title: Methods for Estimating Reference Intervals

contributor:
Hamid, Jemila
Mathematics and Statistics

subject:
reference intervals
simulation study
paediatric
systematic review

abstract:
Reference intervals (RIs) are sets of percentiles that outline the range of laboratory test results belonging to healthy individuals. They are essential for the interpretation of laboratory test results. A wide variety of factors affect the validity of RIs. Among them are the statistical methods used to estimate RIs. However, little investigation has gone into the effect that different statistical methods have on the resulting RIs. This is particularly needed as the complexity of paediatric data makes it difficult to estimate RIs. These difficulties, however, can be addressed using appropriate statistical techniques, provided that there is an outline of scenarios under which these techniques are truly “appropriate”.
The objective of this thesis is to provide a thorough investigation into the effect of different statistical methods on RIs. A systematic review was first conducted with a focus on paediatric RIs. The results of this review revealed that critical analysis steps are often overlooked due to complicated paediatric data. Even though a guideline addressing the establishment of RIs is available, there is great heterogeneity in the statistical methods chosen to estimate paediatric RIs.
An extensive simulation involving the three most commonly used approaches to estimate RIs (the parametric, non-parametric, and robust methods) was also conducted to investigate and compare the performance of the different methods. The simulation results show that, when data follows a Gaussian distribution, or close to it, the parametric method provides the best estimates. The non-parametric method did not provide the best estimates of RIs (compared to the parametric method) unless data was highly skewed and/or large sample sizes were used.
In addition, the bias and MSE associated with the parametric method when data follows a Gaussian distribution was mathematically derived, which may lead to the development of a bias corrected and more precise approach in the future.

abstract: Thesis

abstract: Master of Science (MSc)


title: THREE ESSAYS ON FINANCIAL DISTRESS AND CORPORATE BANKRUPTCY

contributor:
Miu, Peter
Business

subject:
Financial Distress
Corporate Bankruptcy
Forum shopping
Contagion effect
Distress exchange
efficiency

abstract: This thesis explores three important issues in financial distress and corporate bankruptcy: bankruptcy venue choice and creditor recovery, the efficiency of Chapter 11 corporate bankruptcy and distressed exchanges, and the bankruptcy ripple effect on peer firms’ investment policy.

abstract: Dissertation

abstract: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)


title: The Influence of Medical Science on Keats's Thought

contributor:
Coldwell, Joan
English

subject:
Keat
Medical training
medical education
chemistry
botany
pathology
physiology
anatomy

abstract:
This dissertation examines the influence of Keats's medical training
and knowledge on his poems and letters, an influence that has usually
been ignored or denied. While a fair amount of attention has been focused
on the immediate biographical facts of Keats's five-year apprenticeship
to the surgeon Thomas Hammond and his year of training at Guy's Hospital,
very little has been paid to the influence of medical science on his
thought; no comprehensive study of such influence has been attempted
previously.

As a certain amount of confusion still surrounds the details of
Keats's personal experiences as a medical student, the first chapter
examines the biographical facts of his training. In addition, it outlines
the state of medical education in the early nineteenth century, generally
in England and specifically at Guy's Hospital. The subsequent chapters
trace the influence of Keats's medical knowledge on his thought, a single
chapter being devoted to each of the subjects Keats studied as a medical
student: chemistry, botany, anatomy and physiology, and pathology and
medicine. In each case, specific images and metaphors, as well as broader
ideas and attitudes, are examined in the poetry and correspondence.

The chapter on chemistry examines the influence of chemical terms
and concepts on Keats's ideas concerning artistic creativity and the
workings of the imagination, as expressed in the letters. The chapter on
botany deals with specific natural images of plants, trees, flowers, and
vegetables in the poems, as well as with Keats's broader approach to the
creative and destructive forces in nature. The chapter on anatomy and
physiology examines the descriptions of the body, particularly of the
brain, in the poetry and letters, as well as Keats's ideas on sensation
and imagination, in light of his anatomical and physiological knowledge.
The final chapter deals with the influence of Keats's knowledge of pathology
and medicine on his understanding of his own illnesses and on his
descriptions of the diseased states of his protagonists; in addition, it
traces the development of his view of life, love, and creativity in metaphorical
terms of disease and health, and examines his concept of the poet
as a physician. Throughout, my purpose has been to enhance our understanding
of the poetry.

abstract: Thesis

abstract: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)


title: Metabolomic and Biochemoinformatic Approaches For Mining Human Microbiota For Immunomodulatory Small Molecules

subject:
human microbiome
secreted small molecules
immunomodulation

abstract:
The numerous benefits associated with natural products isolated from the environmental sources, including soil bacteria, plants and fungi, are long known and well appreciated. Interestingly, the immense number of microorganisms that reside within our bodies and whose cell counts greatly outnumber our own represents a potentially new and practically untapped reservoir of bioactive compounds. With the advent of next generation sequencing we are only now starting to realize the complexity and biological diversity of the human microbiome. With this ever-increasing flow of genomic information, more bioactive potential in these microbes can be identified. For instance, biosynthetic assembly lines responsible for the production of two largest classes of bioactive compounds, polyketides and nonribosomal peptides, can be readily identified within the microbial genomes, providing us with a view of their bioactive profiles.
In addition to the identification of biosynthetic assembly lines, the building blocks of polyketide and nonribosomal peptide products can also be accurately predicted, given the well-understood logic of assembly line operations. Nonetheless, the identification of actual products is still lagging behind. The discovery of these bioactive molecules can be achieved, however, by establishing a unique connection between genomes and molecules. Using several concrete examples, this thesis demonstrates how both metabolomic and biochemoinformatic platforms can assist in discovery of bioactive small molecules. More specifically, investigations involving three members of the human microbiome, Streptococcus mutans, Lactobacillus plantarum and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, provide distinct examples of identification of bioactive agents and assessment of their immunomodulatory potential.
Interrogating the human microbiome form the angle of small molecules is critical for evaluation of microbial effects on our cells, and ultimately our health. Studying these agents will hopefully reveal interesting principles on how microorganisms speak to human cells and how this communication could lead to therapeutic strategies or downstream mechanistic revelations.

abstract: Thesis

abstract: Master of Science (MSc)


contributor:
Coleman, Daniel
English and Cultural Studies

subject: kinship, love, belonging, literature, human rights, Hawaiian kinship, Indigenous kinship, queer kinship, queer diaspora, comparative literature, Dave Eggers, What Is the What, Monique Truong, The Book of Salt, Brandy Nālani McDougall, The Salt-Wind Ka Makani Pa'akai

abstract: My dissertation, Kinship Cross-Talk: Love and Belonging in Contemporary Comparative Literatures, examines contemporary models of kinship as expressions of relationality, resistance, responsibility, witnessing, and love. I ask: how do literary texts depict “never-easy kinship[s]” (Grosz 128) that bind the self to others and the world in particular expressions of love and responsibility, inseparable from familial, national, transnational, and/or trans-Indigenous modes of belonging? Specifically, my dissertation looks at Indigenous, queer, and human rights-based literary texts that articulate shared kinships and intimacies, and facilitate a “critical re-imagining” of “being-together” (Mackey 168) in global contexts. My research methodology emphasizes the historical and cultural contingencies of contemporary models of kinship by engaging the epistemological traditions I encounter on their own terms. Often this means a turn away from Euro-American humanist approaches to subjectivity and relation to attend to other modes (critical or wry humanist, diasporic, spiritual, ecological, gustatory) and materials or environments (water, salt, ocean, for example) that shape kinship beliefs and practices. This dissertation studies three primary literary texts: the fictional autobiography What Is the What authored by Dave Eggers, Monique Truong’s novel The Book of Salt, and The Salt-Wind / Ka Makani Pa‘akai, a collection of poetry by Hawaiian author Brandy Nālani McDougall.

abstract: Dissertation

abstract: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)


title: Norman Mailer's Aesthetics of Growth

contributor:
Shrive, F.N.
English

subject:
Norman Mailer
consciousness revolution
full humanity
Post World War II
intuition
good and evil

abstract:
Norman Mailer announced in Advertisements For Myself
(1959) that he wished to revolutionize the consciousness of
our time. With this as his goal he developed an aesthetics
which views both life and art as a process of growth toward
a full humanity and away from post-World War II American
(and universal) tendencies to stifle human r,rowth through a
technological totalitarianism.

Mailer envisions the creation of life as a function
of a divine power and the destruction of life as that of a
satanic power who war with each other for possession of the
universe. We do not know for whom we do battle, but our
intuitions of good and evil are to be trusted.

Growth for Mailer takes the form of a line of movement
made by confronting and defeating opponents of a full
humanity; he terms such engagements whose outcome is unknown
and therefore dangerous to the self "existential". His life
and his art make up a dramatic and progressive dialectic.
There are three books which I believe contain Mailer's most
effective expressions of his aesthetics and which have the
greatest potential for revolutionizing the consciousness of
our time. Each is the culmination of a phase in Mailer's
growth which contains in itself the unified strands of that
growth.

The first phase includes the early success of The
Naked and the Dead, the subsequent popular and critical failures
of Barbary Shore and The Deer Park, the slou~hln[. off
of old models, political and artistic, the creation of a
radical creed in "The \'lhi te Negro" and a radical form in
Advertisements For Myself. The latter is the culmination of
this phase and is analyzed in detail. By the time of Advertisements
Mailer has made himself the chief metaphor for his
concept of erowth, thus synthesizing theme and method.
The second phase enlarges the meaning of Mailer's
existentialism, most particularly by his venturing deeply
into the current political and social realm, and culminates
in a new synthesis of growth in fictional theme and form in
An American Dream (1965). The novel's protagonist, Stephen
Rojack, defeated by a powerful satanic agent and by his own
weakness, proves unequal to the task Mailer sets for the
American hero: to unite the real- and the dream-life of the
nation in himself and to lead a united nation to human wholeness
which embraces all contradictions.

