Estimability
Identifiability
Chemical Engineering
Parameter Estimation
Mean Squared Error

abstract: Thesis (Master, Chemical Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-27 10:52:31.588

abstract:
Engineers who develop fundamental models for chemical processes are often unable to estimate all of the model parameters due to problems with parameter identifiability and estimability. The literature concerning these two concepts is reviewed and techniques for assessing parameter identifiability and estimability in nonlinear dynamic models are summarized. Modellers often face estimability problems when the available data are limited or noisy. In this situation, modellers must decide whether to conduct new experiments, change the model structure, or to estimate only a subset of the parameters and leave others at fixed values. Estimating only a subset of important model parameters is a technique often used by modellers who face estimability problems and it may lead to better model predictions with lower mean squared error (MSE) than the full model with all parameters estimated. Different methods in the literature for parameter subset selection are discussed and compared.
An orthogonalization algorithm combined with a recent MSE-based criterion has been used successfully to rank parameters from most to least estimable and to determine the parameter subset that should be estimated to obtain the best predictions. In this work, this strategy is applied to a batch reactor model using additional data and results are compared with computationally-expensive leave-one-out cross-validation. A new simultaneous ranking and selection technique based on this MSE criterion is also described. Unfortunately, results from these parameter selection techniques are sensitive to the initial parameter values and the uncertainty factors used to calculate sensitivity coefficients. A robustness test is proposed and applied to assess the sensitivity of the selected parameter subset to the initial parameter guesses. The selected parameter subsets are compared with those selected using another MSE-based method proposed by Chu et al. (2009). The computational efforts of these methods are compared and recommendations are provided to modellers.

abstract: M.A.Sc.


title: Navigating Compulsory Career Studies in Times of Local and Global Economic Challenge: A Teacher's Experience in Eastern Ontario

contributor:
Hutchinson, Nancy L.
Education

subject:
Secondary
Policy Dissemination
Career Education
Policy Implementation
Case Study

abstract: Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-27 11:37:15.56

abstract:
For some time, youth worldwide have faced high levels of unemployment, up to twice as high as adults in Canada (Quintini, Martin, & Martin, 2007). In an environment proliferated with economic recovery initiatives responding to the global economic downturn that began in 2008 (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2010), navigation towards employment for youth is complex and dynamic. Many rural communities were damaged by the global economic downturn, particularly in eastern Ontario (Jinha, 2009). The value of career education in supporting youth with transition from school-to-work is widely supported (Bell & O’Reilly, 2008). To my knowledge, a teacher’s perspective on teaching compulsory career studies within times of significant economic challenge has remained unexplored.
Using two strands of data collection, document analysis was used to describe policies and strategies that comprised the Canadian and Ontario governments’ responses to the global economic downturn and the provincial policy on career education. I undertook interviews with a career studies teacher to document her knowledge of Canadian and Ontario governments’ responses, and how and from where she gained this knowledge. The teacher’s perceptions of challenges faced by career studies students’ when seeking employment, and of what this knowledge contributed to her teaching practice were also reported.
The documents revealed that Canadian and Ontario governments’ had responded to the global economic downturn with similar policies and strategies, influenced by future economic security. The Ministry of Education curriculum documents included economy which was linked with the students’ learning and to the expectations of the curriculum. The teacher had limited knowledge of federal and provincial policies and strategies, although she saw connections to the career studies curriculum. The teacher supported her career studies practice through experience gained in a combined role as a teacher of cooperative education and business subjects, and the experience of colleagues.
I concluded that the teaching of career studies was influenced by the teacher’s other teaching subjects, and career studies teachers’ need access to appropriate, current resources to meet curriculum expectations. Expanding the program to full-credit status might allow teachers greater flexibility to tailor the career studies program to meet individual students’ needs.

abstract: M.Ed.


title: Multiple Perspectives on the Connection between Temporary Conductive Hearing Loss and Reading Development

subject:
Interdisciplinary Communication
Parent advocacy
Reading Development
Otitis media
Reading Difficulties
Hearing Loss

abstract: Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-27 11:48:59.805

abstract:
Children have difficulty with reading for a number of reasons. One of these reasons may be temporary conductive hearing loss (TCHL) in preschool, which can be caused by otitis media (persistent fluid build-up in the middle ear), one of the most frequent medical issues in preschool children (Burt & Schappert, 2004). While otitis media can be treated medically, the duration of hearing loss and the age at which the hearing loss occurred may contribute to future reading difficulties (Easterbrooks, Lederberg, Miller, Bergeron & Connor, 2008).  The literature surrounding the connection between otitis media, TCHL, and reading development is inconclusive.  In addition, the nature of interdisciplinary communication to discuss the potential future challenges for children who have had TCHL is unclear. Little is known about how professionals communicate with parents about these challenges, and about how parents can best support their children.
This research focused on providing detailed descriptions of how medical and educational professionals reported they communicated with each other and with parents about the potential reading risks associated with TCHL. This study followed standard qualitative research methods to conduct in-depth interviews with six medical and educational professionals and with two parents of children with TCHL. Results from this study have revealed important aspects that characterize what, when, and how professionals inform parents of children with TCHL about potential future reading problems. The knowledge gained through this research can guide future research and have practical implications for medical and educational professionals and provides recommendations for how parents are informed about potential future reading difficulties.

