title: The 1998 Canadian Bank Merger Decision and the 2008 Financial Crisis: Factual and Counterfactual Investigations

abstract: The observed stability of large Canadian banks during the 2008 financial crisis, in contrast with several American and European counterparts, poses a puzzle. This puzzle is explored through three essays, each pursuing a question with a different method. Yet all three are linked to the historic interlude marked by the 1998 government rejection of proposed mergers of four large Canadian banks and by the 2008 crisis when the banks remained stable. Essay One is a historical essay that asks if the behavior of the Canadian banks themselves, above and beyond that required by regulation, played an important role in avoiding instability. A political economy framework is used to trace out the evolution of the Canadian banking order and describe the structural context in which Canadian banks behaved leading up to and during the crisis. An expectation-based relationship between the banks and the prudential regulator is found at the centre of this banking order, making it difficult to disentangle autonomous bank behavior from the regulatory relationship. This renders the essay's question indeterminate. Essay Two uses econometrics to analyze the financial characteristics of large banks and evaluate whether mergers of equals (the sort proposed by the Canadian banks in 1998) contribute to riskier behavior by the consolidated banks. While the evidence is ambiguous in its support of this hypothesis, it does show that both a bank's funding behavior and risk appetite are significant predictors of bank performance during the crisis. Essay Three tests a counterfactual hypothesis: if these four Canadian banks had merged in 1998, the resulting merged banks would have faced a greater risk of failure in 2008. The counterfactual framework applies synthetic data of two fictive merged banks in a stress test model simulating the 2008 crisis. The simulations describe conditions where the imagined merged banks would face greater insolvency risk. But when considering the conclusions of Essay One, these conditions would have been precluded by the regulatory relationship, suggesting the merged banks would not have faced a greater risk of failure in 2008.


title: Using Electrons and Photons to Estimate Passive Material Before the ATLAS Electromagnetic Calorimeter

abstract:
The ATLAS detector is a large, general-purpose particle detector designed to observe high-energy particle collisions on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. This study uses electrons and photons from Run 2 proton-proton collision data (2015 - 2016) to check for differences between real and simulated detector material in the region before the first layer of the electromagnetic (EM) calorimeter. The main probe is the ratio of energies deposited in the first and second layers of the EM calorimeter.
The measured material differences are compared against results from similar studies performed using Run 1 data. Deviations between Run 1 and Run 2 results are observed, primarily in regions where detector hardware was upgraded before Run 2. The material differences are well accounted for by combining the existing Run 1 material systematic uncertainties with additional Run 2 uncertainties related to the new inner tracking layer (the IBL) and the modified PP0 service region.


title: Local Government and Economic Development in Kazakhstan

abstract: The main objective of this dissertation is to understand the role of local government in economic development, with a focus on the cities and regions selected by the national government of Kazakhstan to be the drivers of national economic development by the Regional Development Program 2020. The dissertation presents three studies based on qualitative assessment of locally obtained evidence and locally produced data. The first essay examines administrative decentralization and studies how the Almaty city and Almaty region governments failed to use delegated urban planning for the management of urban development. The second essay challenges the fiscal system by exploring how the Almaty and Astana governments struggled to use national transfers provided for the implementation of national projects. The third essay focuses on political decentralization reforms and assesses the capabilities of elected representatives from Almaty, Astana, Shymkent and Aktobe city governments in managing urban transport based on public needs. Together, these three case studies provide a broader picture for understanding the productivity of the implemented administrative, fiscal and political reforms. It argues that the absence of a functioning decentralization strategy is leading to unexpected development outcomes and a lowering of public trust in local and national governments. The main contribution of the three studies is that they allow identification of key institutional weaknesses and obstacles faced by local governments in the management of local development in Kazakhstan.


title: Forgive Me Child for I Have Sinned: Anti-Vaxxer Folk Devil Mothers and Narratives of Redemption

abstract: "Folk devils" is a term coined by Stanley Cohen (1972) to characterize social groups who come to be seen as threats to society. The concept has been theorized in many ways—from showcasing voiceless outsiders, to outspoken individuals defending themselves. The thesis troubles Cohen's original concept by showing an emerging folk devil narrative of redemption, examined through the case studies of two anti-vaxxer mothers who publically confess wrongdoing of their previous anti-vaccination stance in the media. Drawing from McAdams's (2006) theory of narrative identity, I pose critical questions of how redemption narratives not only challenge previous notions of folk devils, but also explore how they impact discourses of moral regulation. This study finds that folk devil redemption narratives illustrate identity reconstruction through the liminal state of exiting, imply self-policing mechanisms of conformity, and specifically with regard to the topic of the case studies, offer effective anecdotal strategies for vaccine promotion.


title: Effect of Wind in the Field of Play for Elite Sprint Kayakers

abstract: The current thesis investigates the contribution of aerodynamic drag on a elite sprint kayakers as a factor in the outcome of a race. Field testing of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) velocity profile within the height of a kayaker is explained with results used to model ABL flow in a wind tunnel. The wind tunnel experiments measure aerodynamic drag on a 1/6 model kayaker for three inflow profiles which is then used to determine aerodynamic drag which includes the drag from non-uniform ABL winds. To evaluate the importance of aerodynamics for a K1 male kayaker, the contribution of aerodynamic drag for calm and headwind conditions is found as a percentage of overall drag. Drag coefficients, fontal area and speed profile for a specific kayaker are then used to determine a significant change in a 200 m race finish-time for changes in body-shape-driven drag coefficient and for the addition of headwinds.


title: A New Variational Principle and Supercritical Semilinear Elliptic Problems

abstract: Our objective in this thesis is to study semilinear elliptic partial differential equations when the nonlinearity may have supercritical Sobolev growth. We shall apply a new variational principle recently introduced in [25, 26] to prove the existence of solutions for such problems. We would like to emphasize that functionals that we are using in the new variational principle are different from the standard Euler-Lagrange functionals that are mostly used in the literature. The results in this thesis are twofold. Namely, we first prove the existence of a solution for the semilinear elliptic equations in the presence of a subsolution and a supersolution. Secondly, we consider the general case, and discuss the existence and smoothness of its solutions in a supercritcal case. We remark that the latter results are recently published in [9].


title: The Complexities of Unknowns:  Knowledge Contestations and Occupational Disease Recognition

abstract: In decision-making processes, competing knowledge claims create tensions, contestations, and negotiations between various social actors in their efforts to reach a decision. While attention to questions of knowledge (such as how certain knowledge gains legitimacy and authority) are useful in examining the dimensions and stakes of knowledge contestations, broadening the analysis to consider the complex role of unknowns can provide fruitful and nuanced insights into these contestations. Through a qualitative methodological research design, in this dissertation I focus on knowledge contestations in relation to the challenges of recognizing occupational diseases in the context of the Ontario workers' compensation system. The research questions that drive this investigation are as follows: (1) how do unknowns complicate knowledge contestations, specifically those surrounding the recognition of occupational diseases; (2) how do various types of knowledges and unknowns become mobilized in these recognition processes; (3) what counts as evidence in recognition processes, and what role does evidence play in supporting various knowledge claims; and (4) how do social and political factors influence the recognition of occupational disease? In exploring these questions, I primarily draw on three theoretical resources: new materialism, sociology of knowledge, and ignorance studies. I find that multiple dimensions of unknowns play a pivotal role in knowledge contestations over occupational disease recognition. The forms that such unknowns tend to take complicate and obscure connections between occupational factors and the development of disease. The mobilization of unknowns in contestations over disease recognition presents further challenges due to conflicting economic and other interests of the various social actors involved in these decision-making processes, as well as the broader influence of the dominant biomedical model in knowledge about disease and the body.


title: Enhancing Energy and Spectral Efficiencies in Wireless Cellular Networks

abstract:
Today's wireless networks are facing crucial challenges, such as radio spectrum scarcity, and excessive energy consumption. The vision of next generation networks lies in overcoming these challenges, and providing seamless wireless communication. This thesis aims to contribute to shaping the vision of next generation networks. Specifically, the thesis investigates how to optimize various network functionalities to improve overall utilization of radio resources, and how to enhance practical significance of the radio resource allocation techniques proposed in academia.
The thesis first focuses on enhancing network energy efficiency (EE) for downlink transmission of macro-only cellular networks. It develops a novel joint design that incorporates resource blocks (RBs) and discrete power levels allocations. Next, the thesis focuses on enhancing EE fairness (balancing) among individual users for uplink transmission of macro-only cellular networks. Particularly, in such networks, it considers a joint design of RBs and power levels allocations to maximize minimum individual EE. Unfortunately, both the downlink and uplink optimization problems arising from the joint designs are non-convex, and hence difficult to solve. To overcome this difficulty, the thesis reformulates the design problems in a form that is amenable to the standard semidefinite relaxation (SDR) with Gaussian randomization approach. This approach has a polynomial-time complexity, and yields a close-to-optimal performance.
The thesis later shifts the focus to enhancing spectral efficiency in multi-tier heterogeneous cellular networks (HetNets). It investigates the problem of user-to-base station (BS) association in downlink transmission of HetNets. In its simplest form, this problem is nonconvex. Hence, the thesis uses the efficient two-stage SDR-based technique.
The last part of the thesis considers a joint design of user-to-BS association, and RBs and power levels allocations in HetNets, allowing RBs to be reused opportunistically. The thesis discusses two network instances: with and without time-sharing. In the time-sharing case, user-to-BS association, RBs and power allocations are time-shared, and hence, not fixed throughout the signalling interval. In contrast, in the no time-sharing case, the network functionalities, once determined, are fixed throughout the signalling interval. The optimization problems in both instances are non-convex. To circumvent this difficulty, the thesis generates bounds on the solution of the original problems.


