title: Placing the Cardston Temple in Early Mormon Temple Architectural History

abstract: The Cardston temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints represents a drastic shift in temple architecture of the early Mormon faith. The modern granite structure was designed not to show a mere difference of aesthetic taste, but as an embodiment of the evolving relationship between the Mormon pioneers and the American government. Earlier temples, erected in the nineteenth century throughout the valleys of Utah, were constructed by Mormon pioneers at a time when the religious group desired to separate themselves from the United States physically, politically, and architecturally. When the temple was built in Cardston, Alberta (1913-1923), it was a radical departure from its medievalist predecessors in Utah. The selected proposal was a modern Prairie-school style building, a manifestation of Utah's recent interest in integrating into American society shortly after being admitted to the Union as a state in 1896.


title: Weightless: The Unbearable Lightness of Captivity

abstract: Prisons are designed with a heaviness, whilst punitive measures often wish and even legislate for a reforming lightness. The way these buildings have typically been designed in the past; in terms of aesthetics, planning, and materiality, clearly affect those incarcerated. This thesis takes the position that prisons need rethinking as Rehabilitation Centers; if we can determine a system is outdated, then we can admit to the necessity to re-conceptualize incarceration as an opportunity for growth and change. A weightless punishment? With access to archives and other material from Kingston Penitentiary, research will analyze and question incarceration, leading to an intervention project within the existing fabric that designs to reduce the consequences of the architecture upon mental health, specifically for PTSD. Only then perhaps can we speak of the unbearable lightness of captivity.


title: To Breach or Not to Breach: Exploring Inconsistencies in the Interpretation, Enforcement, and Impact of Canada's Section 161 Order for Sexual Offending

abstract: Community management strategies for people convicted of sexual offences (PCSOs) can hinder reintegration, which plays an important role in reducing recidivism. Section 161 of the Criminal Code is a prohibition order given to people convicted of sexual offences against children (PCSOCs) upon their release into the community. This study was the first to evaluate the 161 Order and explored inconsistencies in the interpretation and enforcement of these conditions among people subject to a 161 Order, community members, and undergraduates. Attitudes toward the treatment of PCSOs were found to mediate the relationship between group membership and subjective legal decision-making. Support for the conditions did not appear to moderate this relationship. Conditions most likely to be inconsistently enforced were also most commonly reported as impacting reintegration. Results suggest the need for more concrete terminology, and a re-evaluation of using long-term management strategies in a population with one of the lowest recidivism rates.


title: Claiming the Terrible Gift–A Post-TRC Investigation in Praxiological Museology

abstract: This thesis develops the curatorial pedagogy of the 'Terrible Gift', which was conceived by the late Roger I. Simon as a means of enabling more effective representations of difficult histories, but was never implemented in a major exhibition. As a ritual of bequest and inheritance enacted in exhibition, the Terrible Gift is intended to implicate visitors in the difficult histories and legacies that perpetuate iniquitous social conditions in the present, and, to obligate them in the necessity of an ethical response. In an effort to move the Terrible Gift toward realization, my research prepares Simon's pedagogy for implementation at a test site, the former Shingwauk Indian Residential School in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Building on the Reclaiming Shingwauk Hall exhibition, on which I have worked in the professional capacities of curator, designer, and project manager at the behest of the Survivor community, I propose a series of museal interventions with the 'terrible gifts', aspects of the site's evidentiary landscape, that remain to be gifted and claimed. Taking the form of praxiological museology-a critical, decentering, and deconstructive practice that aligns and draws on transdisciplinary knowledges and stimulates critical self-reflexive exhibition development-these interventions respond to the architectural, architectural, and mnemonic conditions of the site. Motivated in part by Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission's calls to reckon with the Indian residential school system, my research is intended to expand the repertoire of the New Museology toward engendering the conscientizing and reciprocal/recursive effects required to improve our prospects for a less violent future. To this end, my thesis (i) elucidates a procedure by which the Terrible Gift can be implemented as a curatorial pedagogy, (ii) compares museal reckonings with difficult histories and 'critical events' through the lens of gift and inheritance, eliciting promising practices, and (iii) develops a series of proposed interventions using methods of praxiological museology toward realizing the pedagogy of the Terrible Gift. Envisaged by Simon as a hopeful practice, wherein collective labour toward redemption is unhindered by its impossibility, the Terrible Gift, and indeed this research, recognizes reconciliation not as an end-state, but as an unending process of negotiation.