abstract: M.Ed.


title: Hope in the Most Unlikely Spaces: Thawra and the Contemporary Arabic Novel

contributor:
Bongie, Christopher
English

subject:
Thawra and Arabic literature
Arabic literature and spatial theory

abstract: Thesis (Ph.D, English) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-27 13:18:25.303

abstract:
In the early to mid-twentieth century, many novelists in the Arab world championed Arab nationalism in their literary reflections on the social and political struggles of their countries, depicting these struggles primarily in terms of spatial binaries that pitted the Arab world against the West, even as they imported Western literary models of progress and modernity into their own work. The intense experience of national awakening that infused their writing often placed these authors at a literary disadvantage, for in their literature, all too often the depth and diversity of Arabic cultures and the complexity of socio-political struggles across the Arab world were undermined by restrictive spatial discourses that tended to focus only on particular versions of Arab history and on a seemingly unifying national predicament. Between the Arab defeat of 1967 and the present day, however, an increasing number of Arab authors have turned to less restrictive forms of spatial discourse in search of a language that might offer alternative narratives of hope beyond the predictable, and seemingly thwarted, trajectories of nationalism. This study traces the ways in which contemporary Arab authors from Egypt and the Sudan have endeavoured to re-think and re-define the Arab identity in ever-changing spaces where elements of the local and the global, the traditional and the modern, interact both competitively and harmoniously. I examine the spatial language and the tropes used in three Arabic novels, viewing them through the lens of thawra (revolution) in both its socio-political and artistic manifestations. Linking the manifestations of thawra in each text to different scenes of revolution in the Arab world today, in Chapter Two, I consider how, at a stage when the Sudan of the sixties was both still dealing with colonial withdrawal and struggling to establish itself as a nation-state, the geographical and textual landscapes of Tayeb Salih‟s Season of Migration to the North depict the ongoing dilemma of the Sudanese identity. In Chapter Three, I examine Alaa
iii
al-Aswany‟s The Yacoubian Building in the context of a socially diseased and politically corrupt Egypt of the nineties: social, political, modern, historical, local, and global elements intertwine in a dizzyingly complex spatial network of associations that sheds light on the complicated reasons behind today‟s Egyptian thawra. In Chapter Four, the final chapter, Gamal al-Ghitani‟s approach to his Egypt in Pyramid Texts drifts far away from Salih‟s anguished Sudan and al-Aswany‟s chaotic Cairo to a realm where thawra manifests itself artistically in a sophisticated spatial language that challenges all forms of spatial hegemony and, consequently, old and new forms of social, political, and cultural oppression in the Arab world.

abstract: I wish to restrict my dissertation for reasons pertaining to publication matters, either concerning the publication of the work in its entirety, or of individual chapters.

abstract: PhD


title: Melancholy and the Early Modern University

contributor:
Hanson, Elizabeth
English

subject: Melancholy, universities, King James, Robert Burton, George Herbert, Hamlet, Shakespeare, Habermas, the public sphere

abstract: Thesis (Ph.D, English) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-27 15:30:01.702

abstract: Critics have observed that in early Stuart England, the broad, socially significant concept of melancholy was recoded as a specifically medical phenomenon—a disease rather than a fashion. This recoding made melancholy seem less a social attitude than a private ailment. However, I argue that at the Stuart universities, this recoded melancholy became a covert expression of the disillusionment, disappointment, and frustration produced by pressures there—the overcrowding and competition which left many men “disappointed” in preferment, alongside James I’s unprecedented royal involvement in the universities. My argument has implications for Jürgen Habermas’s account of the emergence of the public sphere, which he claims did not occur until the eighteenth-century. I argue that although the university was increasingly subordinated to the crown’s authority, a lingering sense of autonomy persisted there, a residue of the medieval university’s relative autonomy from the crown; politicized by the encroaching Stuart presence, an alienated community at the university formed a kind of public in private from authority within that authority’s midst. The audience for the printed book, a sphere apart from court or university, represented a forum in which the publicity at the universities could be consolidated, especially in seemingly “private” literary forms such as the treatise on melancholy. I argue that Robert Burton’s exaggerated performance of melancholy in The Anatomy of Melancholy, which gains him license to say almost anything, resembles the performed melancholy that the student-prince Hamlet uses to frustrate his uncle’s attempts to surveil him. After tracing melancholy’s evolving literary function through Hamlet, I go on to discuss James’s interventions into the universities. I conclude by considering two printed (and widely circulated) books by university men:  the aforementioned The Anatomy of Melancholy by Burton, an Oxford cleric, and The Temple by George Herbert, who left a career as Cambridge’s public orator to become a country parson. I examine how each of these books uses the affective pattern of courtly-scholarly disappointment—transumed by Burton as melancholy, and by Herbert as holy affliction—to develop an empathic form of publicity among its readership which is in tacit opposition to the Stuart court.