title: The Use of Distributed Acoustic Sensing for 4D Monitoring Using Vertical Seismic Profiles: Results from the Aquistore CO2 Storage Project

abstract:
Distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) is a rapidly developing technology that employs optical fibers to detect acoustic disturbances in the subsurface. The Aquistore CO2 storage project uses time-lapse DAS VSP's to monitor injected CO2 in a deep geological reservoir (>3200 m) beneath the study site near Estevan, Saskatchewan, Canada. Reservoir monitoring is a crucial component to any geological storage project, and aims to ensure the safe and effective containment of the injected fluids, and evaluate the integrity of the storage and sealing units.
An assessment of the ability of DAS VSP's to detect the CO2 response has been conducted for the Aquistore site. Prior to injection, fluid flow simulations were performed to predict CO2 distributions in the reservoir. These simulations were used to model the response of the CO2 plume in 2D time-lapse DAS VSP's. The expected responses were compared with estimates of time-lapse noise computed with field data from the baseline survey, and it was demonstrated that the plume would be visible in the reservoir after 27 kt of injection.
After 36 kt of CO2 injection, the first monitor dataset was acquired. 4D VSP processing and imaging were applied to produce time-lapse difference volumes of the reservoir. Acceptable repeatability was attained, with normalized root-mean-square (nRMS) values less than 0.4 beneath the observation and injection wells. An anomaly in the lower part of the reservoir near the observation and injection wells was attributed to the replacement of brine with CO2.
Updated fluid flow simulations were obtained that better replicated the injection parameters observed at the study site. Forward seismic modeling was then performed for 36 kt and 97 kt injection scenarios that reflected the 3D shot and receiver geometry in the field acquisitions. These data were processed using the same sequence applied to the field data to obtain comparable time-lapse difference volumes. Comparisons between the field and synthetic 36 kt anomalies were used to refine interpretations of the CO2 distribution in the reservoir. However, they also revealed the need to update the geological model to better reproduce the laterally asymmetric plume expansion.


title: Evaluation of a Modern Implementation of Dynamic Conformal Arc Therapy

abstract: Dynamic Conformal Arc Therapy (DCAT) is an external beam radiation therapy technique in which the cancer target is treated with the gantry head of the medical linear accelerator rotating around the patient while conforming the radiation beam to the target shape at each gantry angle. A modern implementation of DCAT (mDCAT) has recently been released, in which the dose rate can be varied and the beam can be modulated moderately. In this study, mDCAT was characterized, and its potential advantages over the most commonly used treatment techniques, namely 3DCRT and VMAT, were evaluated in terms of efficiency, quality, and robustness. Results show that plan optimization with mDCAT is two to three times more efficient than VMAT. mDCAT plan quality is midway between 3DCRT and VMAT for large targets, and is very comparable to VMAT for small targets. mDCAT and VMAT are equally robust against typical machine and patient uncertainties.


title: Multi-Angle Spectroscopic Remote Sensing of Arctic Vegetation Biochemical and Biophysical Properties

abstract:
Estimating the spatial distribution of foliar pigments and canopy structural components with remote sensing can serve as an important approach for monitoring plant community characteristics, as spatially explicit measurements of vegetation biochemical and biophysical variables can provide insight into ecosystem composition, processes, and/or disturbance caused by changing environmental conditions. Vegetation monitoring efforts in Arctic regions have been mostly accomplished with nadir-looking broadband instruments, thus leaving multi-angle, spectroscopic retrievals of vegetation biochemical and biophysical variables largely unexplored.
Using field and spaceborne (CHRIS/PROBA) multi-angle spectroscopy, the performance of various modelling techniques was compared for retrieving biochemical and biophysical variables from tundra vegetation situated across a bioclimatic gradient in the Western Canadian Arctic. Specifically, empirically-based multi-band and predefined narrowband vegetation indices (VIs), a machine learning regression algorithm (Gaussian processes regression, GPR), and a physically-based radiative transfer model (PROSAIL) were compared for their capability of retrieving leaf chlorophyll content (LCC), plant area index (PAI), and canopy chlorophyll content (CCC) from multi-angle, multi-scale, high-resolution canopy reflectance data. Reference data for these variables were acquired through laboratory and field-scale leaf and canopy measurements.
Iterative empirical models were the most effective for retrieving LCC, PAI, and CCC irrespective of view angle and spatial scale (p<0.05). GPR produced the best correlation-based modelling results (cross validated r2cv=0.59), however, a multi-band vegetation index (i.e. simple ratio, SR) was shown to provide statistically comparable results while providing a more simplistic methodological approach (r2cv=0.55). Furthermore, SR produced statistically superior (p<0.05) normalized prediction accuracies over GPR (NRMSE=0.13 vs. NRMSE=0.16). Empirically modelled band selections showed that variable covariation is an important consideration when constructing reflectance models used for vegetation variable retrievals in the Arctic, and thus it was concluded that spectroscopic remote sensing provides benefits for such tasks. The overall conclusion drawn from the compiled empirical and physical modelling results, when examined across the field and remote sensing scales, was that a multi-angle approach does not provide a statistically significant advantage over a nadir approach for retrieving LCC, PAI, or CCC in Arctic environments (p>0.05).


title: From All American Girl to Fresh Off the Boat: Exploring the Relationship Between Media Representations and Identity Formation

abstract: When ethnic and racial groups are absent from Hollywood narratives, the subtext is they don't matter. This thesis explores how images of Asian Americans and Canadians in media are decoded for meaning and the impact of this on identity. Employing a qualitative methodology, this thesis supports the idea that the media play a significant and influential role in identity development. The findings suggest that young adults: (1) rely on stereotypes to make sense of Asian representations in media; (2) downplay the influence of media by separating racial ideology from media production, content, and consumption; and (3) struggle to understand their ethnic, racial, and national identity in the context of Canadian multiculturalism. This thesis contributes to scholarship on race, media, and Asian identity by linking changes in the culture industries to the study of media effects among Asian Canadians and by expanding the relationship between multicultural discourse and Asian Canadian identity.


title: Three Essays on Gender and Education in Canada

abstract:
In the first chapter of this dissertation, I examine the gender gap in primary school academic performance. While boys and girls have similar cognitive abilities, they are systematically assigned to different performance categories. Hypothesizing that this may be due to differences in non-cognitive skills, I construct a measure of these skills based on self-regulation and hyperactivity. Boys are reported to have lower levels of these skills, by both parents and teachers. Notably, I find that even when I have controlled for all skills, both cognitive and non-cognitive, boys are still more likely to be assigned to a lower performance category than girls.
In the second chapter, I estimate a production function for grade outcomes in the final year of high school, where boys continue to lag girls.. The focus of this essay is on the contribution of differences in non-cognitive skills in explaining this gap in grade outcomes. This research finds that, even controlling for the lower level of non-cognitive skills possessed by boys, gender still plays an important role in determining the overall grade in the final year of high school. By examining the production functions for girls and boys separately, it becomes apparent that much of the difference in grade outcomes can be attributed to the difference in the likelihood of academic advancement associated with increases in skills, particularly cognitive skills.
The participation rate of boys in post-secondary education lags that of girls substantially. One important factor in explaining this gender gap is high school performance, where there is a significant gender gap. However, there is substantial heterogeneity by gender in PSE participation within high school grade categories. The final chapter of this dissertation examines the interplay of gender, aspirations and skills in determining participation in post-secondary education, at ages 19 and 25, conditional on academic achievement in high school. The results of this research indicate that gender influences post-secondary education participation through a number of channels beyond high school grade. Notably, even after accounting for skills, aspirations, and high school grades, this research finds that there remains a significant role for gender.


title: On Behaviour-Based Network Inference and Distribution-Based Network Control

abstract:
Complex networks are prevalent structures throughout technological systems, and are also used to model many non-technological systems as well. Application domains that make use of networks range from financial systems, to biology/medicine, to online social networks and agent-based systems. There is a strong desire to control these types of systems, to avoid catastrophic failures, increase system stability, or achieve some known system goal.
The development of automated controllers for these types of systems is a complex problem that involves several key subproblems, including the selection of a control node set and the generation of control signals to be injected into the network. Previous research involving network control has typically assumed the underlying network connections are precisely known and has also taken a strictly vector-based view of system state. This thesis expands on the existing network control work in two significant directions.
First, this thesis investigates algorithmic, behaviour-based methods for predicting links within networks. This involves using transfer entropy measurements, calculated between time series of actions generated by participating agents. This approach could be used to predict underlying networks in unobservable problem domains (e.g., financial systems) or to identify links that are truly influential within observable problem domains (e.g., online social networks). A number of prediction algorithms are proposed and compared, several of which attain high levels of accuracy, even with a limited amount of available system information.
Second, this thesis eschews the traditional vector-based view of system state within network control problems, proposing a novel, distribution-based approach. One of the most studied control goals in the existing research has involved moving a system between two vector-based states. Distribution-based control, however, identifies state distributions as targets for control, which is arguably a more expressive and suitable approach for many problem domains. The effect of various network parameters on control success is investigated within a distribution-based control problem, with microscopic analysis of subset distributions being used to demonstrate why control is more difficult in certain scenarios. This information is used to inform the creation of new control node selection algorithms, with statistically significant improvements over the highest rated heuristic from previous research being realized.