The central occupation of the third phase of Mailer's
work, therefore, is to develop himself--in the absence of
other suitable candidates--into a representative American
hero. His experimentation with various media for communication--drama, film, television, and others--ls a search for effective vehicles for his vision and is preparation for his assumption of the heroic role. Mailer's involvement with
the central issues confronting the United States is rendered
in a considerable experiment in novelistic form, Why Are We
in Vietnam? The culmination of his efforts in this phase is
the culmination of his work to date as well: The Armies of
the Night (1968). Relating the experiences of a character
called "Mailer", Mailer as narrator and novelist-historian
not only creates himself as a representative comic American
hero but invents a form which carries a total vision of the
events of the 1967 March on the Pentagon, uniting traditional
methods and aims of history, the novel, and journalism.
With this boolc Mailer assumes the role of interpretor for
our time, immersin~ himself in important contemnorary events
in order to present us with his views of their meaning and
significance.

Mailer's three books following The Armies of the
Night are discussed in a final chapter as similar to but
lesser efforts than Armies.

In this thesis Mailer's work is placed in two specific
contexts which provide a basis for suggesting his significance:
that of American literature, with emphasis upon
his contribution to the literature of the American Dream and
upon his indebtedness to Hemingway in particular and
twentieth-century novelists in f,eneral; and that of contemporary
thought which also seeks to influence the direction
of future human life.

Because his aesthetics of growth sees human progress
as its art, Mailer's nonlitrerary roles are considered a
vital part of his total work and consequently the critical
standards applied in this thesis are Mailer's own: how well
does each work register growth on Mailer's part and how
potentially effective is the work in revolutionizing the
consciousness of our time?

Mailer scholarship is still in infancy. The contribution
of this thesis to that scholarship lies in its approacth
to Mailer's work as a progressive whole and its
delineation of that progress; its critical approach whlch
confronts Mailer on his own terms; its extensive treatment
of works other than novels; the broad contexts which suggest
the significance of Mailer's work; and the comprehensive
bibliography, the most complete yet assembled on Mailer.

abstract: Thesis

abstract: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)


title: N.m.r. Studies of Protonation and Hydrogen Bonding in Strong Acid Solvents

title: N.M.R. STUDIES OF PROTONATION AND HYDROGEN BONDING IN STRONG ACID SOLVENTS

contributor:
Gillespie, R.J.
Chemistry

subject:
protonation
weak bases
n.m.r. techniques
behaviour
acids
electrolytes

abstract:
The protonation for several classes of weak bases has been
studied by n.m.r. techniques and the structure of the conjugate acids
determined. The rates of proton transfer and the activation energies
for some of the processes have been calculated and in the cases of the
methylbenzene-HSO₃F systems the mechanism of the proton transfer process
has been elucidated.

The acidity function (H₀) for the HSO₃F/SbF₅ system has been
redetermined and extended to higher concentrations of SbF₅• The
application of some n.m.r. methods to the measurement of H₀ is discussed.

The behaviour of the n.m.r. spectra of sulphuric and fluorosulphuric
acids upon the addition of electrolytes has been studied
and the results interpreted.

abstract: Thesis

abstract: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)


title: "They Just Want The Best Person, The Most Normal Person": Comparing Women With Disabilities and Employers Perspectives on Service Work

contributor:
Wilton, Robert D.
Geography

subject:
Service Work
Disabilities

abstract:
This thesis compares women with disabilities and employers' perspectives on service work in Hamilton, Ontario in order to further understand the experiences of disabled women in contemporary service employment. Positive and negative experiences from the women interviewed are assessed and compared to employers' perspectives on hiring and working with disabled workers in the service sector. With the recent restructuring of the welfare state, more disabled-people are being encouraged to enter the paid workforce by the state. This situation is problematic because there are indications that enduring barriers to employment continue to exist, and the restructuring of the service sector raises questions concerning the types of work people with disabilities are being hired for. Evidence from this thesis suggests that there is often a fundamental disconnect between what many employers are looking for in a worker and what the women interviewed were able to offer while at work. It can be suggested that
"} both data sets point to the enduring norms of able-bodiedness in the workplace. This study suggests that the women are not always able to approximate what the employers construct as the ideal worker, however the women have created various coping strategies in order to best approximate the ideal. The type of emotional, embodied work that is required by the majority of the employers in the service sector can be physically and emotionally draining for women with disabilities. This research also suggests that different bodies experience different outcomes in different situations. The women interviewed made it clear that they experience their bodies differently at work than they would at home, because of the demanding nature of service work and the performative, emotional nature of their work. The research conducted in this thesis responds to the absence of studies comparing the perspectives of both women with disabilities experiences and employers perspectives on service work.

abstract: Thesis

abstract: Master of Arts (MA)


title: Prophetic Vision and Moral Imagination in Flannery O'Connor's Fiction

contributor:
Kroeker, Dr. P. Travis
Religious Studies

subject:
Flannery O'connor
Fiction

abstract: A literary artist who has professed her religious understanding of reality provides an interesting challenge of interpretation. To what degree can the artist's religious views be considered relevant to the work of art, and how can the art be interpreted religiously without sacrificing its creative and artistic merits? While much of literary criticism seeks to distinguish the author (and the author's personal views) from his or her work, Flannery O'Connor's sacramental vision of reality is so embedded in her art that a separation between her religious understanding and her fiction leads to a misunderstanding of both. Instead of radically separating the artist's views from the artist's work, I have developed an interpretation of O'Connor that seeks to represent both her religious view of reality and her artistic exploration into the nature of reality through her fiction. This kind of analysis has two significant effects: it provides a corrective to many of the reductionistic accounts of the meaning and direction of O'Connor's religious vision, especially as it relates to her art; and it suggests an alternative approach to moral reflection through the medium of literature, whereby the concrete, embodied experiences of the characters illumine the nature of moral questions and choices. This thesis establishes, through a careful consideration ofthe prose writings of O'Connor, the inherent connection between her theology and her art. The intellectual tradition that influenced O'Connor's understanding ofart and theology, from her reading ofThomas Aquinas and Jacques Maritain, serves to clarify the orientation of her creative art. O'Connor's theological artistry is most evident in her fiction, and my interpretation focuses on an exegesis ofthree ofher major fictional works. The primary aim ofthis thesis is to elucidate O'Connor's sacramental vision and show how it is embodied in the fiction. Her prophetic vision, religious and artistic, is directed towards the drawing together of the physical and the spiritual, the concrete sensible world and the mysterious unseen reality that is eternally present.

abstract: Thesis

abstract: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)


title: Aspects of the Spiritual in Three Canadian Women Poets: Anne Wilkinson, Gwendolyn MacEwen, and Phyllis Webb

subject:
Women Poets
Spiritual

abstract: This thesis examines recent theories in feminist mythopoeic reconstruction and in contemporary theology, and considers their application to three English-Canadian women poets: Anne Wilkinson, Gwendolyn MacEwen, and Phyllis Webb. It compares gendered theories about heroic and spiritual quest paradigms, concluding that the work of all three poets illustrates the difference of women's spiritual journeys. These journeys follow a pattern distinct from the male heroic quest of the divine, one of a dialectical series of encounters with the world of nature whereby the heroines resist normative restrictions to their spiritual liberty by imitating Daphne's retreat into the green world, following the model defined by Annis Pratt (1981). Writing both within and outside of the Canadian literary tradition, MacEwen, Wilkinson, and Webb challenge the structures of and rocentric belief --literary, spiritual, political, mythical. All three poets refute the validity of the manmade version of Paradise because they find it too abstract and impoverished. Instead of the ascetic approach to the divine, each substitutes her own aesthetic approach; poetry, spirituality, and a love of what Wilkinson calls the Green World become inseparable. MacEwen connects the poet giving birth to herself with the rebirth of nature. All three poets are suspicious of the transcendent artist-god, replacing him with an immanent deity. All employ metaphors of engulfment and resistance to suggest interiority and a sense of connectedness between nature, their bodies, and themselves, denying disembodied concepts of the divine. Each of the three poets elevates the private domestic sphere, debased as a result of the sexual division of labour. By shifting the discursive centre, they publicize and politicize the domain of women, embodying and elevating everyday experience, and simultaneously redefining the sacred. To break with the ideological habits of our society results in marginalization. This thesis examines "the extent to which all or some women, by virtue of their marginalized relation to discourse, also write as feminists" (Meese 6). Each poet develops a strategy for imagining herself as powerful and nurturing, elevating some aspect of her experience as a woman living on earth. For Wilkinson, the symbol of the divine is not the god-man of the Gospels, but a nursing mother who sings lullabies to her children. For MacEwen, the body is given new strength and eroticism, enrobed in vivid colour and sensual texture. For Webb, the encounter with suicide and despair yields a new understanding of the creative force of destruction. MacEwen and Webb elevate the domestic and the personal above the universal. Canadian women poets articulate their spiritual difference and describe their visions from an original perspective, arguing for the recognition of a female mystical tradition in Canadian poetry.