abstract: I elect to restrict my thesis because I will be working on shaping the project into a book, and would rather not make it public before I have determined the course of publishing I will pursue. I have discussed this matter with my advisor, and she has suggested that this is a good idea.

abstract: PhD


title: Urban Regeneration in Toronto: Rebuilding the Social in Regent Park

contributor:
Hand, Martin
Sociology

subject:
Regent Park
Toronto
urban regeneration
public housing

abstract: Thesis (Master, Sociology) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-27 16:29:31.729

abstract: This thesis presents a critical exploration of the ‘revitalization’ of Toronto’s Regent Park. Regent Park is Canada’s oldest and largest government subsidized housing development. Originally designed in 1947, Toronto City Council approved the revitalization of the neighbourhood in 2003. Within this thesis, Regent Park serves as a means to examine some of the ways in which urban planning and design, public policy, architecture and landscape architecture interact with people’s daily practices in their socioeconomic and cultural contexts, to ‘rebuild the social’. In order to do this, the thesis begins by presenting an account of the original development, providing a sociohistorical context for understanding the more recent revitalization. Secondly, the thesis provides a review of relevant theoretical literature pertaining to the idea that design shapes society, discussing key aspects of modernist and postmodernist accounts of the city, arguing for the salience of a broadly ‘relational’ model inspired by the work of Julier (2008) and others. Thirdly, the thesis conducts an empirical analysis of the recent revitalization process, using a mixed methodology of documentary analysis and in-depth interviews with a key developer and the residents of Regent’s park. This analysis explores the ideological commitments at play within the planning process, as well as the practice of planning itself, investigating how theories of design and planning relate to the actual process of planning, including the political and financial obligations. The analysis then compares the intentions of the design with the inhabitant’s lived experience within the space, focusing on the inhabitants’ active role in negotiating the space in ways that were ‘unplanned’. This thesis provides a sociological exploration of Regent Park as a complex site of interaction between the design of the space (influenced by theories of design, as well as economic, political and social motivations), the materials that make up that space, and the actual use of the space by residents, the outcomes of which challenge deterministic accounts of urban development.

abstract: M.A.


title: The Effect of Adaptive Perfectionism, Maladaptive Perfectionism, and Feedback on Procrastination Behaviour

contributor:
Jacobson, Jill A.
Psychology

subject: Feedback Procrastination Perfectionism

abstract: Thesis (Master, Psychology) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-27 17:57:45.647

abstract:
The goal of the current research was to improve on previous studies by more directly examining the relationship between perfectionism and actual procrastination behaviour.  In Study 1, participants (N = 167) were given five minutes to prepare for a verbal analogy test during which time they could complete practice materials or play a computer game.  After the first test, participants were randomly assigned to receive positive feedback, negative feedback, or no feedback.  They then had a second chance to study or play the computer game before they completed another verbal analogy test.
 Adaptive perfectionism was a significant predictor of less procrastination behaviour on the initial test although feedback on the first test did not change the subsequent behaviour of adaptive perfectionists. Maladaptive perfectionism was not a significant predictor of procrastination behaviour on the initial task. However, for women who were higher in maladaptive perfectionism, the more upset they were from receiving negative feedback on the first task, the more they increased their procrastination on the second task.
The purpose of Study 2 was to examine two potential mechanisms, low performance expectations or mood repair, which may have been responsible for the increase in procrastination behaviour seen in women who were higher in maladaptive perfectionism and upset about receiving negative feedback. Participants (N = 138) all received negative feedback on the first test, which was followed by an optimism prime, positive mood prime, or neutral prime. Participants then were given a second chance to study or play the computer game before they completed another verbal analogy test.
The positive mood prime did not have a significant effect on procrastination behaviour.  Among women who were lower in adaptive perfectionism, the optimism prime resulted in a decrease in procrastination behaviour for women higher in maladaptive perfectionism and an increase in procrastination behaviour for women lower in maladaptive perfectionism.  These findings are discussed in terms of their relevance for the academic outcomes of adaptive and maladaptive perfectionists.

abstract: M.Sc.