title: The Analysis of Panel Data with a Flexible Frailty

abstract: Analysis of panel data under the non-homogeneous Poisson mixed process is investigated. The ordinary Poisson process model is not suitable for the analysis of count data in the presence of overdispersion. For handling the overdispersion problem, a multiplicative finite mixture of gamma distributed random effects is assigned to each individual in the model which gives a non-homogeneous Poisson mixed model. The parameter of the mixed Poisson process (baseline intensity function) is modeled by using psplines and the parameters of the model are estimated by means of the iterative Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm. The statistical properties of the proposed count model are investigated through simulation study and the model is used to analyze the Cherry Bark Tortrix Moth data.


title: On the Planning and Design Problem of Fog Networks

abstract: In this thesis, we propose an exact model for the planning and design problem of fog networks. The model simultaneously determines the optimal location, the capacity and the number of fog node(s) as well as the interconnection between the installed fog nodes and the cloud, while minimizing the delay in the network and the amount of traffic going to the cloud. To address this multiobjective problem, three multiobjective optimization methods are evaluated. The CPLEX solver was used to optimize the model for the three methods with different problem sizes and the results are analyzed. The results show that, as the input size increases, the delay and the traffic also increase in a linear form; whereas the solution time increases in non-polynomial time. As the model considers realistic edge device traffic parameters and constraints, it can be helpful in deploying fog networks in the current cloud computing architecture.


title: The Hidden Price Tag of “Free” Rewards: Encouraging Mundane Surveillance through Canadian Loyalty Program Advertisements

abstract: The popularity of digital loyalty programs in Canada signal their ubiquity as forms of advertising used by retailers to communicate with consumers. Traditional forms of loyalty programs consisted of collectible stamps that were redeemable for rewards and free merchandise. More recent programs rely on digitization, which changes the nature of their redemption and the associated consequences for consumers. Digital loyalty programs can best be understand through themes of advertising rewards, everyday surveillance, and profiling consumers that illustrate how loyalty programs are able to influence consumer behaviour. By promoting the use of digital loyalty programs alongside ordinary products, retailers are able to create associations between the retailer, their loyalty program and the rewards that are provided in exchange for personal information. Canadians were introduced to digital programs through subtle strategies that help to mask how consumers exchange information about themselves collected through consumer tracking processes for "free" rewards.


title: Pursuing Equity to Combat Fragmentation in the Home Care Sector: A Study of Using Integrated Care Programs to Deliver Health and Social Care to Elderly Persons Living at Home

abstract: Integrated care programs (ICPs) deliver care that is coordinated across carers, care sites, and support systems; continuous over time and between visits; tailored to clients' expressed needs and preferences; and based on shared responsibility for optimizing health among clients, carers, and the state. This research asks how ICPs combat issues of fragmentation in a home care sector fundamentally reshaped by neoliberalism. Using a post-positivist epistemological approach, I collect and analyze data from government documents, NGO reports, scholarly literature, and 117 interviews with program administrators, paid and unpaid carers, and elderly clients in five Canadian ICPs working in the home care sector. These include Aging in Place in Ottawa, Ontario; SMILE in South Eastern Ontario; Carefirst in Scarborough, Ontario; CHOICE in Edmonton, Alberta; and Hope Home Health in Hope, British Columbia. My central argument is that ICPs are most useful as a policy solution to fragmented home care when they use policy techniques that promote equitable processes and outcomes as opposed to focusing on enhancing cost-efficiencies for the state. To understand the interrelations among fragmentation, efficiency, equality, and equity, I use a Feminist Political Economy theoretical framework to assess the gendered, classed and racialized impacts of the policy techniques used by ICPs. By looking at which groups are affected through their involvement in ICPs, in what ways, and under what conditions, I find that policy techniques aimed at achieving cost savings for the state often increase inequality/inequity between, and among, clients and carers. Increasing inequality/inequity increases fragmentation. In contrast, ICPs that use policy techniques that challenge neoliberal ways of working often promote equality/equity as their primary policy goal. These techniques help mitigate fragmentation. Understanding if, how and why ICPs meet the expressed needs of clients and carers in different contexts is essential for program administrators looking to improve their programs, as well as for the clients and carers involved in the daily relations of home care. Knowing that ICPs are most useful as a policy solution to fragmented home care when they promote equitable processes and outcomes gives a clear direction for future reforms that can benefit clients and carers alike.


title: Youth Clubs as Men/Women Caves: Exploring an Emerging Muslim Youth Subculture Creating a New Canadian Religious Identity

abstract: Second-generation immigrants in Canada are torn between different identities. Young Canadian Muslims on the one hand need to deal with their Islamic culture and on the other hand they are in constant interaction with Canadian culture. My doctoral research focuses on religious identities of second-generation Muslim youth living in Canada. I explore the understudied issue of intergenerational divide within the Muslim community. The intergenerational divide becomes obvious in the recent development of Muslim Canadian youth clubs, which are founded, and run by youths themselves. I examine the cultural, social and religious characteristics or drivers that are creating these kinds of formal/informal institutions as well as the challenges that these youths face in running independent programs. I participated in the programs of three of these clubs, one in Montreal and two in Ottawa, as well as conducting semi-structured interviews. By using ethnographic research, I compare and contrast the various social, cultural, institutional and financial factors associated with the clubs. This thesis examines youth clubs based on youth subcultural theories. I employ Steve Redhead's post-subcultural theory that focuses on subcultures shifting from political dimensions towards leisure. I also draw on Birmingham school's concept of resistance. I argue that in many cases Islamic centers, which have been formed and are currently run by first-generation Muslim immigrants, are not well suited to address the needs of second-generation Muslims. My research has indicated that this is one of the primary reasons for the rise of Muslim youth clubs in Canadian cities. Religious activities in the youth clubs are somehow different from the religious centers of their parents, exposing this divide in the Muslim community as never before. This dissertation examines how youth clubs are a major protective factor for youth and argues that a 'new religious youth subculture', which has its own type of style, resistance and religiosity, is emerging among second-generation Muslim youth. My ethnographic study provides insights on the subculture of these youth. Such an understanding is particularly necessary in current circumstances where intense debates concerning second-generation Muslims are arising in Canada, especially in the political sphere.


title: Painting Pasts and Futures: Transitional Justice, Museums, and Aesthetic Interruptions

abstract:
Stories about political transformation often suggest that a political community must acknowledge and grapple with its difficult past in order to move on to a sunnier future. This thesis explores the problems and possibilities of this narrative as projected in both transitional justice theory and the museum.
Several theorists in the field of transitional justice, like Ruti Teitel, Mark Osiel, and Kathryn Sikkink, organize moments of mass atrocity, transition, and the future into finite, bounded moments. By neatly confining "violence" to the past and "peace" to the future, these narratives conceptualize political communities on a clean trajectory of evolution towards democracy. As such, these theorists position criminal prosecutions, a central transitional justice mechanism, as a means through which a political community can return to, grapple with, and over-come a violent past. Here, post-war trials are figured as devices that deliver political community to a democratic order.
Political and cultural theorist, Walter Benjamin, describes discursive projections premised on notions of progress as a system that restrains, disciplines, and guides political transformation. Benjamin and Jacques Derrida claim that the violence of law's imposition and conservation is obscured by these very notions of sequential temporality which establish law as the means to projected and affective ends. I take inspiration from these thinkers and argue that transitional justice theory's "ends-oriented" rhetoric permits political communities and correlative state institutions to narrate themselves away from legacies of violence, and responsibility. Further, they attempt to foreclose the notion that political transformation is infinitely on-going.
Aesthetics sites, like the museum, may reaffirm the worlds crafted through transitional justice theory's organization of bounded time. As such, I examine three museum exhibitions in order to show how museums similarly organize time in a manner that confines periods of violence, transition, and democracy into bounded temporalities: "Memorium Nuremberg Trials" (Nuremberg, Germany); "The Nuremberg Trials: What is Justice?" The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (Washington DC, US), and; "On Trial: Auschwitz/Majdanek," Jewish Museum (Berlin, Germany). Yet the time of transitional justice projected in these exhibitions is not totalizing, and is infinitely vulnerable to spatial, material, and aesthetic disruption.


title: Simple Cross-Layer Network Utility Maximization Framework for Multiflow Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks

abstract:
Efficiently using the network resources of Mobile Ad-hoc NETworks (MANETs) is challenging. The absence of a centralized administration leads to a congestion problem (Transport layer). The flows are usually routed through shortest routes, typically through the same central part of the network (Network layer). Communicating via shared wireless links raises a contention problem (MAC layer). Multi-hop transmissions cause flows not only to interfere with each other, but also with themselves.
We focus on jointly solving the contention and congestion distributed control problem in a bounded queue MANETs. The resulting flow rates satisfy fairness criteria according to a given Network Utility Maximization (NUM) function. In recent years a number of papers have presented solutions to the same problem based on NUM algorithms. However, this work typically necessitates either complex computations, heavy signaling/control overhead, and/or approximated sub-optimal results. In this work, we employ and adapt the IEEE 802.11 protocol in the NUM with a simple and efficient queue management mechanism. Unlike the majority of the published work in this area, we focus on the feasibility of the proposed solution in case of random static and mobile networks considering the overheads and the signaling methods.
We propose a novel algorithm that jointly solves the congestion, multipath routing, and contention distributed control problem for MANETs. The objective is to find the end-to-end optimal source rates at the transport layer, sub-flow rates for each path of the multipath sessions at the network layer, and persistence probability at the MAC layer. The primal problem formulation is a non-convex, non-separable NUM optimization. By introducing new variables, applying certain transformations, and using an analogy based on Ohm's law, we develop a distributed algorithm that can find the optimal solution for general concave utility functions.
The algorithms are implemented in NS-3 and evaluated against non-idealistic scenarios, i.e. link failures, message losses, asynchronous updates, and with the presence of inaccurate topology information. We evaluate the overhead and signaling associated with the algorithms quantitatively and qualitatively and provide absolute gain values. The results show that the proposed algorithms significantly outperforms layered approaches, using standard protocols such as TFRC.