abstract: Thesis

abstract: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)


title: The Treatment of Belgian Refugees in England During the Great War

contributor:
Rempel, Dr. R. A.
History

subject:
Great War
Refugees

abstract:
Almost one quarter of a million Belgians fled to England after the German invasion of Belgium in 1914. The largest contingent of refugees ever to come to England, their absorption into the host society was bound to be a complex process.
The growth of anti-alien sentiment in Britain in the twentieth century has often been remarked, yet the Belgians were assimilated smoothly into the English community. They benefited at first from overwhelming public sympathy, and trade-unionist fears that they would provide a pool of cheap labour dissipated as the war economy created conditions of full employment. There was some anti-Belgian sentiment, but it never became organised or vociferous. The growth of antialienism during the Great War must be traced to hysteria about enemy aliens, spies and Bolsheviks. However, the needs of the Belgian government, British relief agencies and various branches of the British government led to a sophisticated system of regulations governing the refugees' movements. The Belgians were important in the development of the primitive system of aliens control established in 1905.
Refugee relief was primarily the work of private charity. The government faced too many other tasks, the Poor Law was unpopular, and relief work provided an outlet for
patriotic enthusiasm. Directed by one central body, the War Refugees Committee, several thousand local committees
carried out the vast work of finding shelter, food, clothing
and employment for the refugees and providing for many other needs. However, enthusiasm waned and the WRC's funds were never large. Accordingly, the government and the Committee were pushed into reluctant partnership, the WRC surrendering some of its independence in return for financial assistance. The government was slow to extend its control openly, fearing
that voluntary effort would collapse. Until August 1916 the fiction was maintained that the WRC was autonomous, and even
then the government made only a half-hearted attempt at direct control.
The vigour of the relief movement demonstrates the strength of the philanthropic community in the early twentieth century. Philanthropy was the preserve of the upper and middle classes, a badge of rank, an assertion of social superiority, a form of self-imposed taxation. The WRC drew on the Charity Organisation Society's case work practices, maintained a healthy contempt for government officials, and prid~d itself on saving the nation vast amounts of money.
However, the growing political importance of the working classes before and during the war, rising taxation and the war's economic effects on the upper classes affected the philanthropic public's morale. Wartime charity also suffered from chronic problems of overlapping effort, extravagance, inefficiency and fraud, and Belgian relief organisations led the way in demanding stricter control of war charities. Their efforts resulted in the War Charities Act of 1916. Gradually, many relief workers came to accept the need for direct government control as the only way of fairly distributing the burdens of relief. As a result of many pressures, the WRC, which had begun as a purely voluntary agency, ended as something like a government department: the philanthropists had become social workers. The story of the refugee relief movement suggests how the philanthropic community became part of the new system of social welfare in the twentieth century.
This study is based on the Ministry of Health files in the Public Record Office, the Women's Work and War Refugees Collection in the Imperial War Museum, and the Herbert Gladstone Papers in the British Museum.

abstract: Thesis

abstract: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)


title: Upper-Class in New York Women: Power, Class and Sex Caste in New York City, 1880-1920

contributor:
Sheriff, P.
Sociology

subject: Upper-class women

subject: 1880-1920

abstract:
This thesis focuses on the impact of social class and sex caste influences on upper-class women. Preceding analysis have tended to suggest either that upper-class women are, women, essentially powerless and irrelevant to the broader historical context or that they are, as members of the upper-class, powerful and, on occasion, important historical actors. This research addresses these issues in a more systematic and comprehensive fashion than previous attempts.
Specifically, the thesis of this dissertation considers three questions: 1. Do active upper-class women exercise power? 2. Is this exercise of power socio-historically significant? and 3. Through this exercise of power do active upper-class women seek to advance their social class or their sex caste? In order to pursue this inquiry, 'power' must be conceptualized as a broad range of activities through which individuals directly or indirectly exercise their will or serve their own interests. This expanded understanding of power is receptive to woman's experience of social reality.
The particular 'strategic' research population selected for this investigation is upper-class women who were active in New York City between 1880 and 1920. The socio-historical milieu in which these women lived was a vortex of powerful social class and sex caste forces -the role of women was in the midst of sweeping reformulations and the class system was embroiled in crucial struggles. Active upper-class women's activities in this context are investigated by means of cumulated biographies.
Using standard biographical sources, biographical dossiers (detailing family background, organizational affiliations and so on) are assembled for 412 subjects. This information is then analysed, first, in terms of the general characteristics of the research population (for example, their distinguishing social traits) and, secondly, in terms of their involvement in three key fields -social welfare, ideological domination and the status of women.
The results from this analysis suggest, first, that upper-class women did wield power (they held important executive offices, were influential figures or were founders, leaders or benefactors of movements, organizations or institutions). Secondly, their exercise of power was of socio-historical significance (many of the organizations, institutions and movements in which they exercised power played an important role in social and historical events.) Finally, although substantial evidence indicates that many research subjects aided on-going projects of the upper-class, worked with class colleagues and defended the interests of the upper class, sex caste affiliation was also an important consideration. Many of the research population's activities were undertaken through woman-only organizations or were directed specifically to women. In a few significant instances concern with sex caste issues led some active upper-class women into conflict with traditional upper-class values.
The research indicates that upper-class women's social activities and historical role cannot be viewed simply as expressions of either class or caste influences. Rather, analyses must recognize an interplay between the two factors. Further, the inquiry suggests that the family (with female as well as male components considered) must 'in a real sense' be conceptualized as the foundation of the upper class.

abstract: Thesis

abstract: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)


title: The Battle Scenes on the Column of Marcus Aurelius

contributor:
Dunbabin, K.M.D.
Classical Studies

subject:
Battle Scene
Marcus Aurelius

abstract:
This dissertation focuses on the battle scenes of the column of Marcus Aurelius (Rome, late 2nd century AD), which are analyzed from three main points of view: from the viewpoint of composition, as representations of historical events, and as bearers of message to the contemporary viewer. As works of art, the battle scenes of the Marcus column diverge significantly from both the established classical tradition of battle art, and also from the battle scenes on the column of Trajan. This identifies them as novel, original works created for the purpose of adorning the new monument. Detailed analysis of the figure types making up the scenes also indicates a connection to the contemporary sarcophagus industry based in Rome, suggesting that it was from here that the designer(s) and/or carvers of the column came. As representations of historical events, the battle scenes prove to be very poor evidence, whether from the view of military equipment, troop behaviour in battle, or in comparison to the few literary descriptions of the battles of Marcus' wars. This contrasts sharply with the representation of battle on the column of Trajan. Finally, and as has been noted by scholars, the scenes of battle on the Marcus column present a remarkably violent depiction of combat. However, this can be shown to be reflective not only of the nature of Marcus' wars but also of a much harsher set of standards for the treatment of rebellious enemies. Thus, the message of the column's
battle scenes is one which would correspond well with the presumed viewpoint of a contemporary Roman.

abstract: Thesis

abstract: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)


title: The Jacobite Cause, 1730-1740: The International Dimension

contributor:
Fritz, P. S.
History

subject: Jacobite Cause

subject: 1730-1740

abstract:
The purpose 9f this thesis is to examine the Jacobite effort to secure support for an enterprise to restore the Stuart line in Britain and the effect which this had on relations between France and England from 1730 to 1740.
Following a general account of the diplomatic pattern during this decade and the state of the Jacobite movement in 1730, the thesis examines in detail the Jacobite endeavor to win support at three critical junctures: first, the period from the Second Treaty of Vienna (1731) to the outbreak of the War of the Polish Succession (1733); second, the period of settlement after the Polish War, from 1735 to 1737; third, the time of crisis which ended with the outbreak of war between Spain and England in 1740.
Although the Jacobites received a show of encouragement from the French government throughout these ten years, Cardinal Fleury constantly evaded fulfilling the promises of help he gave them, alleging as excuse circumstances the Jacobites themselves could not contest: the weakness of the party in Britain and the lack of co-operation between France and Spain despite their common causes of enmity against England.
Fleury consistently avoided any policy which would involve France in a general European war; and this, in fact, precluded giving active help to the Jacobites; but he encouraged them to continue their efforts because they supplied him with useful information, because they were considered as a potential threat by the Hanoverian government in England whose fears of a renewed Jacobite enterprise increased with the increasing hostility between Britain and the Bourbon powers, and because supporting the Jacobite cause could strengthen Fleury's own position within the administrative power-structure of the French Court.
By 1730 the lack of effective political support in Britain for the Jacobite Cause made it unlikely that an enterprise could have been successful; but, so long as the Hanoverians feared a potential change and so long as the Jacobites themselves hoped and worked for success, they remained a significant factor in the diplomatic history of Europe.

abstract: Thesis

abstract: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)


title: Designs of Risk: Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, Social Control, and the Prospects of Professionalism

contributor:
Knight, Dr. Graham
Sociology

subject:
Design of risk
environmental

abstract: This research paper seeks to understand how and why practitioners of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) exercise rational and strategic forms of social control over their clients. Based on data gathered from semistructured interviews and myriad documents, I argue that practitioners frame (Goffinan, 1974) crime related risks in ways that render the application of CPTED a rational and prudent course of action while at the same time establishing the professional legitimacy of their expertise. Moreover, I argue that this dynamic not only reflects the socioeconomic conditions inherent in risk society, but also sheds light on contemporary forms of governmentality. I conclude by suggesting that CPTED may actually undermine our ability to engage those unlike ourselves in meaningful political dialogue while at the same time individualizing what is essentially a structural social problem.

abstract: Thesis

abstract: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)


title: Patterns in Religious thought in early south India: A study of Classical Tamil Texts

contributor:
Sivaraman, K.
Younger, P.
Greenspan, L.
Radhakrishan, R.
Religious Studies

subject:
Tamil texts
south india

abstract:
This thesis is an analytic study of specific patterns of religious thought in early south India as found in the earliest extant literary texts in Tamil, one of the classical languages of India and one of the oldest living languages of the world. commonly known in the Tamil tradition as the cankaa literature, this corpus of poetry is generally assigned to the early centuries of the Comaon Era, and is thought of as constituting the classical heritage of Taail culture. There has not been a major attempt to investigate the importance of this reaarkable body of literature to the development of religious thought in south India, a region which is widely acknowledged as the birthplace of a number of religious movements including the great devotional govement of the early medieval ties, called the bhaktl religion.
The reluctance on the part of historians of Indian religious thought to take up the study of classical Tamil texts was partly due to a perception that the classical Tamil texts were essentially 'secular', and, therefore, of not much interest to a historian of religious thought.
I had, therefore, to begin the thesis with a historiographical critique showing how limited and limiting that perception was and suggesting that, whatever unique features that classical Tamil texts may have, they are not unyielding to the queries of a student of religion.
In addition to other types of poems, there are a few explicitly religious poems which are regarded by tradition as part of the classical corpus. Taking my initial cues from those poems, I have isolated three central themes in the literature, namely space, hero, and gift around which the religious thought of the culture can be discerned. By a careful and selective analysis of the so-called 'secular' poems in the corpus, and through an analysis of sections of the major grammatical treatise of the classical period, have shown that the thought underlying these three themes was integral to classical Tamil culture. The thesis has in the end a dual purpose. Its stated purpose is to assess the importance of the period of the classical Tamil texts in religious history, but it also indirectly demonstrates the need for a fresh approach to the study of early Tamil literature.