title: The Information Era Threatens Privayc: a Comparative Study of Electronic Money’s Privacy Policies and Privacy Laws

contributor:
Cockfield, J. Arthur
Law

subject:
Privacy
Information Risk
Electronic Money

abstract: Thesis (Master, Law) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-27 17:53:30.503

abstract: This thesis consists of an analysis of electronic money (e-money), e-money’s privacy policies and relevant privacy laws.   The value of information and the development of technology enhance the risk of privacy violations in the information era.  Consumer privacy interests with respect to e-money are governed in part by the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) in Canada and by the European Union’s Data Protection Directive.  The analysis is directed at whether the privacy policies of three kinds of e-money – Octopus Card, PayPal and MasterCard – comply with the spirit and letter of these laws.   In light of technology change, the laws should be interpreted to apply broadly to protect privacy interests.  Enhanced privacy protection may in fact lead to greater adoption of e-money by consumers.

abstract: The thesis has not been published yet, and I plan to publish it after graduation.

abstract: LL.M.


title: Voluntourism: The Visual Economy of International Volunteer Programs

contributor:
Jessup, Lynda
Cultural Studies

subject:
International Development
Multiculturalism
Visual Studies
Canada
Tourism
Volunteer Abroad

abstract: Thesis (Master, Cultural Studies) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-27 20:23:25.935

abstract:
This thesis examines images of volunteer tourism—or voluntourism—on internet sites and describes how the photographs that appear on them contribute to maintaining global systems of power. Voluntourism is defined as either the payment of a program fee to an organization to travel to a developing country to perform various volunteer tasks or as the pause of gainful employment in one’s own country to work for an extended period of time in a developing country at a local wage. Currently there is debate as to the real benefits of volunteer tourism: is it truly the sustainable form of responsible, alternative tourism it is intended to be, or does it merely replicate the conditions of mass tourism and exploit those it is intended to benefit?
This study explores visual representations of voluntourism in non-Western cultures in developing countries, and the consumption of those representations by participants in Canadian-based volunteer tourism organizations. The primary focus is photographs of interpersonal relationships between “voluntourists” and “voluntoured” in an examination of how culture and skin colour are manipulated in an attempt to maintain Westerners’ positions of power in pictures and, by extension, in global power relations. I suggest that a complex interaction of the pictorial codes of tourism, colonialism and the popular media converge in voluntourism’s photographs, resulting in images that simultaneously offer potential volunteers the opportunity to “do good” in the world as well as to consume cultural difference as a commodity.
The main body of work is a visual discourse analysis of the photographs of five Canadian volunteer organizations’ websites. I identify the thematic categories used to promote voluntourism and discuss them in relation to patterns of mass tourism, charity advertisements, colonial travel narratives and their associated visual representation. This paper includes interviews with Canadian past volunteers to assess the importance of images to their experience of voluntourism. I close with a discussion of multiculturalism in Canada which brings together the experience of working within another culture in voluntourism and the conditions of Canadian multicultural society.

abstract: M.A.


title: Augmenting Petri Nets to Model Health-Care Protocols

contributor:
Rudie, Karen
McLellan, P. James
Computing

subject:
Petri Nets
Emergency Protocols
Choice-Point Nets
Health-Care Modelling

abstract: Thesis (Ph.D, Computing) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-27 21:23:16.13

abstract: An outbreak of an infectious illness can have a devastating impact on a population.  Once confirmed, local health care organizations will attempt to reduce the spread of the disease by adopting a set of pre-defined guidelines.  Modelling such a system presents a number of unique challenges: timing and probability constraints must be captured, scaling must be seamless and methods for analysis must be robust and efficient.  To satisfy these requirements, an augmented form of Petri net known as a choice-point net is introduced in this thesis.  In this data structure, timing is associated with event-based transitions that may fire multiple times to simulate the same event occurring several times in parallel.  Events may result in several possible outcomes, or choices, each of which is given a probability of occurrence.  A choice-point net may be scaled without requiring structural changes to the model and may be analyzed by unravelling it into a finite-state automaton representing (perhaps portions of) its behaviour.  By translating questions about the protocol into the mathematical language of the net, recursive algorithms may then be employed to provide health-care professionals with answers to their questions.  To demonstrate the expressiveness of choice-point nets, an actual, in-use protocol to control respiratory infection outbreaks in long-term care homes is modelled.  Three similar abridged scenarios set in a small long-term care home are also modelled, analyzed and compared.