title: The Pains of Jail Imprisonment:  Experiences at The Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre

abstract: Canadian jails are increasingly being used to hold pre-trial rather than sentenced prisoners. In fact, a growing number of individuals are serving a significant portion of their sentence by way of banked remand credit (Deshman and Myers 2014). This temporal reconfiguration has important implications for the very nature of 'punishment,' yet studies of jail experiences remain scarce within penal scholarship (Irwin 1985; Welch 1999; Walker 2014; Griffin 2006). This dissertation explores the experiences of men and women who spent time as a pre-trial and/or sentenced prisoner at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre (OCDC), a notorious jail located in Canada's capital city. Employing Sexton's 'subjective' conceptualization of punishment, and drawing on interviews conducted with 33 participants, I consider how prisoners define, perceive and respond to conditions at OCDC. Prisoners' accounts reveal that much of what is experienced as 'punishment' in the jail context relates to unintended yet profound forms of physical and symbolic harm (Sexton 2015). Central to prisoners' accounts were the pains of 'warehouse' living, guard-prisoner dynamics, medical mistreatment and health damage. The emphasis on such pains illustrates not only the salience of 'unintended' harms (Sexton 2015), but the extent to which the body remains implicated in the experience of punishment. Interestingly, these pains were not necessarily ameliorated by the social world produced by prisoners, as Sykes (1958) observed in his classic study. Instead, the institutional dynamics of the jail gave way to a culture marked by tension, mistrust and violence, while also impairing the ability of individuals to imbue the carceral experience with counter-punitive meaning. Prisoners' resistant efforts both in and outside of the jail walls, however, point the dialectical nature of power, or the ways in which objects of power can react in ways that undermine its purported objectives (Foucault 1977).


title: Improving Real Time Tuning on YARN

abstract: Big data is becoming a significant part of the operations of modern organizations. Performing analysis of large amounts of data requires computer clusters to run the calculations and analysis. YARN is an internal framework that is responsible for coordinating big data jobs for some popular distributed storage and processing frameworks like Hadoop and Spark. Running YARN with the correct configuration parameters is critical for the good performance of a cluster. KERMIT is an online tuner of YARN configuration parameters that aims to improve cluster performance. The first KERMIT implementation proved the feasibility of the concept. In this study we modified the tuning algorithms inside the KERMIT components; by doing so, we achieved a reduction in the execution time as compared to industry benchmarks for a shallow tuning technique. We also verified that KERMIT can tune Spark; this suggests that Kermit could be used in other YARN-based frameworks.


title: A Nation Sings Itself: São Paulo Voices and the Canons of Brazilian Song

abstract: A Nation Sings Itself: São Paulo voices and the canons of Brazilian song Música popular brasileira (or MPB) is a category of music that holds a particular stature in Brazilian culture, between pop and classical. Although the criteria and definition of MPB have changed since the first use of the term in the 1960s, there nevertheless remains a set of core values that pertain to this music. MPB is foremost a national category of urban popular music that is said to be 'of quality' (i.e. has artistic value), and not primarily motivated by commercial interests. It includes many genres and musical movements, most of which consist of singing with accompaniment; for instance bossa nova, samba, jovem guarda (young guard), Vanguarda paulista (São Paulo Vanguard) can now all be considered MPB. This dissertation focuses on the intérpretes, or the vocal component, of the composer- centred practice of MPB, addressing questions of subjectivity and authorship. This leads us to examine pertinent issues that permeate the topic, such as gendering, racialization and class distinctions. A vast majority of singers in MPB are women, while composers are mostly men. Focusing on the lead singing role affords us the opportunity to highlight the creative input of intérpretes, as co-creators in the realm of Brazilian song, and to explore the ways in which the Canon of Brazilian popular music is constructed. It also allows us to call attention to the criteria, or canons, that comprise this music. This interdisciplinary ethnographic study of São Paulo MPB singers shows that there is no singular 'way' that can be called 'Brazilian singing', but rather ways that are associated with different cultural groups within Brazil. The roles in MPB are largely siloed along gendered and racialized lines. My analysis concludes that MPB is a middle-brow concert music that is mapped as national, providing a symbol of national identity that is passed to subsequent generations via various canonizing forces, especially the educational system.


title: Multidimensional assessments of long-term anthropogenic impacts on domed peatlands:  Learning from two centuries at Alfred Bog, Ontario Canada

abstract: This study examines changes in a domed peatland's areal versus volumetric reduction, impacts of anthropogenic drivers and supply of three ecosystem services (ESs) (carbon storage, food production, peat production) over 11 dates covering 200+ years (1800-2014). Historical air photos, maps and texts were used to map changes. Trends in area versus volume, for both the peatland's reduction and impacts of individual drivers, diverged. The divergence varied in magnitude both between examined drivers and dates, as their distribution across the depth profile changed. Despite greater areal losses in the 1800s, deeper disturbances in the 1900s yielded greater volumetric changes. This paralleled the shift from agricultural conversion to commercial peat extraction, underscoring their distinct and temporally dynamic effects on ES supply. Shorter intervals helped identify changing relationships between ESs and drivers, and broader human-environmental interactions. Thus, detecting spatial and temporal variations in ES responses to disturbances within domed peatlands necessitated multidimensional analyses.


title: "Pin the Macho on the Man":  Mediations of Gay Male Masculinity in 'The Body Politic', 1971-1987

abstract:
As the largest Canadian gay and lesbian newspaper from 1971 to 1987, The Body Politic not only shaped the political landscape of gay liberation but also mediated understandings and assumptions around gay male masculinity. The editorial collective behind The Body Politic addressed masculinity in myriad ways, sometimes directly in editorials on gender and sexuality, but more often indirectly as part of discussions around race, desire, the body, space, and HIV/AIDS. In doing so, The Body Politic served an important role in mediating the gendered, racial, sexual, and spatial politics of desire and identity in Toronto's gay male community. The newspaper was an important interactive platform for collective members and readers alike to explore and express apprehensions around heteronormative, ableist, and racial influences on gay male masculinity as a performative style.
This dissertation thematically examines masculinity in The Body Politic. Each chapter focuses on a different topic: pornography and visual culture, the hypersexualized white able-bodied "macho clone," the navigation of space and place, the inscription of colonial values of effeminancy or hypermasculinity on racialized bodies, and the marginalization of disabled bodies and bodies debilitated by AIDS that did not "perform" a sexualized idea of masculinity. By visualizing gay masculinity in particular and often contradictory ways, The Body Politic reinforced and challenged the self-regulation of hegemonic masculinity in gay male culture. My analysis of The Body Politic reveals that not only were the aesthetics of gay male masculinity fundamental to the politics of desire and liberation within the gay male community, but that the newspaper played an important part in legitimizing and destabilizing these desires.


title: Government Structure and Equity in Access to Psychotherapy: A Study of Canada, with Comparisons to Australia and the United Kingdom

abstract:
Gaps in mental health funding and insurance coverage have resulted in significant unmet need and inequities in access. Both Australia and the United Kingdom have expanded public funding for psychotherapy over the past decade, and it remains to be seen how far the new federal transfer of $5 billion over ten years will go toward improving equity in access in Canada.
This four-paper dissertation examines how the exclusion of psychotherapy came about in Canada and why it has persisted, the extent to which access currently depends on how rich or poor you are, and what could be done to change this in the Canadian context in light of lessons learned from Australia and the United Kingdom.
The first paper analyses parliamentary debates to trace the role of Canada's decentralized government structure in constraining federal transfers. The evidence suggests that Canada's decentralized form of government has been at the heart of its inability thus far to introduce significant reforms. The primary contribution of other factors (such as stigma and cost) has been their influence over whether or not mental health has been enough of a national priority to warrant the use of federal spending power.
The second and third papers are large-N studies using data from Canadian and Australia population health surveys to measure the extent to which access to psychotherapy and other mental health services varies by income. Income-based inequities in utilization and unmet need are found to be significant problems in Canada, particularly for psychologist services. In Australia, inequities in utilization is found to be less of a concern than in Canada, but unmet need for psychotherapy is more inequitable, suggesting a possible backlog effect with the expansion of public funding in 2006.
The fourth paper uses interviews with key informants in Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada to delve more deeply into the relationship between government structure, service system design and equity in access to psychotherapy. The key finding is that, while more centralized governments have greater capacity for reform, achieving equity in access requires explicit focus regardless of government structure, service system design or social insurance model.


title: Stratigraphy, Sedimentology, and Diagenesis of Ordovician Outliers, Northern Ottawa–Bonnechere Graben, Central Ontario

abstract: Several Ordovician outliers along or near the northern Ottawa-Bonnechere graben are bounded by Precambrian rocks of the Canadian Shield; however, they are remnants of a once expansive Late Ordovician phase of the St. Lawrence Platform extending into the craton interior. Integrating litho-, bio-, and chemostratigraphic evidence, four outliers (Deux Rivières, Brent Crater, Cedar Lake, and Manitou Islands) preserve Turinian strata, whereas Owen Quarry outlier preserves lower Chatfieldian strata. Each outlier documents a unique depositional succession but commonly records shallow-water depositional environments during net transgression. Limestone diagenesis occurs in the surface marine, shallow-burial, and deep-burial zones. Dolomite shows basement-related, stratabound, and fault/fracture-related spatial distributions. Combining petrological and isotopic (C, O, Sr) evidence, early-stage dolomitization may be related to Mg derived from marine or meteoric waters whereas late-stage dolomitization, including hydrothermal saddle dolomite, likely involves brines that migrated along Paleozoic-Precambrian boundary, then refocused along vertical faults and fractures.