abstract: Thesis

abstract: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)


title: Joint Attention in Mother-Child Dyads Involving Deaf and Hearing Toddlers: Implications for Socioemotional Development

contributor:
Schmidt, Dr. Louis
Psychology

subject:
deaf toddler
mother-child development

abstract:
Ninety percent of deaf infants are born to hearing parents, and socio-emotional
development is compromised in a substantial subset of these children. While deafness itself does not cause socio-emotional and behavioural dysfunction, its influence on socio-emotional development is profuse and complex. It was proposed that early problems in mother-child joint attention would explain some of the socio-emotional development that lags chronological development in deaf children with hearing mothers. Fifty six 18-to 36-month old children and their mothers were recruited to the study; n = 29 hearing mother-hearing child dyads; n =27 hearing mother-deaf child dyads. A re-conceptualized model of joint attention guided this research and joint attention was restated as a functional construct. Four questions were asked and seven hypotheses were derived from these questions. Results supported six of the seven hypotheses tested. Findings are discussed in terms of developmental relations between joint attention and early socio-emotional development in hearing and deaf children. More specifically, the findings support a developmental psychopathology perspective of development that broadens the "language" argument for problems in deaf children's social development. Overall, a deliberate, rather than intuitive, model of mothering is suggested to be important in the accommodation of hearing mother-deaf child joint attention important for early socio-emotional development.

abstract: Thesis

abstract: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)


title: Heroism in Vietnam: Archetypal Patterns in Selected American Prase and Drama

contributor:
Bishop, Alan
English

subject:
Vietman
Archetypal Patterns

abstract:
This study examines modern manifestations of archetypal heroism and immortality in selected American prose and drama of the Vietnam War. The technical innovations of Vietnam War writers have received substantial attention from critics and scholars but the Writers themes have had relatively little close attention. While my study doss consider technical innovations, its main emphasis is on a particular thematic pattern. The writers I have selected --Philip Caputo, William Eastlake, John Guare, Michael Herr, Arthur Kopit, and David Raba --exploit parallels with the Mythic Hero and it is in these thematic patterns that I am interested. Specifically, these writers dissect received notions of martial heroism and Mythic Heroism; they examine the media's influential portrayal of the soldiers and show its inadequacy; they probe into prevailing American cultural attitudes and their historical origins; and they actively pursue innovative techniques with which to present their own views of the soldiers and the war. The most common controlling metaphor is the Hero's journey into the underworld. Variations an this basic theme include the role of the archetypal Fool as the Hera's guide, and archetypal myths of immortality. These writers juxtapose and ironically campers the archetypal with the modern by using symbolism deriving from factors local to the Vietnam War. Far example, the Asian jungle reveals the primitive in modern man; images of immortality on celluloid, in Art, and in archetypal mythology are brought into relationship with each other to distinguish modern simplified misconceptions from complex archetypal truths; and there is a close examination of the expectations and reality of martial heroism in this war. The protagonist's journey leads him to discover personal and national mistakes. Each protagonist hare varies in the degree of knowledge he attains and the ends to which he puts it. However, the parallels with the Mythic Hero's journey not only reveal one way far American society to assimilate the Vietnam experience into its consciousness and so regenerate itself, but the parallels also show the possible effects that may result from a failure to came to terms with the war and the soldiers who fought it.
The primary focus of this thesis is the symbolism and significance of martial heroism and Mythic Heroism. However, as a sub-theme, I also discuss literary innovations, and make an attempt in the final chapter to place the themes and techniques of this war literature in a past-modern context. The Vietnam War had such a profound, long-lasting and pervasive effect on America that it is only fitting that this war's literature should be placed within America's literary matrix.

abstract: Thesis

abstract: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)


title: Displaced and Minor Children in Selected Canadian Literature: An Analysis of Ethnic Minority Child Narratives as "Minor Literatures" in Funny Boy, Lives of the Saints, and Obasan

contributor:
Hyman, R.
English

subject:
Canadian Literature
Obasan

abstract:
This study examines the ethnic minority experience and its effects on approaches to childhood in Shyam Selvadurai's Funny Boy, Joy Kogawa's Obasan, and Nino Ricci's Lives of the Saints. The novels' protagonists, Arjie, Naomi, and Vittorio, are marginalized not only geographically, but also in terms of age, language, race, and sexual orientation. In addition to having been written and narrated by members of ethnic minorities, the novels concentrate on characters belonging to the age of minority. Using these "child focalizers" in order to depict defamiliarized, displaced, and minor perspectives, the authors write in the genre I call minor literature, a term adapted from Deleuze and Guattari's concepts of such literature.
In focalizing various linguistic deterritorializations and socio-political displacements through the eyes of minor children, the authors disturb and deconstruct social nor.ms and conventions. In the thesis I analyze the minor child focalizer's vulnerabilities to, and subversions of, major languages, social conventions, and codes of behaviour. I argue that the children's identities as ethnic minorities intensify and complicate their various displacements, and allow for the authors to comment on the radical experience of multiple deterritorialization. I establish three categories in my discussions of these novels as minor literatures and their protagonists as minor focalizers: the disturbance and manipulation of language, the minoradult's alignment with the child's subject position, and the transgressive nature of identity-performance. The children's manipulation of language, bodily expressions and performances of gender and language are all means of resistance to major adult impositions of expected identities and behaviours. I demonstrate how the processes by which these children "resist" impositions of identities expose the artificialities of those identities.

abstract: Thesis

abstract: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)


title: Power and Status in Majority - Minority Relations

contributor:
Bourhis, R. Y.
Psychology

subject:
power and status
minority relations

abstract:
Social psychological processes underlying intergroup behaviour should be placed in their sociostructural contexts. Previous experimental studies have usually created groups that do not differ on sociostructural dimensions such as group numbers, power, and status. The impact of these factors on intergroup behaviour constituted the major aim of the present research.
Predictions were formulated assuming that individuals are motivated to achieve a positive social identity (Tajfel & Variants of the "minimal group" paradigm see Tajfel & Turner, 1979) were used, first, to replicate previous minimal group results, and second, to assess the independent and combined effects of power, status, and group as in previous studies, allocation matrices developed by Tajfel and his colleagues were the main dependent measures. Unlike previous studies, these were supplemented with extensive possession questionnaire items that included items on social identifications and various intergroup perceptions.
First, the classic minimal group discrimination effect, replicated under conditions of equal group numbers, power, and status, was eliminated when group members had little or no power (study 2). Categorization per se was net sufficient for intergroup discrimination. Without usable power, minimal group members did net discriminate.
However, categorization per se was sufficient in eliciting prejudice. Second, results of this research clearly shewed that increases in group status and group power led to concomitant increases in matrix discrimination. Membership in minority groups polarised these patterns of behaviour (and perceptions) more than membership in majority groups. Status was the best predictor of social identification (and related perceptions), while power best predicted actual behaviour. In conclusion, evidence from these studies indicated that group numbers, power, and status, independently and in combination, have a strong impact on intergroup behaviour and perceptions.

abstract: Thesis

abstract: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)


title: Hybridity in Culture, Literature and Language: A Comparative Study of Contemporary Caribbean Canadian and Turkish German Women's Writing Exemplified by the Writers M. N. Philip and E. S. Ozdamar

contributor:
Coleman, Dr. D. L.
English

subject: Women Writing

abstract:
The politics of writing of the Caribbean Canadian writer Marlene Nourbese Philip and the Turkish German writer Emine Sevgi Ozdamar show a crucial concern for the development of serious multi-racial, multi-cultural, and multilingual dialogue, a concern which will also be the focus of this thesis. The specific contribution this study of the two writers will provide to the field of ethnic minority and non-White women's writing in Canada and Germany consists of its comparative-interdisciplinary approach. Critical texts on the writings of Philip and Ozdamar or on cultural, literary and lingual hybridity are numerous,
'
especially in the areas of minority discourse, post-colonialism and feminism. However, linkages of these three components are very rare. A major emphasis of this work is to reveal the significant similarities -an approach still carefully attending to the context-specific cultural and individual differences-that exist in Philip's and Ozdamar's writings and writerly positions and hence to motivate an intensification of comparative work and co-operation between the disciplines of Canadian and German literature.
The introductory chapter clarifies and explains the choice of literary theory and tern1inology that builds the framework for the comparison done here. This involves a critical discussion of the concepts of cultural, literary, and lingual hybridity as well as the workings of permanent and intermittent, imposed and self-chosen salience in the process of identification. Chapter two compares Ozdamar's and Philip's writings in relation to the women's historical, social, political, and legal positions in the German and Canadian models of the nationstate and immigration. Building on this context, chapter three then discusses their public and critical-academic reception in Germany and Canada, their exclusionary position within mainstream literature, and their politics of resistance as "excentric" German and Canadian writers. Chapter four is most text-related as it specifically relates to the writers' intersecting strategies of lingual hybridity, embodied language and body-memory in Mutterzunge and She Tries Her Tongue. The conclusion re-evaluates the writers' "ex-centric" and yet integral positions at the border of single-nation literary studies, positions from which Ozdamar and Philip relocate literary, lingual, and cultural belonging in the German and Canadian nation-state respectively.