abstract: PhD


title: Use of Acceptability and Usability Trials to Evaluate Various Design Iterations of the Personal Lift Assistive Device (PLAD)

contributor:
Stevenson, Joan M.
Kinesiology and Health Studies

subject:
Personal Lift Assistive Device
User-Centred Design
Low Back Pain
Ergonomic Aid

abstract: Thesis (Master, Kinesiology & Health Studies) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-28 09:03:01.463

abstract: The purpose of this research is twofold: 1) to apply a user-centred approach to examine the usability and acceptability of an on-body ergonomic aid called the Personal Lift Assistive Device (PLAD) in a variety of industrial work environments and 2) to utilize subjective user acceptability data on discomfort, pain and overall PLAD assessment by participants to identify design features that need improvement in the next PLAD iteration. Case studies took place in four different industrial work environments: two distribution centre environments, one retail store environment and one automotive assembly plant environment. These environments were selected to represent different industrial work environments. In total, 20 industrial workers were selected to wear the PLAD and provide their feedback. Results were obtained using subjective questionnaires through verbal and written comments as well as through direct observation of the participants. Three major design changes occurred to the original PLAD iteration tested at the first industrial location. These included: 1) using different stiffness levels of springs for different sizes of individuals in an attempt to decrease discomfort and optimize the effectiveness of the PLAD, 2) an increase in pelvic spacer size and surface area contacting the user’s body to reduce discomfort and 3) modification to the shoulder harness including; shape, dimensions and amount of cushioning to reduce discomfort. Currently, three major design changes were identified and still need to be addressed. These include: 1) reduction of thermal discomfort caused by wearing the PLAD, 2) validation of selecting the appropriate spring stiffness for small, medium and large users of the PLAD (male and female) under various working postures and 3) simplification of the donning and doffing process. Additionally, a simple PLAD spring stiffness sizing chart was created to aid potential manufacturers of the PLAD to select the appropriate spring stiffness for various users of the PLAD. This sizing chart was designed to maintain an average lumbar moment reduction of 15%, while taking discomfort of the shoulders caused by the spring stiffness and overall cost into consideration.

abstract: M.Sc.


title: Visibility-based microcells for dynamic load balancing in MMO games

contributor:
Stewart, James
Computing

subject:
Microcells
Load Balancing

abstract: Thesis (Master, Computing) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-28 14:15:32.173

abstract:
Massively multiplayer games allow hundreds of players to play and
interact with each other simultaneously.  Due to the increasing need
to provide a greater degree of interaction to more players, load
balancing is critical on the servers that host the game.  A common
approach is to divide the world into microcells (small regions of the
game terrain) and to allocate the microcells dynamically across
multiple servers.

We describe a visibility--based technique that guides the creation of
microcells and their dynamic allocation.  This technique is designed
to reduce the amount of cross--server communication, in the hope of
providing better load balancing than other load--balancing strategies.

We hypothesize that reduction in expensive cross-server traffic will
reduce the overall load on the system. We employ horizon counts map
to create visibility based microcells, in order to emphasize primary
occluders in the terrain. In our testing we consider traffic over a
 given quality of service threshold as the primary metric for minimization.

As result of our testing we find that dynamic load balancing produces
significant improvement in the frequency of quality of service failures.
We find that our visibility-based micro cells do not outperform
basic rectangular microcells discussed in earlier research.  We also find
that cross-server traffic makes up a much smaller portion of overall message
load than we had anticipated, reducing the potential overall benefit from
cross server message optimisation.

abstract: M.Sc.


title: Articular Asphericity of the Arthritic Hip

contributor:
Ellis, Randy E.
Mechanical and Materials Engineering

subject:
shape fitting
biomechanics

abstract: Thesis (Master, Mechanical and Materials Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-28 09:41:29.114

abstract:
The predominant model of the human hip is a mechanical ball-and-socket joint. This description has two key implications: that the motion of the hip is purely rotational, and that the rigid articulating geometry of the hip is a sphere-on-sphere contact. Since the widespread adoption of this model, in the late 1960s, there has however been a persistent thread of literature suggesting that the articulating geometry of the hip is aspherical. The recent widespread availability of three-dimensional medical imaging now makes it possible to empirically assess the applicability of the predominant model.

For this research dissertation, two arthritic groups were examined: patients either had primary early-life osteoarthritis of the hip, or hip dysplasia with secondary osteoarthritis. Computed tomography scans, taken as part of routine preoperative preparation, served as the source data for this work. The scans were manually segmented to produce 3D models of the bones of the hip, which were further refined to isolate the bony articular surfaces. These surfaces were fit to general ellipsoids and to spheres, the latter being the ball-and-socket model. The arthritic hips examined had comparable fitting accuracy for both ellipsoids and spheres; however, sixteen of nineteen hips formed geometrically incompatible ball-and-socket joints. The dysplastic
hips examined had a notable difference in fitting accuracy, with ellipsoids being a statistically significantly better fit to the hip geometry. The ellipsoid shapes in all cases were aspherical, and in each population formed a statistically significantly aspherical group. There were no trends relating the ellipsoid shapes of bones of an individual joint, nor were there practical differences between the ellipsoid shapes between the two populations.