title: A CNN Based Method for Brain Tumor Detection

abstract: The thesis presents a new method of brain tumor detection and localization by using image segmentation and convolution neural network. In order to ensure the quality of the medical images, there are several image preprocessing techniques applied, which include the procedure of removing the noise and non-brain tissue and enhancing the contrast. By using active contour for segmentation, the tumor area is separated from the image as its energy appears different in pixels and the feature extraction reveals the mathematical properties of the tumor.After the tumor localization, the target regions are imported into to the CNN and CNN classifies them into categories based on the training results from the learning procedure. This thesis uses the 4-fold cross validation for result testing. With over 80% accuracy, the CNN shows great potential in tumor detection. In addition, this thesis covers the section of how parameter settings influencing the CNN performance.


title: Photographs in Two Works of Life Writing: L’Afrique fantôme by Michel Leiris and L’Africain by J.-M.G Le Clezio

abstract: This dissertation looks at the role of photographs in two works of autobiographical, travel-based life writing. Michel Leiris' 1934 travel diary, L'Afrique fantôme features 31 ethnographic photographs taken during a French ethnographic expedition that crossed sub-Saharan Africa at the beginning of the 1930s. J.-M.G. Le Clézio's 2004 memoir L'Africain includes 15 photographs taken by his father, a British medical doctor stationed in remote areas of Cameroon and Nigeria in the 1930s and 1940s. What brings these works together in this research has surprisingly little to do with the readily apparent commonalities in subject matter between the two photo sets—peoples and places of the African continent during the high colonial period. Rather, we focus here on text-image relationships, examining how, in each case, the photographs aremade to be autobiographical. Taking an intermedial approach to literary studies that raises the photographs up from a subordinate illustrative function, we consider the primarily textual operations that, in plays of meaning and intention, work to appropriate and incorporate into these texts photographs that can be resistant or disruptive to those efforts. Our readings of these works contribute new insight into the use and function of photographs in life writing.


title: An Emerging, Post-Neoliberal Power: The Practice of Brazilian South-South Cooperation in Haiti

abstract:
This study examines the practice of Brazil's humanitarian and development cooperation with Haiti. Brazil is one of several "emerging donors" to have significantly increased their provision of development cooperation over the past decade as part of broader shifts in global political economy, raising questions as to how cooperation functions in terms of these powers' broader foreign policy objectives. The dissertation situates the question in literature that asks why states are motivated to provide development cooperation, how cooperation impacts recipient states, and expectations for the foreign policy behaviour of emerging countries in general, and for Brazil specifically. The project is based on extensive fieldwork carried out in Brazil and Haiti with 57 individuals and groups in Portuguese, French, and English, as well as Kreyól (with the assistance of an interpreter).
In contrast to the current treatment of the objectives of a state in providing development cooperation, which remains focused on Western powers, I demonstrate empirically how cooperation has supported Brazil as a specifically "post-neoliberal" emerging power (meaning an interventionist state committed to balancing market concerns with other social, political and economic objectives). I argue that Brazilian cooperation has been positively received by Haitian authorities, resulting in clear (albeit short-term) political gains, mainly because of Brazil's commitment to capacity-building through direct engagement with Haitian officials. However, in approaching aid as a practice, I further conclude that the features of cooperation and the Haitian state's response are inexplicable without a post-colonial interpretation that recognizes Brazil's desire to position itself as an alternative to the West and Haiti's consistent and problematic treatment as "fragile" in its traditional aid relations. I develop the concept of "post-colonial practice" to acknowledge how emergent forms of South-South cooperation occur in this broader, post-colonial context. This approach forges links between material and ideational contributions in IR, especially from critical political economy and post-colonial work (as well as post-development).


title: The Role of Background Bacteria in Preventing the Isolation and Detection of Shigella and STEC in Foods and Novel MuSIC ddPCR Method to Improve STEC Detection in the Presence of Background Bacteria

abstract: Foodborne illness caused by Enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) and Shigella remain a public health issue in developed countries. The current microbiological methods for detecting EHEC and Shigella typically involve an enrichment step that aims to amplify the pathogenic organisms relative to the background bacteria flora present in foods. Following enrichment, there is a screening step to identify pathogens based on presence of virulence genes (ex. stx and eae for EHEC). False-positive detection of EHEC can occur if virulence targets are present within the population of bacteria found in foods, but not in any single organism. In this study, a Multiplexed Single Intact Cell ddPCR (MuSIC ddPCR) was developed to reduce the false-positives in the EHEC method. During enrichment, EHEC and Shigella are often outcompeted by non-target bacteria. The role of microbial antagonism of non-target bacteria in preventing growth of EHEC and Shigella in enrichment culture was also investigated.


title: "You Can Only Deny Me for So Long by Saying I Don't Exist":  A Critical Examination of Racialized Femmephobia and Femme Invisibility

abstract: This is a research project exploring the intersections of femme subjectivity, femmephobia, and race and racism. Specifically, I critique an essentialized understanding of femmephobia which centralizes 'unmarked' white femme bodies, and thus silences the experiences of queer racialized femmes. By way of semi-structured interviews with ten queer racialized femmes and an exploration of corporate media representations of racialized queer femmes, this thesis examines how discussions of race and racism are integral to discussions surrounding femmephobia and femme invisibility. I argue both that corporate media productions increase invisibility and erasure for femmes but also how this invisibility and erasure has shaped the experiences of racialized queer femmes in particular.


title: Organizing Aid: Exploring Aid Agency Structure and Change Across OECD-DAC Donors

abstract:
This study provides the first systematic inquiry into the determinants of aid agency structure and change across the five organizational models used by OECD-DAC donors from 1962-2015. In recent years, several donors have reorganized their bilateral aid agencies, sparking debate on the efficacy of different organizational models. Despite such interest, little is known about aid agency structure and the reasons why donors adopt various organizational models and engage in organizational change.
This study develops a multidisciplinary theoretical framework for understanding the factors that contribute to the choice of aid agency structure and change. Using a mixed-method, sequential explanatory research design, this framework is tested in two parts. First, this study conducts a multinomial logit and rare-events logit estimation to identify the main determinants of aid agency structure and change across all OECD-DAC donors since the emergence of aid programs. Using a unique dataset, I find that the purpose of aid programs, political ideology of donor governments, size and structural factors contribute to the choice of aid agency structure, while changes in ODA budget size and structural changes within donors typically precede organizational change. Second, findings from the quantitative analysis are supplemented with six in-depth case studies, which explore organizational choices and changes in Ireland, Iceland, the Netherlands, Australia, Japan and Germany. Building on results from the prior section, the case studies highlight the importance of political factors, administrative efficiency, and substantive purposes as determinants of structural choice and change.
A key finding from this thesis is that the size of aid agencies influences structural choice and change through efficiency, showing that smaller donors have tended to adopt, and may be better suited, to merged organizational models. This finding represents a first step towards identifying optimal organizational models based on donor characteristics and has the potential to inform the organizational decisions of new and current OECD-DAC members. Overall, this study sheds light on the concept of aid agency structure and provides a starting point for future analysis.


title: A Character Formula for the Sidelnikov-Lempel-Cohn-Eastman Sequences

abstract:
We obtain a formula expressing the character values of the almost difference sets associated with the Sidelnikov-Lempel-Cohn-Eastman (SLCE) sequences in terms of certain Jacobi sums. As a result, we are able to obtain new insight into the pseudo-randomness properties of the SLCE sequences.
We consider the problem of determining maximal sets of shift-inequivalent decimations of SLCE sequences, or rather the equivalent problem of determining the multiplier groups of the SLCE almost difference sets. Using our character formula in conjunction with some tools from algebraic number theory (such as Stickelberger's Theorem) we obtain a numerical necessary condition for a residue to be a multiplier of an SLCE almost difference set. We use this necessary condition to prove that if p is a prime congruent to 3 modulo 4, the multiplier group of an SLCE almost difference set over the prime field of order p must be trivial. Consequently, we obtain families of shift-inequivalent decimations of SLCE sequences.
We also consider the problem of determining the linear complexity of the SLCE sequences. Due to certain technical considerations, this problem is rather difficult and has resisted the efforts of a number of mathematicians over the past 15 years. Making use of our character formula together with explicit evaluations of Jacobi sums in the pure and small index cases, we obtain new upper bounds on the linear complexity of these sequences.