abstract: Thesis

abstract: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)


title: FORMING LIMIT IMPROVEMENT OF AZ31 MAGNESIUM SHEET AT ROOM TEMPERATURE USING PRESTRAIN ANNEALING

contributor:
Jain, Mukesh
Mechanical Engineering

abstract: The formability of automotive magnesium sheet at room temperature is limited due to its HCP crystalline structure with limited slip systems. To improve the formability at room temperature, a new method of pre-strain annealing and subsequent forming (PASF) has been assessed. Uniaxial tensile tests are conducted on fully annealed AZ31 sheets as well as on a range of pre-strain annealed samples at an annealing temperature of 250 . The test data is used to characterize improvements to tensile elongations as well as changes in the work hardening behaviour arising from the PASF process as well as for prediction of forming limit diagrams. The formability improvements from PASF process are further assessed by conducting interrupted hemispherical punch stretching tests at room temperature, annealing, and then continuing the dome stretching process to fracture. Several different specimen geometries are tested to analyze the punch load versus punch displacement characteristics. Further, the tests are used to construct the room temperature forming limit diagrams (FLD) of fully annealed sheets as well as PASF process dome samples. The improvement in limit strain by PASF process is strongly dependent on the pre-strain, annealing temperature and time. An improvement of 20% in limit strain values could be achieved with one annealing step under optimized conditions of annealing and pre-straining. Experimental FLDs are also compared with theoretical FLDs based on well-known Marciniak-Kuczynski (M-K) analysis and an existing anisotropic yield criterion with appropriate modifications for anisotropic characteristics and changes in the work hardening behavior of AZ31 sheet from the PASF process. The M-K theory is also used to calculate FLD of AZ31 sheet at 300  and compared with an existing FLD determined in the McMaster Metal Forming Laboratory. Domes test samples are also examined by optical metallography to rationalize the differences in fracture behavior of fully annealed and PASF samples.

abstract: Thesis

abstract: Master of Applied Science (MASc)


title: Was Tut Man Wenn...: A Teaching Manual on the Banking, Postal, and Telephone Systems of Germany

title: Was Tut Man Wen...: A TEACHING MANUAL

contributor:
Teuscher, G.
Richardson, R.J.
German

subject:
German
foreign language
teaching
tourist

abstract: This work is formally titles as a Project.

abstract:
The focus of this project is on an area that appears to have been lacking in the teaching of German as a foreign language. The teaching of practical business knowledge and knowledge of everyday lifestyles has been limited to specific areas of study in most German language courses and related textbooks. The practical topics that have been covered in the German language classroom are those of value mainly to tourists.These topics are transportation, accommodation, shopping, and restaurants.
 Practical matters regarding finances and communication have been superficially covered. Therefore, the purpose of this project was to incorporate information on the finance and communication systems in Germany into a package for use in the foreign-language (FL) classroom. The major part of this project was the research conducted in Germany, and the preparation and the writing of the manual. The remainder of the project deals with a discussion on the relevance of the manual's content, the reasoning behind the manual's format, and use of the material in the manual and related authentic materials in the classroom. The information incorporated into the manual was gathered in Germany from interviews with personnel at each of the three institutions, from publications and forms used by each institution, and from trade magazines. The information in the manual is presented in a 'userfriendly' format in English. Relevant German terminology is provided in strategic locations to enable the reader to learn the concepts without being overwhelmed by the terminology. The reader's ability to speak German was also considered in the preparation of the manual. A basic grasp of German is desirable for the reader, however the information contained in the book can still be of use to people with no background in the German language. A draft of the manual's banking chapter was tested in a second-year German classroom, at the secondary school level. The test and its results are discussed in the theoretical portion of this work.

abstract: Master of Arts (MA)


title: Designing Injectable Hydrogel Biomaterials with Highly-Tunable Properties

contributor:
Hoare, Todd
Chemical Engineering

rights: An error occurred getting the license - uri.

subject: Injectable hydrogels, organic synthesis, polymer chemistry, biomaterials, drug delivery

abstract: Chemically cross-linked hydrogels (chemical gels) offer a number of enhanced properties over their physical counterparts, particularly in biomedical applications such as drug delivery, tissue engineering, and cell encapsulation. Conventional chemical gels are generally too elastic to be introduced into the body without requiring surgical implantation, making them challenging to use in a clinical context. In response, this thesis is focused on developing injectable analogues of conventional hydrogel-based biomaterials as well as advanced, engineered injectable hydrogels, enabling the facile use of these hydrogels in biomedical applications. Cross-linking is achieved using hydrazone chemistry, in which one precursor is functionalized with aldehyde groups and the other is functionalized with hydrazide groups. Following coextrusion of the reactive precursors, a stable hydrogel network spontaneously forms within seconds. By employing this chemistry as a standard in all of this work, a number of injectable hydrogel systems with well-defined properties (including swelling, drug loading and release, optical properties, gel formation and degradation kinetics, response to the temperature of the surrounding environment, and tissue response) have been generated that can be tuned by rationally varying the charge content in the precursor polymers, the number of cross-linking functional groups used, the reactivity of the electrophilic cross-linking units, and the length and number of hydrophobic affinity domains present within the gels. This work therefore presents a series of independent methods for customizing hydrogels so that they may be adapted to a number of different biomedical applications.

abstract: Dissertation

abstract: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)


title: The Melodramatic Immagination: Selected English-Canadian Fiction 1925-1932

subject:
1920's
English-Canadian Literature
melodramatic
unrealistic conventions
literal journey
symbolic journey

abstract:
The decade of the nineteen-twenties has generally been recognized
as a dynamic period in English-Canadian literature, but so far as fiction
is concerned its achievement is widely assumed to be the introduction of
social realism into the Canadian novel. Those novels which employ other
than realistic conventions have been assumed by many critics to be
inferior because of their non-realistic aspects.

This dissertation examines four such novels, supposedly flawed
by melodramatic excess~ Raymond Knister's White Narcissus (1929),
Martha Ostenso's Wild Geese (1925), Morley Callaghan's A Broken Journey
(1932), and Frederick Philip Grove's The Yoke of Life (1930) - in order
to discover the function and significance of melodramatic conventions
and the sort of vision they project.

The first part of the dissertation defines such terms as
"realism" and ''melodrama." and explains the critical approach to be used.
In the central four chapters, this critical approach is applied to each
novel in turn.

When the novels are compared, following the detailed analysis
of each, significant similarities emerge. In thematic terms, a quest
is undertaken, in each case, which is meaningful on several levels: on
the literal level there is an arduous physical journey across or into
a specific (and generally threatening) landscape; on a symbolic level
there is a journey of mythological and/or religious import; in
psychological terms the journey is into the less rational aspects of
human experience in an attempt to re-integrate a personality divided
against itself. In terms of structure, as well, certain patterns
emerge: each novel employs a balanced, rather symmetrical structure,
formal devices which tend to distance the reader from the material, and
vortex-like patterns of movement on the part of the protagonist.

The formal and thematic patterns which emerge from a comparison
of the four novels, then, suggest that there is a "melodramatic mode"
common to them, and possibly to novels of periods other than the one
explored in this thesis. Indeed, it is further argued, melodramatic
conventions (which are related to the gothic mode and romanticism in
general) may serve as an appropriate vehicle for the expression in
fiction of a profound modern theme, the portrayal of alienated man in
a secularized and relativistic universe.

abstract: Thesis

abstract: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)


title: Women and Romantic Fiction: A Case Study of Harlequin Enterprises, Romances, and Readers

contributor:
Clement, Wallace
Sociology

subject:
capitalism reproduction
romantic fiction
women
hegemony

abstract:
The main theoretical issue dealt with in this study is the reproduction of capitalism through romantic fiction for women. The analytical framework is built upon the concept of hegemony, the material and ideological reproduction of society through a combination of consent and coercion. This study examines this process as it applies to a specific phenomena: Harlequin Enterprises, Romances, and readers.

The analysis is based on archival research on Harlequin Enterprises and interviews with company officials. The Harlequin Romances component of the study is based on the content analysis of a random sample of fifty Harlequins. Data on readers are based on company information, readers' letters to Harlequin Enterprises, and interviews with twenty-four readers.

The study concludes that Harlequin Enterprises and Harlequin Romances are part of the hegemonic reproduction of capitalism. They maintain and legitimate sex role structure, corporate.structure, and class structure, crucial aspects of our society. The study also concludes that women's consumption of Harlequins is best understood as being a part of this same process of hegemony. Their reading is shaped
by the structure of their lives, by Harlequin Enterprises, and by Harlequin Romances. The study suggests that further theoretical refinement and empirical research is necessary to explore the possibility that there are various types of readers who interpret and respond to romantic fiction in different ways.

abstract: Thesis

abstract: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)


title: Toward an Organismic Subjectivity: Affect, Relation, Entanglement

contributor:
Allen, Barry
Enns, Diane
Philosophy

subject:
Philosophy of Ecology
Philosophy of Organism
Subjectivity
Temporality
Spatiality
Gilles Deleuze
Baruch Spinoza
Gilbert Simondon
Henri Bergson
James Gibson
Dialectical Biology
Niche Construction Theory

abstract: The motivating ambition of this thesis is the endeavour to think the subject anthropo-eccentrically, to free it of its conscious-agential overtones and to foreground instead the active organism in all its ecologically entangled, metabolically perspectival glory. I define the subject, in the course of the thesis, as a body productive of its own spatial and temporal fields, a body that lives its own space and time. Ecology is pluralized, made bodily. And the body itself is dynamicized and rendered porous—less an absolute limit than a variable topology separating, uniting, and enfolding organism and ecology, self and other, subject and world. I begin, in Chapter 1, with Deleuze and the rhythmic contractions that define the temporal pole of organismic subjectivity. In Chapter 2, I turn toward the way spaces are configured on the basis of the affective enaction of organismic life. This is organismic spatiality. In Chapter 3, I introduce Deleuze’s distinction between the actual and virtual in order to properly theorize the way organismic abilities and environmental layouts are pre-subjectively related such that actual organismic activity individuates a field of spatiotemporal experience. And as the structure of this relation fluctuates, so too does the framework of subjective experience, the sensorimotor-perceptual affects by which experience is defined. Organismic subjectivity is, as a consequence, both relentlessly dynamic and tied irreducibly to the organization of its own world. To think this entanglement is to think subjectivity as swarm, a concept that opens this theory onto an array of new possibilities—toward, to take only one example among a range of many, a human-technological entanglement that conceives scientific apparatuses in their integration with a collectively human subjectivity. I conclude the thesis with a brief gesture toward the implications carried by the development of such possibilities.