Despite patient groups not being controlled for age, sex, or race, and accounting for typical manual segmentation errors, these results suggest that the hip is aspherically shaped. Thus, the geometric foundation of the ball-and-socket motion may be unsupported, and the conventional kinematic description of the hip may be called into question.

abstract: M.A.Sc.


title: The Influence of Dispersal on Zooplankton Community Structure and Species Co-Occurrence Patterns

contributor:
Arnott, Shelley E.
Schamp, Brandon
Biology

subject:
Zooplankton Community
Co-Occurrence Patterns

abstract: Thesis (Master, Biology) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-28 15:00:40.972

abstract:
The influence of regional processes, such as dispersal, on ecological communities has been the focal point of considerable ecological research. Evidence has shown that dispersal can impact community composition through interactions with predation, the introduction of keystone species, and maintenance of species lost due to competitive exclusion. Ecological communities can be characterized by several metrics including species richness, diversity, evenness, abundance and species co-occurrence patterns. Negative species co-occurrence patterns have historically been attributed to competitive interactions between species causing pairs of species to never co-occur. However, little attention has been paid to the contribution of dispersal on species co-occurrence patterns. I have experimentally investigated the influence of dispersal on species co-occurrence patterns in addition to local species richness, total species abundance, evenness, and Simpson’s diversity.
Local species richness significantly increased with dispersal, with variation in total local richness being mainly attributed to differences in the rotifer community. Local diversity, total abundance, and evenness were not significantly influenced by changes in the level of dispersal. Species co-occurrence patterns were greatly affected by changes in dispersal, with negative species co-occurrence patterns peaking at intermediate levels of dispersal. The potential for dispersal to increase the number of rare species within a community suggested that the presence of rare species could be behind the changes in the co-occurrence patterns between dispersal treatments. The effect size of the co-occurrence tests increased with the removal of rare species in the intermediate dispersal treatment and decreased in the remaining dispersal treatments. Likely, through mass effects, the presence of rare species, and the establishment of keystone predators changes in the level of dispersal strongly influenced species co-occurrence patterns. I conclude that external processes, like dispersal, can influence species co-occurrence patterns and that caution should be taken when interpreting the mechanisms driving species co-occurrence patterns across landscapes.

abstract: M.Sc.


title: The Distribution of Serotonergic, Noradrenergic and Dopaminergic Synapses on Flexor Motoneurons

contributor:
Rose, Ken P.
Neuroscience Studies

subject: Flexor Modulator Extensor Serotonin Neuroscience Noradrenalin Dopamine

abstract: Thesis (Master, Neuroscience Studies) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-28 15:17:54.335

abstract: Serotonin (5-HT) and noradrenalin (NA) increase persistent inward currents mediated by sodium and calcium channels on the dendrites of motoneurons. The ability of 5-HT and NA to modulate these channels depends on the distributions of 5-HT and NA synapses. Recent studies of the distribution of 5-HT and NA synapses on motoneurons innervating the neck muscle splenius reported that these synapses are rare on the somata and have a strong bias to dendrites with small diameters. It is unknown whether this distribution pattern represents a general principle of organization (1) for all motoneuron groups or (2) for all types of modulators. To address the first question, we have examined the distribution of 5-HT and NA synapses on flexor motoneurons, which unlike extensor motoneurons, are not able to generate self-sustained discharges known to involve the activation of persistent inward currents. To answer the second question, we have mapped the distribution dopamine (DA) synapses. The dendrites of motoneurons that innervate the neck flexor rectus capitis anterior (RCA) were stained. Synapses containing 5-HT, NA and DA were identified using immunohistochemical techniques. Observations based on five RCA motoneurons indicate that the average densities of 5-HT and NA contacts are 2.3 and 1.4 times less dense than the average densities of 5-HT and NA contacts on splenius motoneurons, respectively. Moreover, pairs of 5-HT contacts and pairs of NA contacts were found to be 3.0 and 1.8 times closer together on splenius compared to RCA motoneurons, respectively. These observations may reflect the inability of flexor motoneurons to generate self sustained discharges. Similar to splenius motoneurons, 5-HT and NA synapses were found to preferentially innervate dendrites with diameters less than 2 µm.  Thus, 5-HT and NA synapses facilitate channels in regions where excitatory or inhibitory signals undergo the largest attenuations. DA synapses on the dendritic tree were sparse (0.2 and 0.1 contacts per 1000 µm2), suggesting that the actions of DA synapses are confined to local regions on the dendritic tree. These results highlight that motoneurons do not all share the same intrinsic properties, and the distribution of modulatory synapses have a crucial role in determining these properties.