title: Maintaining Party Unity: Analyzing the Conservative Party of Canada’s Integration of the Progressive Conservative and Canadian Alliance Parties

abstract: Federal conservative parties in Canada have long been plagued by several persistent cleavages and internal conflict. This conflict has hindered the party electorally and contributed to a splintering of right-wing votes between competing right-wing parties in the 1990s. The Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) formed from a merger of the Progressive Conservative (PC) party and the Canadian Alliance in 2003. This analysis explores how the new party was able to maintain unity and prevent the long-standing cleavages from disrupting the party. The comparative literature on party factions is utilized to guide the analysis as the new party contained faction like elements. Policy issues and personnel/patronage distribution are stressed as significant considerations by the comparative literature as well literature on the PC's internal fighting. The analysis thus focuses on how the CPC approached these areas to understand how the party maintained unity. For policy, the campaign platforms, Question Period performance and government sponsored bills of the CPC are examined followed by an analysis of their first four policy conventions. With regards to personnel and patronage, Governor in Council and Senate appointments are analyzed, followed by the new party's candidate nomination process and Stephen Harper's appointments to cabinet. The findings reveal a careful and concentrated effort by party leadership, particularly Harper, at managing both areas to ensure that members from each of the predecessor parties were motivated to remain in the new party. Harper's role in maintaining party unity is substantial, and the findings indicate that the centralization of power under the Prime Minister can have a positive impact. The findings also situate the CPC relative to its predecessor parties, uncovering in detail where the new party bears resemblance and differs from its predecessors.


title: Testing the Boundaries of Employer-Driven Agricultural Migration: Privatization and the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, 2002-2011

abstract: The recent growth of Canada's Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) parallels the international trend toward the revival of guestworker programs. This growth, however, is simply the most visible sign of a fundamental restructuring of the institutional framework that governs the program. This shift is rooted in a broader transformation of the political economy of the Canadian state that has resulted in a new form of migration control, one which embodies the logic and practices of neoliberalism - a paradigm revolving around the privatization and retrenchment of certain state functions, the globalization of markets, and the construction of economically-competitive individuals. In the context of the TFWP, this has resulted in an "offloading" of administrative functions from the federal government to third party actors, as well as the creation of a more employer-driven TFWP that is sensitive to businesses' demands for a flexible and reliable labour pool. This thesis employs a case study of the TFWP's agricultural components during the period of 2002 until 2011, drawing in large part on federal ministerial documentation obtained through the Access to Information Act. It questions why this era of increasing privatization reversed course and culminated in the creation of a new government program, the Agricultural Stream. The analysis pursued in this study indicates that while there are certain roles and functions concerning the recruitment of migrant labour that the Canadian state has undoubtedly vacated, it has nevertheless adopted a new, active role that involves mitigating the unintended consequences of privatized migration control as a means of supporting the continued viability of the TFWP. This effort drove the creation of Agricultural Stream, which replaced a legally-embattled "privatized" guestworker program developed by the International Organization for Migration on behalf of the Quebec growers' association FERME and the government of Guatemala. This countertrend should caution against conflating neoliberalism and privatization or accepting the two as necessarily harmonious, suggesting that movements towards privatization become vulnerable and subject to reversal should they pose complications for employers. This in turn stresses a reading of both the "ideal" and "practice" of neoliberalism as it concerns privatized migration control.


title: Centrifuge Modeling of Lateral-Axial Oblique Loading on Buried Pipelines in Cohesionless Soil

abstract: A series of reduced scale physical tests to investigate oblique load effects, in the lateral-axial plane, on a buried pipe in cohesionless soil were completed with a rigid 46 mm diameter pipe. The pipe was buried at two burial depths, H/D of 2 and 4, and was tests at 5 different angles between 0 degrees (pure axial) and 90 degrees (pure lateral). The shallow pipe modeled a 304mm pipeline and the deeper pipe modeled a 609.5 mm pipeline. Failure surfaces for the yield load and mobilization distances were established and compared with previous physical tests and numerical simulations of oblique loading events. It was found that the results were in line with previous reduced scale tests but closer to the results expected based on the ALA guidelines.


title: Political Ecology of Health of South Sudanese Immigrants and Refugees in Ottawa

abstract: Emerging research suggests despite access to healthcare, South Sudanese in Canada experience dismal health. Applying political ecology of health (PEH) framework, this qualitative study builds on literature, to examine factors underlying this health decline. Focus groups and in-depth interviews with South Sudanese in Ottawa (n=31) reveal multiple factors acting alone or in interaction with processes at multiple temporal and spatial scales. Specifically, findings show that trauma suffered before arrival and from ongoing conflict in South Sudan affects everyday health. The findings also show that a deep political and moral sentiment of solidarity with the motherland mediates household decisions about health. In addition, fierce intra-ethnic rivalry stirred by conflict in South Sudan greatly affects South Sudanese, eroding social and psychological resources necessary for health. Furthermore, the findings indicate that weak integration of South Sudanese men in Canada breeds feelings of loss of social status, triggering family instability and gendered health impacts.


title: The Role of First Language (L1) in the Second Language (L2) Classroom: The Case of Jordanian Public Schools

abstract: This exploratory sequential mixed methods study sheds light on the role of first language (L1) in the second language (L2) classroom. The study explored Jordanian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers' (N=7) attitudes toward using Arabic (L1) to teach English (L2) and the perceived functions and/or negative ramifications of such use. It additionally investigated 104 Grades 10 and 11 students' beliefs regarding their teachers' use of L1. The study found that EFL teachers were aware of the importance of minimizing the amount of L1 use which was influenced by the type of lesson and the proficiency level of students. The study suggests that teachers used L1 to achieve six functions in the classroom, but they also believed that L1 overuse may limit L2 development, and it may also have negative affective ramifications. The students' beliefs regarding their teachers' reasons for using the L1 were in line with the teachers'.


title: Alkylresorcinol in Portulaca Oleracea (Purslane) Seeds as a New Source of Dietary Phenolic Lipid

abstract: This study identified, quantified and optimized extraction of alkylresorcinol within Portulaca oleracea (purslane) seeds. Supercritical fluid extraction yielded the highest amount of alkylresorcinols at 577.9mg/100g of DM. ORAC, TPC and DPPH inhibition assays assessed antioxidant capacity resulting in values of 136.1 8.72 μmol TE/g, 7.67 0.64 mg GAE/g and 14.5 1.02 %, respectively. Rancimat analysis of purslane-enhanced margarine increased induction time from 1.18h to 2.00h while various alkylresorcinol homologues performed at 10.98 - 12.80h. Microscopy and HPLC analysis revealed homologue C17 to exhibit the highest percent incorporation within a polycarbonate membrane (23.2%) and C19 exhibited the highest percent permeability (95.8%). Microscopy revealed formation of crystal structures in margarine and chocolate supplemented with alkylresorcinol and purslane seed extract. These findings confer alkylresorcinol and purslane seeds as valuable compounds that may be used as a nutraceutical, natural preservative and source of crystalline structure in manufactured food.


title: Rob "Fresh I.E." Wilson: A Socio-analysis of Musical Self-Transformation

abstract:
Music is a self-transformative process, practice and ethic. The co-mediation of music and the self represents an assemblage of distinct yet simultaneously occurring parts where contradictions can exist alongside their more pragmatic uses. In this dissertation, I note such an assemblage in the case of Rob "Fresh I.E." Wilson. Wilson's case provides a striking example of musical self-transformation in that his biography follows a trajectory from abusive conditions in Winnipeg's infamous North End during the 1970s, and a life centered around drugs and pimping in the 1990s, to its lyrical renunciation according to his newfound beliefs as he converted his hip-hop to Christianity and joined the ranks of Grammy nominees in 2003 and 2005. Yet music was not all good for Rob. Despite fame and influence, by the end of the decade, he was overwhelmed by the demands of a grueling tour schedule and the pressure to remain relevant. His rising self-doubt pushed him to suicidal ideation. And yet, despite successfully restructuring his musical practice, now independent of the music industry, Rob's Christian-themed hip-hop still situates him between the rock of the institutional church and the hard place of having to constantly build a following. The constantly evolving nature of the contemporary Christian music industry and hip-hop's unique conditions in Canada, combined with the church's refusal to accept hip-hop as a legitimate mode of worship and Rob's refusal to leave, creates a distinct set of challenges.
In this dissertation, I use ethnographic research methods to explore the ways in which Wilson negotiates such challenges. I employ biographical methods to trace his present practice to the conditions of his formative and educational years. Not to limit this study to my case's word alone, I use historical methods to trace the trans-national links between Rob and hip-hop as it has become institutionalized, and before that, to its roots in African American religious musical practices since modern slavery. Finally, I use critical social theory to assess the significance of Rob's musical self-practice to himself and his scene, within the whole of the cultural realm.


title: Growth or Decay - Replacing Pickering's Aged Nuclear Reactors

abstract:
Nuclear power plants have existed for around 60 years. Even now, following the Fukushima Daiichi Plant meltdown, they continue to be constructed; leading to the possibility of further nuclear calamity. In the event of a disaster, the resulting nuclear fallout zone can span distances of more than 30 km; but what happens to the facilities that are lucky enough to reach the end of their lifespan? What will become of all the aged nuclear facilities? As the world begins to understand the importance of looking towards renewable energy sources, there are still those that cling to the idea that nuclear energy is the answer, even here in Canada.
How can decommissioned nuclear power plants provide opportunities for renewable growth?