abstract: Thesis

abstract: Master of Philosophy (MA)


title: Mobility in Aging: Travel Behavior and Implications for Physical Activity

contributor:
Paez, Antonio
Geography

subject:
Travel behavior
Mobility
Elderly
Walking
Physical activity
Modeling

abstract:
Rapid demographic aging in countries around the world has prompted an interest in understanding the mobility patterns of seniors. While much research has been conducted in terms of motorized modes, the promotion of healthy aging argues for new research to investigate the multi-modal travel behavior of seniors including active travel. It is generally agreed that walking is a convenient, safe, and adequate activity for all ages and particularly for seniors, because it places the right amount of stress on their joints. It also is an inexpensive mode of transportation under a wide range of circumstances and can help achieve physical activity guidelines without imposing additional time demands.
The objectives of this dissertation are fourfold. The first two objectives investigate the factors that influence use, length, frequency of two motorized (transit and car) and one active mode of transportation (walking) of seniors. The third objective is to introduce a concept of Compliance Potential Mapping (CPM) that produces maps to show spatial variation in percentage of physical activity requirements seniors obtain from their regular walking for transport. Finally, the dissertation implements a street segment sampling approach and investigates the attributes of walkable environments from the perspective of seniors.
A joint discrete-continuous modeling framework was used to model mode use and trip length simultaneously and, on the other hand, a trivariate ordered probit model was used for estimating the multi-modal trip generation of seniors. CPM concept used simple map algebra operations on maps of spatial variations in trip length and frequency in order to produce potential maps of physical activity compliance.  Lastly, the street sampling approach used multinomial spatial scan statistic to detect cluster of street segments where walkability audits can be conducted. Data were drawn from Montreal’s Household Travel Survey of 2008. A broad array of covariates related to personal, mobility tools (possession of driver’s licence and automobile), neighborhood, and accessibility variables were considered in the models of mode use, trip length, and trip frequency for the Montreal Island.
The results of the analyses reveal a significant degree of geographical variability in the travel behavior of seniors in the Island. In particular, estimates for seniors with different socio- demographic profiles show substantial intra-urban variability in walking behavior, and the role of neighborhood design attributes and accessibility in influencing the mobility of seniors. Demonstration of CPM indicates that seniors in the central parts of Montreal Island obtain higher percentage of physical activity guidelines from walking, but with variations according to gender, income, possession of driver’s licence and vehicle. The results of the walkability analysis suggest that, other factors being equal, walking is more prevalent in street segments with marked cross–walks, horizontal and vertical mixtures in land uses, and low traffic volume. Other factors being equal, walking was less prevalent in segments with unmarked cross–walks, single residential and/or vacant land use, and high traffic volume.

abstract: Thesis

abstract: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

abstract: Number of seniors across Canada is increasing. Regular physical activity among these growing seniors can help them to maintain a healthy lifestyle. However, seniors are not active in their leisure time. This study shows how much seniors are active in travel behavior. In other way, how much walking seniors are undertaking as part of their travel needs and how much it contributes towards their recommended physical activity guidelines. In addition, this study also examines the street-scale built environment that encourages seniors to walk more and drive less.


title: MgO:LiNbO3 Nonlinear Wavelength Converters - From Visible to Mid-Infrared

contributor:
Xu, Changqing
Engineering Physics

subject:
Lithium Niobate
Waveguide

abstract: Annealed proton-exchanged (APE) MgO:PPLN ridge waveguides have been successfully developed, and its optical properties have been researched. Nonlinear wavelength conversion experiments have been successfully conducted using the developed waveguide. The APE MgO:PPLN ridge waveguide has been proved suitable for high efficiency nonlinear optical conversions across its transparency spectrum from visible to mid-IR light. With distinctive features including flexibility, high efficiency and low cost, this new type of waveguide can find potential applications in various application fields.

abstract: Thesis

abstract: Candidate in Philosophy


title: The Cosmos and God According to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Alfred North Whitehead

title: God and the Cosmos According to Teilhard and Whitehead

contributor:
Robertson, John C. Jr.
Religious Sciences

subject: interpretations cosmos God Teilhard Whitehead

abstract:
In this dissertation I examine some possible areas in which Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Alfred North Whitehead share similar interpretations of the nature of the cosmos and the nature of God. Further, I seek to illustrate areas of their cosmological-theistic interpretations where they offer distinctive views.

Several recent authors have made references to apparent similarities between specific areas contained in the writings of Whitehead and Teilhard. For the most part these references are made somewhat in passing and are, therefore, undeveloped.

However, two articles by Ian Barbour deal at some length with a comparison of Whitehead and Teilhard. The first "Five Ways of Reading Teilhard," (in The Teilhard Review, III (1968) 1, 3-20) is an attempt to show ". . . . that Teilhard's most significant intellectual contribution is a 'process theology' which combines Christian theology and process philosophy." The second article, "Teilhard's Process Metaphysics," (Journal of Religion, 49 (1969) 2, 136-159) is an exploration of "some of Teilhard's metaphysical categories which reflect both evolutionary and biblical assumptions." While each of these articles is a clear interpretation of Teilhard's thought and of significant value for anyone interested in comparing Whitehead and Teilhard, nevertheless, they tend to describe Teilhard as closely allied to the general scheme of Whitehead's 'process' philosophy. While I agree with Dr. Barbour on many of his points, I am led to challenge an interpretation which too closely allies Whitehead and Teilhard. Therefore, while a number of authors have suggested some similarities between Whitehead and Teilhard, no one (to my knowledge) has presented a developed comparison of their thoughts. Among the many possible areas for comparison, I have chosen to concentrate on two; namely, their respective interpretations of the structure and activity of the cosmos and their respective interpretations of the nature and activity of God. While noting several similarities between the thoughts of these two thinkers, I have been led to conclude that their distinctive interpretations are of greater importance. Briefly, I maintain in this study that each describes the universe as having a different structure and guided by God described as having a different nature and function.

Hopefully, this dissertation will have scholarly significance not only because of its 'pioneer' quality, i.e., because it raises issues others might wish to challenge and pursue further, but also, because of its concentration on specific pivotal issues, this dissertation might be useful to those suspecting some alliance of these two systems with one another.

STRUCTURE AND DEVELOPMENT

In Chapter One, I seek to organize Teilhard's cosmological ideas. In Chapter Two, I consider Whitehead's cosmological categories and present a preliminary comparison between his cosmology and that of Teilhard.Next, in Chapter Three I turn my attention to Teilhard's 'theism,' examining what his cosmological proposals lead him to say regarding the existence of God. Also, within this chapter, I take note of the 'theological' interpretation of God which Teilhard appears to incorporate into his system. In Chapter Four, I turn my attention to Whitehead's 'theism,' noting his discussion of God's existence and activity relative to the cosmos. Also, in this chapter I offer a preliminary comparison of the 'theisms' of Teilhard and Whitehead. Next, in Chapter Five, I consider, in summary, the principle areas in which Teilhard and Whitehead agree and, specifically, where their interpretations differ. The latter portion of this chapter is devoted to what might be a central critique of Teilhard's scheme from a Whiteheadian point of view. Finally, in an Appendix I consider Teilhard's "Christology," asking whether his interpretation of Christ provides a theme indicating that Teilhard's God is mutable(i.e., passive) and asking, further, whether Teilhard's interpretation of Christ revises the cosmological issues of irreversibility and infallibility I found so prominent in Teilhard's system.

abstract: Thesis

abstract: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)


title: An Introduction to Spiritual Formation Among Digitial Natives

contributor:
Beach, Lee
Divinity College

subject:
demographic shift
North America
evangelical churches
teenagers/young adults
regular attendance
casual attendance

abstract:
A curious demographic shift is underway in North American evangelical churches.
While the percentage of teens and young adults who regularly attend worship services has remained basically the same for the past thirty years the number of casual attenders is plummeting. In 2008, forty-seven percent of teens reported never attending a worship service, up from twenty-eight percent in 1980. What is causing such a radical shift in worship attendance? This thesis will investigate an increasingly distinct cultural group, called Digital Natives, who were born since 1990 and have never known a world without the Internet and constant connection to digital media.

Through the development of a biblical theology of technology, and the investigation of recent research into the psychological and social effects of social media and other computer mediated communication, this thesis will develop a clearer picture of the cultural gap that many Mainline and Evangelical churches are facing. Through theological reflection this thesis will identify new boundaries and new behaviours that will assist in the discipling and spiritual formation of Digital Natives in today's churches.

abstract: Thesis

abstract: Master of Divinity (M.Div)


title: Periodic Domain Inversion of MgO-Doped Lithium Niobate By Corona Discharge Method

contributor:
Xu, Chang-Qing
Chang, Jen-Shih
Engineering Physics

subject:
stabalized corona torch plasma
MgO doped lithium niobate
discharge characteristics
optical emission spectroscopy

abstract:
In this work a flow stabilized corona torch plasma was used for periodic domain
inversion of MgO-doped lithium niobate with 19 .1 μm periodic gratings. The effective non-linear coefficient (derr) achieved through corona discharge poling was 17.5 pm/V, which agrees well with theoretical value of 16~19 pm/V. By analysing the second harmonic generation (SHG) tuning curves, the grating uniformity over the 10 mm grating was investigated. The 0.6 run bandwidth of the SHG tuning at full width half maximum (FWHM) corresponded exactly to the theoretical value. The agreement between experimental data and theoretical results imply that the obtained periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) has high quality. By controlling temperature in the range of 20 °C to 120 °C tunability of SHG wavelength was demonstrated between 782 run
and 788 run.