abstract: Thesis is to be restricted for the purposes of publication in the near future and journal requirements.

abstract: M.Sc.


title: Engineering Perspectives of Grade 7 Students in Canada

contributor:
Strong, David S.
Civil Engineering

subject:
Qualitative Research
Grade 7
Middle School
Engineering Education
Education
Survey
Engineering Outreach
Interview
Middle School Perceptions
Engineering Perspectives

abstract: Thesis (Master, Civil Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-28 18:12:53.158

abstract:
Many high school students are unable to consider engineering as an undergraduate program of study because they have not taken the prerequisite courses required for university entrance. In order to provide the opportunity for capable students to pursue an engineering degree and subsequently enter the engineering profession, they should be more aware of the profession of engineering prior to entering high school to enable them to select appropriate courses from the very start of their post elementary education.

The focus of this study is to understand how students in grade 7 perceive the profession of engineering in two example regions across Canada. Recent literature suggests that action is underway in some areas of the United States in order to create awareness and encourage students to pursue an engineering program.  These initiatives range from integrating engineering concepts into the K-12 curriculum to providing outreach and design challenge opportunities outside of school.  In Canada, such initiatives are only present in isolated cases, with limited reach and impact.

To better understand the perspectives on engineering of pre-high school students in Canada, grade 7 students were provided with surveys incorporating a variety of questions pertaining to the engineering profession.  All questions were open ended in order to promote individualized answers from the students. Survey questions were analyzed with NVIVO software to determine common themes in the understanding and perception of engineering from the perspective of the students. After the completion of the survey, select students in each location were interviewed in order to further explore their perception of the engineering profession. The questions asked during these interviews built on the themes of the written survey. In general, it was found that participants had varied and mostly inaccurate perception of what engineers do, and lacked a clear understanding of the profession.

After analyzing the data, the subsequent suggested recommendations are to develop a better public perception of the engineering profession, develop programs to help teachers better relate math and science to engineering in school, and to consider further investigation of best practices from the United States and how they might be implemented in Canada.

abstract: M.A.Sc.


title: Objective Assessment of Dysarthric Speech Intelligibility

contributor:
Chan, Wai-Yip Geoffrey
Electrical and Computer Engineering

subject: Objective Reference-free Intelligibility Quality Dysarthria

abstract: Thesis (Master, Electrical & Computer Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-28 18:44:51.103

abstract:
The de-facto standard for dysarthric intelligibility
assessment is a subjective intelligibility test, performed by an expert.
Subjective tests are often costly, biased and inconsistent because of their perceptual nature.
Automatic objective assessment methods, in contrast, are repeatable and
relatively cheap. Objective methods can be broken down into two subcategories:
reference-free, and reference based. Reference-free methods employ estimation procedures that do not require information about the target speech material. This potentially makes the problem more difficult, and
consequently, there is a deficit of research into reference-free dysarthric intelligibility estimation.

In this thesis, we focus on the reference-free intelligibility estimation approach.
To make the problem more tractable, we focus on the dysarthrias of cerebral palsy (CP). First, a popular standard for blind speech quality estimation, the ITU-T P.563 standard, is examined for possible application to dysarthric intelligibility estimation. The internal structure of the standard is discussed, along with the relevance of its internal features to intelligibility estimation. Afterwards, several novel features expected to relate to some of the acoustic properties of dysarthric speech are proposed. Proposed features are based on the high-order statistics of parameters derived from linear prediction (LP) analysis, and a mel-frequency filterbank.

In order to gauge the complimentariness of P.563 and proposed features, a linear intelligibility model is proposed and tested. Intelligibility is expressed as a linear combination of acoustic features, which are selected from a feature pool using speaker-dependent and speaker-independent validation methods. An intelligibility estimator constructed with only P.563 features serves as the `baseline'. When proposed features are added to the feature pool, performance is shown to improve substantially for both speaker-dependent and speaker-independent methods when compared to the baseline. Results are also shown to compare favourably with those reported in the literature.

abstract: M.A.Sc.


title: The Art of 'Governing Nature': 'Green' Governmentality and the Management of Nature

contributor:
Smith, Mick
Environmental Studies

subject: Governmentality Nature Foucault

abstract: Thesis (Master, Environmental Studies) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-28 19:06:20.246