title: Tax Policy and Public Financial Management Architecture in Transitional States

abstract:
This dissertation explores three sets of relationships in the context of transitional states: (i) institutions and tax revenues, (ii) economic growth and tax structures, and (iii) the advice of international organizations and the implementation of PFM reform. It consists of three core chapters.
Employing panel data, Chapter 2 addresses a central question: does the quality of institutions affect tax revenue in lower-middle income transition countries? It presents an analysis of the role of institutions, measured by shadow economy, corruption, regulatory quality, government effectiveness and rule of law in determining the level of tax effort, as measured by the tax-to-GDP ratio. By tracing the origins of the tax systems in targeted countries since the fall of the Berlin Wall, Chapter 2 analyses the available data and relates the results to recent literature. It finds that the most likely causes of insufficient tax revenue stem from the low-quality institutions, specifically, the increased share of the shadow economy and level of corruption.
Chapter 3 employs panel data from a sample of transitional countries over the period 1991-2015. It finds that, in a particular transitional country, the higher the rate of economic growth, the higher the ratio of taxes to GDP. Moreover, economic growth, as measured by GDP per capita growth, among other pertinent variables, leads to changes in the tax structure. The findings also indicate that determining the causes of change in the composition of tax revenue during the course of economic development is helpful in creating a more effective tax revenue mix in transition economies.
Chapter 4 suggests that while international organizations facilitate the process of PFM reform in context of a specific transition country, and seem to be credible partners of local government in pursuing such reform, not all their advice has been implemented or implemented successfully. It finds that with the pace of implementing reform being slow, borrowed institutions based on international best practice are not always effective in improving the country's PFM systems. These findings are built upon the evidences from a review of policy documents, results of the PEFA assessment, and a survey among practitioners, officials and donors.


title: Executive (In) Decision? Explaining Delays in Canada's Defence Procurement System, 2006-2015

abstract: This dissertation asks how delays in Canada's defence procurement system can be explained. In answering this question, the hypothesis tested is that of the 'political executive'; the political body composed of the prime minister, cabinet and their advisors who sit at the apex of the federal government. With final decision-making powers over defence policy and budgets, the political executive has been inferred in existing scholarship as a decisive factor in delaying Major Crown Projects (MCPs) from moving through the procurement process but this has never been the subject to a scholarly analysis. Three other independent variables commonly identified in the literature as causing procurement delays were tested alongside the political executive: (1) the defence procurement bureaucracy; (2) the defence industry; (3) and Canada's military alliances and involvement in the Afghanistan war (2001-2014). Delays are treated as the dependent variable and are defined as a MCP not meeting its original planned project milestone dates. The dissertation relied upon four case studies in performing this analysis: The Joint Support Ships, the Medium Support Vehicle System - Standard Military Patter trucks, the Fixed-Wing Search and Rescue aircraft, and the Halifax-class Modernization/Frigate Life Extension. All four trace their beginnings to the Liberal governments of Jean Chrétien (1993-2003) and Paul Martin (2003-2006), but it was under the Stephen Harper Conservative government (2006-2015) that all were adopted into that government's procurement plans and it is in this period where delays occurred, for the first three case studies, and where apparent success was established with the fourth, the Halifax-class Modernization. (The first three case studies all experienced delays and are anywhere from seven to fourteen years behind their original schedule.) Relying upon process-tracing and the bureaucratic politics framework, this research concluded with a hypothesis not completely proven: the political executive can partly account for delays by not establishing clear policy guidance and governance models before a MCP reaches the project definition stage; however, a complete accounting for procurement delays is not possible without factoring in at least one the three independent variables, especially the defence procurement bureaucracy.


title: Improving Dialog Systems Using Knowledge Graph Embeddings

abstract: Dialog systems are systems or applications intended to converse with a human user. Recent dialog systems have employed the sequence-to-sequence framework to treat conversation as a translation problem, translating from question to answer in an open-domain. Knowledge graph embedding started as a way to scale question answering to a large, open-domain dataset without the use of hand-crafted rules. This thesis seeks to connect the two, by converting knowledge graph embeddings to word embeddings and evaluating the resulting dialog models.


title: Google, Grandfathers and God(s): Nietzsche and Plato on Ancestral Authority

abstract:
The ever-changing technological landscape is shifting generational patterns of authority. Authority is grounded in knowledge. Knowledge—technical, moral, or otherwise— commonly proceeds from an older generation to a younger one. This is changing. Younger generations in the Western world are posing their questions to Google rather than Grandpa, or God. Such challenges to the hierarchy of generational knowledge are not entirely novel though. The history of Western political thought suggests that they are telling indicators of impending political change.
The study engages two examples, one in Nietzsche ("Second Treatise" of On the Genealogy of Morality) and one in Plato ("Book One" of The Republic), wherein lapsed generational authority is discussed alongside the topic of justice. Both authors proceed from a definition of justice associated with ancestral authority and described in the language of debt and credit. Justice is what is owed to one's ancestors. Ancestral knowledge provides the first codification of duties. It is the first sense of law. It describes a clear division between the ruler (to whom one's obligations are due) and the ruled.
To date, the vast literature on these authors has not yet considered how the precise concept of ancestral authority informs the political meaning of their works. This is particularly the case for Nietzsche. The contest that he invokes with Plato, his philosophical ancestor, requires meditation on the significance of this idea. This comparative analysis meets this objective in two ways. First, it analyzes the selections to understand what happens politically and philosophically when the primary direction of intergenerational education changes. Second, it proposes that Nietzsche's politics of cultural formation should be understood as a non-nostalgic recovery of ancestral authority. This concept is central in Nietzsche's understanding of the shift from kinship-based models of justice to what he calls in §12 of the Second Treatise, "misarchism" or the "democratic idiosyncrasy" of being against the idea of rule itself. His account of justice describes the theological conditions that informed the shift from tribalism to universalism in the West, and by this account, he forces an assessment of the limits of overwriting the grandfathers' generational knowledge.


title: Trading Frames: Interface Operations and Social Exchanges in Video Games

abstract: This dissertation examines trade affordances across three different video games and one novel: The Realm Online (1995), World of Warcraft (2004), Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (2012), and Neal Stephenson's Reamde (2011). By trade affordances, I refer to those interfaces which facilitate the transition of digital items from one player to another. While the study of online economies has an established history, the broader social impact of trade affordances remains largely unexplored despite their ubiquity. I align these aforementioned video games with an increasing automation of trade practices within contemporary multi-user online games, as well as the growing relationship between online and offline economies. In order to demonstrate these connections, I provide a summary of early trade practices collected through blogs, playthroughs, developer notes, patches, and other ethnographic sources such as interviews and forum posts. After describing these trade practices, I survey key economic, ethical, political, and social theories relevant to the act of trading and consuming in online spaces. My critique is influenced by autonomist Marxist theory regarding the automation of work and the cycles of struggle central to the relationship between labour and capital. This positions my dissertation in relation to other game studies scholars who have assessed the relationship between play and labour in video games, such as Nick Dyer-Witherford, Alexander Galloway, and McKenzie Wark. I contend that trade in online games is an increasingly capitalized act reflective of conditions of capital outside the games. In order to demonstrate this phenomenon, I provide close readings of the previously mentioned video games and novel, as well as two single-player games that directly critique the relationship between trade, capital, and play.


title: Charged Particle Transport in Magnetic Fields in the EGSnrc Monte Carlo Code System

abstract: The advent of magnetic resonance guided radiation therapy provides a promising technology for dealing with tumour motion and anatomical variations during treatment. These machines possess a variety of beam energies, geometrical configurations, and different magnetic field strengths. Although photon beams do not directly experience the influence of the magnetic field, electrons set in motion will curve and impact dose distributions. Clinical reference dosimetry protocols rely on correction factors which account for the change in detector response for different beam qualities in the absence of a magnetic field. The effect of the magnetic field poses challenges for dosimetry, as ion chambers and solid state detectors respond disproportionately to the actual change in the dose to the media in the presence of the magnetic field. This necessitates an adaptation of current dosimetry protocols through calculation of high precision magnetic field and beam quality correction factors which account for detector response variation. In this work, charged particle transport in magnetic fields is implemented in EGSnrc and is shown to pass the Fano cavity test at the 0.1% level. Further good agreement with experimental ion chamber measurements is shown, and important effects such as air gaps and the unknown sensitive volume of the chamber are determined to cause several percent variation in the calculated ion chamber dose. Ion chamber magnetic field correction factors are then evaluated for over thirty cylindrical ionization chamber and a select number of parallel-plate chambers. Magnetic field correction factors for the majority of cylindrical chambers are within 1% of unity, while parallel-plate chambers require correction factors on the order of several percent and, unlike cylindrical chambers, no optimal orientation is available to reduce the effect of the magnetic field. The %dd(10)x beam-quality specifier is shown to have a strong dependence of the magnetic field strength, and the TPR(20,10) is determined to the optimal beam-quality specifier in magnetic fields. Collectively, this work contributes to the EGSnrc gold standard Monte Carlo code and to the evolving field of clinical reference dosimetry in magnetic fields.