Discharge characteristics of the corona were studied using a floating potential double probe and optical emission spectroscopy. Using the double probe the distribution of ion density downstream of the corona torch was observed. The maximum ion density of 2 x 1018 (ions/cm3) was achieved 2 mm below the discharge electrode. Measurement of the optical emission spectrum was used to determine the vibrational ion temperature to be 3953 K. The observed spectrum consisted entirely of the second positive band of nitrogen.

The applied voltage range of 9 kV to 10 kV was observed to be optimum for domain growth in periodic poling. Poling uniformity of the 12 mm grating was optimized for an electrode to crystal spacing of 13 mm. Increasing the crystal temperature during poling reduces the required coercive field for domain inversion. This reduces the required applied voltage and also reduces the required poling time by increasing the domain-switching rate. Proton exchange pretreatment of the (+z) crystal surface prior to poling has been demonstrated to control domain spreading, however future efforts are required to ensure a more reliable nucleation condition.
Both high vacuum and spin coated photoresist function to increase electrical discrimination of anode grating and provide an improved nucleation condition for periodic poling of MgO-doped lithium niobate. Poling uniformity of the 12 mm grating was optimised for an electrode to crystal spacing of 13mm.

abstract: Thesis

abstract: Master of Applied Science (MASc)


title: GGH Cryptosystem and Lattice Reduction Algorithms

contributor:
Qiao, Sanzheng
Computing and Software

subject:
encrypting
top secret information
GGH cryptosystem
lattice

abstract:
The capability of encrypting top secret information remains as a major research problem in the GGH cryptosystem, which depends on various attacking methods. The early approaches to attacking the GGH cryptosystem mainly relied on special properties of the lattice generated by the vectors of the private key. Consequently, those attacks are not appropriate for general cases.

This thesis presents a GGH attacking method for general cases. A lattice basis reduction algorithm is applied to the public key to get a better basis, which is used to
decrypt the ciphertext. In the proposed approach, we concentrate on three lattice reduction algorithms: the LLL algorithm, the approximate optimally-reduced algorithm,
and the optimally-reduced algorithm. We have implemented a package in MATLAB for
the GGH cryptosystem and the three algorithms. We experimented with two groups of
experiments and obtained promising results for lattices of low dimensions.

abstract: Thesis

abstract: Master of Science (MSc)


title: A Comparison of the Concepts of Buddha-Nature and Dao-Nature of Medieval China

contributor:
Benn, James A.
Religious Studies

subject:
Buddha-nature
Dao-nature
Chinese Buddhism
Mahāyāna Buddhism
Medieval Chinese Buddhism

abstract: This thesis, a comparison of the concepts of buddha-nature and dao-nature in the medieval period (from the 5th to the 10th centuries) of China, presents a historical investigation of the formation of the idea that insentient things are able to possess buddha-nature in medieval Chinese Mahāyāna Buddhism. In Chinese Mahāyāna Buddhism, the concept of buddha-nature was originally defined as a potential possessed by sentient beings that enabled them to achieve buddhahood. From the 6th century, the concept was reinterpreted within the Chinese Buddhist tradition so that insentient things were also able to possess buddha-nature. Recent scholarship has pointed out that the idea of insentient things having buddha-nature is a combination of Buddhist and Daoist ideas based on the concept of the all-pervading Dao found in the Zhuangzi 莊子. In this sense, buddha-nature seems to be interpreted as equivalent with the Dao of Daoism. My project suggests that the reinterpretation of buddha-nature in association with the insentient realm should be elucidated in a more nuanced way than the idea of all-pervasiveness of the Dao. A historical, doctrinal investigation of the intellectual formation of the concept of buddha-nature in Chinese Mahāyāna Buddhism demonstrates a new interpretation of buddha-nature in the context of insentient things having buddha-nature. Further, through a historical investigation of intellectual exchange between Buddhism and Daoism, some evidence provided in this project illustrates that the idea of insentient things having dao-nature in Daoism was not inherited from Buddhism, but drawn from Daoist tradition. This new perspective is different from that of some contemporary scholars who have claimed that the idea of insentient things having dao-nature was borrowed from Chinese Buddhism. A chronological investigation of the discussion of nature in Chinese thought demonstrates that the idea of insentient things having buddha-nature incorporates earlier Daoist traditions found in Arcane Study.

abstract: Dissertation

abstract: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)


title: Extreme Vortex States and Singularity Formation in Incompressible Flows

contributor:
Protas, Bartosz
Mathematics and Statistics

subject:
Navier-Stokes equation
Blow-up problem
Enstrophy growth
Vortex rings

abstract:
One of the most prominent open problems in mathematical physics is determining whether
solutions to the incompressible three-dimensional (3D) Navier-Stokes system, corresponding
to arbitrarily large smooth initial data, remain regular for arbitrarily long times. A promising approach to this problem relies on the fact that both the smoothness of classical solutions and the uniqueness of weak solutions in 3D flows are ultimately controlled by the growth properties of the $H^1$ seminorm of the velocity field U, also known as the enstrophy.

In this context, the sharpness of analytic estimates for the instantaneous rate of growth of
the $H^2$ seminorm of U in two-dimensional (2D) flows, also known as palinstrophy, and for the instantaneous rate of growth of enstrophy in 3D flows, is assessed by numerically solving suitable constrained optimization problems. It is found that the instantaneous estimates for both 2D and 3D flows are saturated by highly localized vortex structures.

Moreover, finite-time estimates for the total growth of palinstrophy in 2D and enstrophy
in 3D are obtained from the corresponding instantaneous estimates and, by using the
(instantaneously) optimal vortex structures as initial conditions in the Navier-Stokes system
and numerically computing their time evolution, the finite-time estimates are found to be
uniformly sharp for 2D flows, and sharp over increasingly short time intervals for 3D flows.
Although computational in essence, these results indicate a possible route for finding an
extreme initial condition for the Navier-Stokes system that could lead to the formation
of a singularity in finite time.

abstract: Thesis

abstract: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)


title: The Influence of Human Facial and Vocal Features on Social Perceptions of Attractiveness, Dominance, and Leadership Ability

contributor:
Feinberg, David
Psychology

subject: face voice attractiveness dominance leadership masculine feminine pitch formant perception acoustic vote politics war peace

abstract: Research shows that human facial and vocal features influence social perceptions of attractiveness and dominance. In general, more feminine facial and vocal features are perceived as more attractive in women and more masculine facial and vocal features are perceived as more attractive in men. More masculine facial and vocal features are generally perceived as more dominant in both women and men. Given that attractiveness and dominance closely relate to inter- and intra-sexual selection, respectively, and that leaders can influence an individual’s fitness, humans likely possess evolved mechanisms for assessing leadership ability. Thus, in prior work, facial and vocal features have been related to perceptions of leadership ability. In this dissertation, I address three previously unanswered questions. First, how do vocal acoustics influence perceptions of leaders and voting preferences? Second, how do vocal acoustics influence perceptions of leaders in different social contexts? Third, how do different methods of stimuli presentation influence the results of studies on face and voice perception? Herein, I demonstrate that participants prefer to vote for lower pitched men’s voices, and that it is unclear precisely how women’s voice pitch influences voting preferences. I also show that the influence of voice pitch on perceptions of leaders depends on the social context. Third, I establish that several methods of stimuli presentation are equally valid to use in studies on face and voice perception. Overall, the studies in this dissertation demonstrate that facial and vocal features influence perceptions of attractiveness, dominance, and leadership ability in a potentially adaptive manner.

abstract: Thesis

abstract: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)


title: The Smc04388 omega amino transaminase from Sinorhizobium meliloti

contributor:
Finan, Turlough
Biology

subject:
Hydroxyproline catabolism
Sinorhizobium meliloti

abstract:
Hydroxyproline (trans-4-hydroxy-L-proline (4-L-Hyp)) can be used by certain microorganisms as a source of carbon and nitrogen. The nitrogen fixing bacterium, Sinorhizobium meliloti carries a cluster (hyp cluster) of 14 genes responsible for the transport and degradation of this amino acid in the cell. The biological functions of several gene products in the hyp cluster are still unknown. So far, it is known that the conversion of trans-4-hydroxy-proline to α-ketoglutarate, one of the intermediate of the TCA cycle, occurs in four enzymatic reactions.
The whole hyp cluster is up regulated in the presence of 4-hydroxy-proline in the media. Previous studies have shown several other 4-hydroxy-proline-inducible genes. One of these genes, smc04388, has been annotated as a putative omega amino transaminase. The role of this omega transaminase in the main catabolic pathway of 4-hydroxy-proline has not been investigated. In order to address this, two mutant strains; a single smc04388 mutant and a double smc04388 hypD mutant were created. Growth curves of these mutants in minimal media showed that the Smc04388 protein is not required for the growth of S. meliloti in the presence of trans-4-hydroxy-L-proline as the sole carbon and nitrogen source.
The Smc04388 protein was overexpressed as a Strep-tagged and purified from S. meliloti. The purified enzyme showed amino transaminase activity with pyruvate and α-methylbenzylamine. In addition, an enzymatic reaction using the product of the second enzyme of the 4-hydroxy-proline pathway, Δ1-pyrroline-4-hydroxy-2-carboxylate, was carried out to test the activity of Smc04388 with this compound.  Mass spectrometry analysis of this reaction mixture revealed the formation of L-alanine from pyruvate and Δ1-pyrroline-4-hydroxy-2-carboxylate, suggesting the utilization of this compound as an amino donor by the Smc04388 transaminase. It was also shown that transamination activity in cell extracts increase in the absence of Δ1-pyrroline-4-hydroxy-2-carboxylate deaminase, the enzyme that catalyzes the conversion of this compound in the 4-hydroxy-proline pathway. These results confirmed the hypothesis that the Smc04388 omega amino transaminase is involved in a secondary pathway related to the known catabolic pathway of 4-hydroxy-proline in bacteria. Further understanding of this secondary pathway will contribute to the study of the metabolism of 4-hydroxy-proline in bacteria. In addition to this, the complete characterization of the Smc04388 omega amino transaminase could have practical application in the pharmaceutical industry.