abstract:
This thesis seeks to unpack the notions of Michael Foucault's late work on governmentality and what insights it might have for understanding the ‘governing of nature’. In doing this it also operates as a critique of what is often termed 'resourcism', a way of evaluating nature which only accounts for its utility for human use and does not give any acceptance to the idea of protecting nature for its own sake, or any conception of a nature that cannot be managed. By utilizing a study of the govern-mentalities emerging throughout liberalism, welfare-liberalism and neoliberalism I argue that this form of 'knowing' nature-as-resource has always been internal to rationalities of liberal government, but that the bracketing out of other moral valuations to the logic of the market is a specific function of neoliberal rationalities of governing.
I then seek to offer an analysis of the implications for this form of nature rationality, in that it is becoming increasingly globalized, and with that bringing more aspects of nature into metrics for government, bringing new justifications for intervening in ‘deficient’ populations under the rubric of ‘sustainable development. I argue, that with this a new (global) environmental subject is being constructed; one that can rationally assess nature-as-resource in a cost-benefit logic of wise-use conservation. This acts to both marginalize those people that have alternative understandings for our relationship with nature is destructive to nature itself, further embedding the more-than-human into the economic rationality of neoliberal resourcism.

abstract: M.E.S.


title: Low-Complexity Soliton-like Network Coding for a Resource-Limited Relay

contributor:
Yousefi, Shahram
Kim, Il-Min
Electrical and Computer Engineering

subject:
Network Coding
Fountain Codes
LT Codes

abstract: Thesis (Master, Electrical & Computer Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2011-10-07 21:13:03.862

abstract:
Network coding (NC) is an optimal data dissemination technique where intermediate nodes linearly combine incoming packets. To recover a network-coded message, a sink must use a Gaussian elimination decoder, but this high-complexity decoder may not be acceptable in resource-constrained applications like sensor networks. A good alternative to Gaussian elimination is for the sink to apply the well-known belief propagation (BP) algorithm; however, the performance and complexity of BP decoding is dependent on the statistics of the linearly-combined packets. In this work, we propose two protocols that address this issue by applying fountain coding paradigms to network codes.

For a two-source, single-relay, and single-sink network, named the Y-network, if the relay can network-code incoming packets while maintaining the key properties of the fountain code, then BP decoding can be applied efficiently to recover the original message. Particularly, the sink should see a Soliton-like degree distribution for efficient BP decoding. The first protocol, named Soliton-like rateless coding (SLRC), recognizes that certain encoded packets are essential for BP decoding to perform well. Therefore, the relay protects these important packets by immediately forwarding them to the sink. It can be shown analytically that the proposed scheme is resilient to nodes leaving the transmission session. Through simulations, the SLRC scheme is shown to perform better than buffer-and-forwarding, and the Distributed LT code.

Although SLRC achieves good performance, the degree distribution seen by the sink is non-optimal and assumes that a large number of packets can be buffered, which may not always be possible. Extending SLRC, we propose the Improved Soliton-like Rateless Coding (ISLRC) protocol. Assuming a resource-constrained relay, the available resources at the relay are effciently utilized by performing distribution shaping; packets are intelligently linearly combined. The aggregate degree distribution for the worst case is derived and used in performing an asymptotic error analysis using an AND-OR tree analysis. Simulation results show that even under the worst case scenario of ISLRC, better performance can be achieved compared to SLRC and other existing schemes.

abstract: M.A.Sc.


title: Interpreting a Past: Presenting Gender History at Living History Sites in Ontario

contributor:
Dubinsky, Karen
Caron, Caroline-Isabelle
History

subject:
Public History
Gender

abstract: Thesis (Ph.D, History) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-28 20:02:08.987

abstract:
Drawing upon close observation of site practices, interviews, and visitor surveys, this project analyses the programming offered at historic sites, highlighting the aspects of history that are omitted or treated superficially.  The case studies conducted at Fort Henry, Upper Canada Village, and Fort William demonstrate that women’s and gender histories continue to be minimized, stereotyped, and segregated.  Each site selectively communicates information about the past.
	The commemoration and preservation of the past and the tourism industry have been intricately connected in Ontario throughout the twentieth century.  Historic sites have been directed by the dual goals of educating the public about a national past and of attracting visitors and revenues.  As Ian McKay and Robin Bates have articulated, the resulting tourism/history is a narrative less interested in verity than in saleability.  Though the management of historic sites have not jettisoned the concept of accuracy, broadening the picture of the past presented to be ‘more accurate’ by addressing such issues as courtship, birth control, or marital separation is often not as high a priority as increasing visitor numbers.  The costs, financial and otherwise, of making changes to the traditional fare at historic sites are considered undesirable.
Sites are unprepared to invest in changes to collections or programming unless it can be shown that the investment will pay dividends.  The perpetuation of traditional political and economic narratives continues also because of the perception that this appeals to and pleases visitors.  Sites aim to give visitors what they want and to entertain them in order to secure repeat patronage.  Women’s history and gender history are considered, somewhat contradictorily, too controversial and too mundane to garner the interest of visitors.  Despite being trusted by a majority of Canadians as trustworthy sources of history, historic sites are letting down their constituents by omitting significant aspects and concerns of daily life in their narratives.

abstract: PhD