title: Fire Resistance Quantification of Non-Loadbearing Masonry Walls –Numerical Study

abstract: Non-loadbearing masonry walls, have a considerable capacity, from the fire perspective, to isolate part of the building's interior from flames, heat and the effect of smoke. This research focuses on quantifying the fire resistance of non-loadbearing masonry walls subjected to elevated temperatures. Masonry walls constructed with different joint profiles, material properties as well as geometries have been considered. The fire resistance of the walls under each category has been analyzed using a finite element model and compared with experimental fire resistance tests. The numerical model correlates with the experimental tests results. In terms of concrete masonry, novel lightweight made of 45% recycled glass and 10% metakaolin produced the highest fire resistance of 172 minutes, approximately 27 and 50 minutes greater than conventional lightweight and normal weight concrete masonry respectively. Rock wool, used as an insert in conventional normal weight concrete masonry walls produced the highest fire resistance of 185 minutes


title: On characteristics and dynamics of water-rock glacier interactions in mountain areas (Western Italian Alps)

abstract:
Permafrost degradation affects hydrochemistry of surface waters. In particular, evidence of modifications in water quality has been collected in mountain headwaters impacted by rock-glacier thawing. Rock glaciers are slowly flowing mixtures of debris and ice-rich permafrost, and can represent a reservoir of water. Melting ice inside them has been reported to affect surface water hydrochemistry, in some cases causing ecological damages. Investigating the mechanisms for this, however, requires understanding how, where and when rock glaciers and water bodies interact. Moreover, it is necessary to understand how atmospheric forcing can affect the export of physicochemical fluxes from rock glaciers. Different hypotheses have been proposed to explain the main driving weather-climate processes, nevertheless, they are still unclear.
With these goals, hydrology and structural setting of a rock glacier-pond system located in the NW Italian Alps were elucidated using waterborne geophysics (ground penetrating radar, electrical resistivity tomography and self-potential) and heat tracing. An integrated study of atmospheric parameters (air temperature, snow cover duration, rainfall) and physicochemical characteristics of water (water temperature as a proxy of rock-glacier discharge, stable water isotopes, major ions and trace elements) was also performed in the pond on a high-resolution temporal basis (weekly) for two consecutive ice-free seasons.
The advancing movement of the investigated rock glacier has progressively filled the valley depression, creating a dam that could have modified the level of impounded water. A subsurface hydrological window connecting the rock glacier to the pond was also detected, where an inflow of cold underground waters from the rock glacier was observed. Here, greater water contribution from the rock glacier occurred following intense precipitation events during the ice-free season. An outflowing mechanism of the pond is hypothesised and might be associated with the presence of a subsurface seepage.
An intra-seasonal behaviour of solute export from the rock glacier into the pond was found, with increasing solute export associated with higher rock-glacier hydrological contributions. The key finding was the rainfall (after snowmelt depletion) as primary driver of solute export from the rock glacier during the thawing season after warm atmospheric periods, with the flushing of solutes stored in the rock glacier.


title: An Investigation of Herring Gull Population  Decline in Pukaskwa National Park, Lake Superior

abstract: In Pukaskwa National Park(PNP) on Lake Superior, Herring Gull(Larus argentatus) population is used as an indicator of ecological integrity. Since the 1970s, their populations have declined by 70%. Lake-wide declines in prey fish may be limiting natural food sources for Pukaskwa gulls. In the southern section of the park there's little access to human sources of food. In the northern section of the park, impacts of food declines may be buffered as birds can obtain anthropogenic food from nearby dumps. To assess regional differences, Herring Gull eggs were collected from northern and southern PNP. Markers of diet composition, stable isotopes of nitrogen and carbon, fatty acids, were measured in the eggs. Analysis supports the hypothesis that gulls from the southern PNP rely to a greater extent on natural foods. Understanding the degree to which anthropogenic food supports Gull populations is critical when utilizing gulls as indicators of ecological integrity in PNP.


title: On Properties of Relatively Hyperbolic Groups

abstract: We discuss a number of problems in relatively hyperbolic groups. We show that the word problem and the conjugacy (search) problem are solvable in linear and quadratic time, respectively, for a relatively hyperbolic group, whenever the corresponding problem is solvable in linear and quadratic time in each parabolic subgroup. We also consider the class R of finitely generated toral relatively hyperbolic groups. We show that groups from R are commutative transitive and generalize a theorem proved by Benjamin Baumslag to R. Moreover, we discuss two definitions of (fully) residually-C groups and prove the equivalence of the two definitions for C=R. Let Γ ∈ R . We prove that every finitely generated fully residually-Γ group embeds into a group from R. On the other hand, we give an example of a finitely generated torsion-free fully residually-H group that does not embed into a group from R; H is the class of hyperbolic groups.


title: Emancipated Entrepreneuring in the Nascent Commercial Spaceflight Industry: Authoring Ecosystems by Branson, Diamandis, and Musk

abstract: The emancipatory perspective on entrepreneuring examines the activities undertaken by entrepreneurs to bring about change. Business ecosystems are a mode of organizing economic production that differs from markets and organizational hierarchies, and is increasingly associated with collaborative innovation, opportunities for technology entrepreneurship, and rapid technological progress. This thesis examines how business ecosystems feature in the emancipation actions of entrepreneurs in the commercial spaceflight industry. The research design is a case-based event study of three entrepreneurs and their space ventures: Sir Richard Branson and Virgin Galactic, Peter Diamandis and XPRIZE, and Elon Musk and SpaceX. Results show that business ecosystems can be emancipating – as a means for escaping constraints, in the authoring activities to enact change, and in making declarations to mobilize support, manage interpretations, and motivate change from others. Contributions include a formal operational specification for event studies using the emancipation perspective that can be applied in other field settings.


title: Transcriptome analysis of programmed cell death associated with allorecognition in chestnut blight fungus Cryphonectria parasitica

abstract: In this thesis, I analysed transcriptional profiles of the chestnut blight fungus, Cryphonectria parasitica, during vegetative incompatibility (allorecognition) reactions due to differences at the vic3 locus. Out of a total 13944 identified expressed transcripts, including 2334 novel ones, only 1411 were differentially expressed during vic3 incompatibility reaction. Functional enrichment analysis showed increased expression of genes involved in detoxification and stress response (e.g.s Cytochrome p450, Glutathione S-transferase), and toxin biosynthesis. Surprisingly, even though the test strains were both the same mating type (MAT-2), genes involved in sexual reproduction (mf2-1, mf2-2 and mat-2) showed the most dramatic increase in expression during allorecognition response. Further qPCR analysis showed that activation of mating pheromone genes occurs during incompatible reactions involving five of the six known vic incompatibility loci. The only exception was vic4, which elicits a weak incompatibility and showed almost no change in pheromone gene expression. Analysis suggests that mf2-1, mf2-2 and mat-2 expression is triggered by activation of asexual sporulation. Genes encoded at the vic3 locus, vic3a and vic3b, were upregulated in barraging samples along with seven HET-domain genes located at other regions of the genome. Among the seven HET genes activated, one is located at the vic1 locus and previously implicated in vic1 incompatibility. Activation of these same HET domain genes also occurred in other vic incompatible pairings. For example, upregulation of dev3a and vic1a genes occurred during incompatibility reactions associated with each of the six known vic loci. This suggests that some HET genes serve as universal allorecognition factors. Furthermore, this data indicates that each incompatibility locus uses a set of several HET genes to activate Programmed Cell Death (PCD). In addition, I analysed the effects on barrage formation of p29, a protein-coding region from Cryphonectria hypovirus 1 (CHV1). Expression of p29 in C. parasitica was previously shown to delay the onset of vic3-associated PCD. Results of the analysis indicated that ectopically expressed p29 does not have a strong modifying effect on gene expression in barraging strains. This study illustrates that nonself recognition is an active defence mechanism, where stress response and detoxification are combined with mycotoxins production.


title: Political Trials and Felquistes Defendants: Defending the Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ) in the Courtroom

abstract: Anchored in trial-related archival material and written French-language accounts of high-profile Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ) trials and their defendants, this project considers the performative dimension of political trials. To this end, this study examines how the FLQ defendants and their representatives navigated their legal encounters. FLQ defendants' deployment of political defence strategies through their active period (1963-1972) is further grounded in the historical context of the legal regime through which they navigated, recent debates about contemporary political trials, and broader debates about the politicization of approaches to legal representation. Through three case studies: (1) The LaGrenade Affair (the manslaughter trials of the Vallières-Gagnon Network), (2) the Trial of the Montréal Five (a seditious conspiracy prosecution), and (3) the FLQ contempt of court trials, I argue that the politicized legal defence strategies of the FLQ defendants emerged relative to shifting ideological commitments and growing legal pressures from the state. Through consideration of how FLQ defendants utilized legal procedures and arguments, political histories, and the rule of law narratives, new insights are gained into the confrontations between the accused, Crown, and the Québec bench within the high-stakes context of the pre- and post-1970 October Crisis FLQ trials.


title: How Design Tools Facilitate Right-Sizing Choices for First-Time Homebuyers

abstract:
As society evolves, so does the variety of housing models, which were traditionally distinguished by location, components, and type of dwelling. Currently, lifestyle plays a large part in differentiating housing choices, and the right-sizing movement, which optimizes physical space in conjunction with lifestyle goals, is a new housing model that is gaining interest. Since the first-time home buying process can be overwhelming, a creative decision-making tool may offer direction into choosing the right home that is a suitable fit for individuals and families. The key contributions of the research include a home buying preparation aid and a right-sizing teaching tool as well as an organizational approach to designing a decision-making tool. The preliminary results suggest that a decision-making tool could prepare and facilitate the home buying process and create a platform for evaluating one's lifestyle objectives leading to right-sizing embodiment.
Keywords: Right-sizing; first-time homebuyers; creative decision-making tools; lifestyle choices


title: Direction Finding for Unmanned Aerial Systems Using Rhombic Antennas and Amplitude Comparison Monopulse

abstract:
The purpose of this thesis is to design an antenna for a UAS (Unmanned Aerial System) comprised of an aircraft and a two channel transceiver/spectrum recording device for a DF (Direction Finding) application with an error of 6.12 degrees or less. The UAS had to work in a bandwidth from 0.6-6 GHz and under the size constraints imposed by the bottom face of the transceiver/spectrum recording device (19.4x32.4 cm). Due to the large operating spectrum of the DF UAS and size constraints imposed by the aircraft, a multi-antenna rhombic antenna solution is used.
The DF portion of the thesis is done using amplitude comparison monopulse with a 45 degree squint angle. Therefore, the rhombic antenna elements were designed to have a radiation pattern which allowed for this squint angle.
Once the requirements were accounted for and simulated, the rhombic antenna elements were built and tested with Carleton University's anechoic chamber.