abstract: Thesis

abstract: Master of Science (MSc)


title: New Transition-State Optimization Methods By Carefully Selecting Appropriate Internal Coordinates

contributor:
Ayers, Paul W.
Chemistry and Chemical Biology

subject:
chemistry
quantum
computational chemistry
transition-state
theoretical-chemistry
optimization
internal coordinates

abstract: Geometry optimization is a key step in the computational modeling of chemical reactions because one cannot model a chemical reaction without first accurately determining the molecular structure, and electronic energy, of the reactants and products, along with the transition state that connects them. These structures are stationary points— the reactant and product structures are local minima, and the transition state is a saddle point with one negative-curvature direction—on the molecular potential energy surface. Over the years, many methods for locating these stationary points have been developed. In general, the problem of finding reactant and product structures is relatively straightforward, and reliable methods exist. Converging to transition states is much more challenging. Because of the difficulty of transition-state optimization, researchers have designed optimization methods specifically for this problem. These methods try to make good choices for the initial geometry, the system of coordinates used to represent the molecule, the initial Hessian, the Hessian updating method, and the step-size. The transition-state optimization method developed in this thesis required considering all of these methods. Specifically, a new method for finding an initial guess geometry was developed in chapter 2; good choices for a coordinate system for representing the molecule were explored in chapters 2 and 6; different choices for the initial Hessian are considered in chapter 5; chapters 3 and 4 present, and test, a sophisticated new method for updating the Hessian and controlling the step-size during the optimization. iv The methods created in the process of this research led to the development of Saddle, a general-purpose geometry optimizer for transition states and stable structures, with and without constraints on the molecular coordinates. Saddle can be run in conjunction with the Gaussian program or almost any other quantum chemistry program, and it converges significantly more often than the other traditional methods we tested.

abstract: Thesis

abstract: Doctor of Science  (PhD)


title: CLONAL EXPANSION OF THE PSEUDOGYMNOASCUS DESTRUCTANS GENOTYPE IN NORTH AMERICA IS ACCOMPANIED BY SIGNIFICANT VARIATION IN PHENOTYPIC EXPRESSION

contributor:
Xu, Jianping
Quinn, James S.
Biology

abstract: White-nose syndrome is an emerging infectious disease that first appeared in 2006. Since its emergence, it has caused over 5.5 million deaths of bats in North America. Pseudogymnoascus destructans, a psychrophilic fungus, is the causative agent of white-nose syndrome. White-nose syndrome is characterized by the growth of P. destructans on the nose, wings, and/or ears of the bat causing epidermal erosions and ulcers. Previous studies determined that the population of P. destructans in North America is clonal. However, no Canadian isolates of P. destructans were used. In this study, multilocus sequence typing and DNA fingerprinting was used to genotype 112 North American isolates. My results showed that the population in Canada had the same genotype as those from the US and there was also evidence of minor genetic variation in three Canadian isolates. Using 16 P. destructans isolates representative of various geographical locations in North America, significant phenotypic variations based on mycelial growth, production of exudates, and production of pigments and diffusion into agar media were observed. Overall, my results indicate a clonal genotype expansion of P. destructans throughout North America that is accompanied by significant phenotypic variation.

abstract: Thesis

abstract: Master of Science (MSc)


title: CONSTRUCTION OF HOLOGRAPHIC DUALS FOR QUANTUM FIELD THEORIES WITH GLOBAL SYMMETRIES FROM QUANTUM RENORMALIZATION GROUP

contributor:
Lee, Sung-Sik
Physics and Astronomy

subject: AdS/CFT

subject: Holography

subject: Renormalization Group

subject: Gauge field

subject: higher dimensions

subject: Elementary Particles and Fields and String Theory

subject: Physics

abstract: We present a method of quantum renormalization group, which makes it possible to construct a bulk theory for a general conformal field theory in the context of anti-de Sitter/conformal field theory correspondence. We demonstrate that within this method it is possible to construct scalar field theory in anti-de Sitter space. We also demonstrate that from a conformal field theory possessing global symmetry, it is possible to construct non-abelian gauge theory in anti-de Sitter space.

abstract: Thesis

abstract: Master of Science (MSc)


title: THE RELATIONSHIP OF THIGH MUSCLE COMPOSITION AND FAT WITH MUSCLE POWER AND PHYSICAL FUNCTION IN WOMEN WITH KNEE OSTEOARTHRITIS

contributor: Medical Sciences (Division of Physiology/Pharmacology)

subject: Osteoarthritis

subject: Quadriceps

subject: Hamstrings

subject: Fat

subject: Muscle

subject: Calf

subject: Medical Anatomy

subject: Medical Physiology

subject: Musculoskeletal, Neural, and Ocular Physiology

subject: Musculoskeletal System

subject: Rheumatology

abstract: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between thigh intramuscular fat (intraMF) and intermuscular fat (IMF) with quadriceps and hamstrings power and physical performance in women (n=20) with clinical, radiographic knee osteoarthritis (OA). Secondarily, we investigated the correlation between thigh and calf fat volumes, and the agreement between 3.0T and 1.0T MRI for quantifying fat. The thigh and calf of the symptomatic leg were scanned using 3.0T MRI with the IDEAL sequence, and fat separated images were analyzed using semi-automated software to quantify intraMF, IMF and muscle. The calf was also scanned using 1.0T MRI with a Fast Spin Echo (FSE) sequence. Knee extensor and flexor isokinetic power was measured at 20% and 40% of individuals’ maximum voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC) torque, and surface electromyography (EMG) measured activation. We found no relationship between quadriceps or hamstrings intraMF and knee extensor or flexor power, respectively. In addition, there were no relationships between intraMF and performance-based tests. There was a correlation between thigh and calf intraMF (r=0.759; p=0.001) and a trend toward a correlation in IMF (r=0.436; p=0.055). There was agreement and a correlation between calf intraMF (r=0.779; p=0.001) and IMF (r=0.956; p=0.001) using 3.0T and 1.0T MRI. There is disagreement about the relationship of intraMF and quadriceps strength, although studies have found that intraMF is related to decreased physical performance. The importance of calf fat subsets in physical performance of individuals with OA should be further investigated. Power analysis demonstrated a sample size (n=91) is recommended for future investigations of intraMF and power in OA.

abstract: Thesis

abstract: Master of Science in Medical Sciences (MSMS)


title: STUDY OF BLAST-INDUCED MILD TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY: LABORATORY SIMULATION OF BLAST SHOCK WAVES

contributor:
El-Dakhakhni, Wael W.
Gilani, Ammar
Biomedical Engineering

subject: Blast-induced mild traumatic brain injury; Biomechanics; Blast shock wave; Finite element analysis; Gel brain model; Intracranial pressure; Physical head and neck model; Shock tube

abstract:
Blast-induced mild traumatic brain injury (BImTBI) is one of the most common causes of traumatic brain injuries. BImTBI mechanisms are not well identified, as most previous blast-related studies were focused on the visible and fatal injuries. BImTBI is a hidden lesion and long-term escalation of related complications is considered a serious health care challenging due to lack of accurate data required for early diagnosis and intervention.
	The experimental studies presented in this thesis were performed to investigate aspects of blast shock wave mechanisms that might lead to mild traumatic brain injury. A compressed air-driven shock tube was designed and validated using finite element analysis (FEA) and experimental investigation. Two metal diaphragm types (steel and brass) with three thicknesses (0.127, 0.76, and 0.025mm) were utilized in the shock tube calibration experiment, as a new approach to generate shock wave. The consistency of generated shock waves was confirmed using a statistical assessment of the results by evaluating the shock waves parameters. The analysis results showed that the 0.127mm steel diaphragm induces a reliable shock waveform in the range of BImTB investigations.
	Evaluation of the shock wave impacts on the brain was examined using two sets of experiments. The first set was conducted using a gel brain model while the second set was performed using a physical head occupied with a gel brain model and supported by a neck model. The gel brain model in both the experimental studies was generated using silicone gel (Sylgard-527). The effects of tested models locations and orientations with respect to the shock tube exit were investigated by measuring the generated pressure wave within the brain model and acceleration. The results revealed that the pressure waveform and acceleration outcomes were greatly affected by the tested model orientations and locations in relation to the path of shock wave propagation.

abstract: Thesis

abstract: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)


title: Une lecture des Fleurs Bleues de Raymond Queneau

contributor:
Moyal, G.
French

subject:
Les Fleurs Bleues
mathématiques
les procédés linguistiques
implications symboliques
charpentes structurelles

abstract:
Cette thèse se propose de montrer comment Queneau, dans son roman Les Fleurs Bleues, utilise sa culture encyclopédique et son intérêt particulier pour les mathématiques afin de construire un objet fini, une architecture verbale où le hasard
entrerait peu ou prou.

Dans l'introduction, nous classifierons les procédés linguistiques ou structuraux utilisés par l'auteur dans ses romans antérieurs et nous nous fonderons sur cette grille
interprètationnelle théorique pour voir en quoi elle s'applique indubitablement aux Fleurs Bleues: c'est â dire étude du titre et de ses implications symboliques, recherche des différentes charpentes structurelles sur lesquelles s'appuie le roman, définition des Fleurs Bleues comme palimpseste historique et littéraire e t analyse des procédés langagiers. Nous terminerons notre mémoire en tentant de donner une
interprétation, mathématique et symbolique, globale de l'oeuvre.

abstract: Thesis

abstract: Master of Arts (MA)