title: Water Allocation in Southern Alberta

abstract: This dissertation examines water allocation in southern Alberta and develops a fungibility framework for water rights and examines a range of characteristics impacting the transferability of water rights in southern Alberta. Fungibility is the degree to which water rights are homogenous. The fungibility of water rights is impacted by the number of different water rights within a given basin, the way these rights are defined, limitations on their transferability and how secure they are. Recognizing the characteristics that impact fungibility and ensuring water rights are as homogenous as possible makes these water rights easier to transfer between water users and may ensure a more effective water transfer system in southern Alberta. Even though water license transfers have been limited in terms of amount and volume, the total economic benefit from water use in the South Saskatchewan River Basin can increase through water reallocation. This dissertation illustrates how, without institutional constraints, basin-wide economic benefits could increase and shows what a potential reallocation of water allocations in the region looks like. This reallocation could see more water diverted to municipal users at the expense of agricultural users. Finally, the political influence of irrigators is examined. Efforts at reallocating water away from irrigation will be limited unless coalitions develop that can minimize the influence of irrigation's proponents.


title: The Global Charango

abstract: This thesis builds itself on the collected ethnographies of charango players living primarily in central European locations in the fall of 2018. Framed by discourses in new organology on the meaning of instruments, these accounts provide points of reference through which to examine the charango's contemporary presence and activity, and meaning in diasporic (European) fields. The written work of this thesis will tie together relevant historical developments, discourses, and vernacular associations of the charango to provide a textured backdrop to the ethnographic narratives. Together they will  enable the reader to better understand the meaning and trajectory of the charango and the music being made on it in the global intersections presented in this study as a kind of collectively assembled snapshot of a "global charango" as it presents in modern, foreign contexts.


title: AESMOTE: Adversarial Reinforcement Learning with SMOTE for Anomaly Detection

abstract: Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs) play a vital role in securing today's Data-Centric Networks. In a dynamic environment that is vulnerable to various types of attacks, novel, fast, and robust solutions are in demand to handle fast changing threats and thus the ever-increasing difficulty of detection . In this dissertation, we present a novel reinforcement learning based anomaly detection algorithm that further enables anomaly-based intrusion detection. Our proposed solution is developed based on AE-RL. An adapted SMOTE is introduced to address the data imbalance problem while remodel the behaviors of the environmental agent for better performance. Using techniques such as SMOTE, ROS, NearMiss1 and NearMiss2, performance measures obtained from our simulations have led us to recognize specific performance trends. The proposed model AESMOTE outperforms the original AE-RL in several cases. Experiment results show an Accuracy greater than 0.82 and F1 greater than 0.824.


title: Modelling and Control of Inverters in Single-Phase Nanogrid

abstract: Traditionally, a microgrid relies on electro-mechanical generators to achieve reliable and stable operations. With recent technical advancement in the fields of renewable energy and energy storage, a modern microgrid can operate autonomously with only inverter-based energy sources. While the three-phase microgrid has been extensively studied in recent years, the single-phase microgrid has been barely investigated. However, massive numbers of single-phase microgrids (or nanogrids in some references and this thesis) are now being deployed in conjunction with the introduction of electric vehicles (EVs) and household power generators (such as photovoltaic solar) to the 130 million single-phase consumers in North America. The lack of single-phase microgrid analysis represents a significant knowledge gap. The objective of this thesis is to advance the understanding of single-phase nanogrids consisting of both grid-supporting and grid-forming inverters. Three topics are covered in this thesis. • Integration of the EV in the nanogrid: a novel control and optimization strategy for On-board Battery Charger (OBC) is proposed. It is based on Direct Current Hysteretic Control (DCHC) with optimized switching patterns and dead time. The strategy can significantly reduce the switching losses of Silicon Carbide (SiC) based inverters. • A voltage control loop tuning approach for grid-forming inverters: by extending the Modulus Optimum algorithm to the stationary reference frame, the proposed approach provides a simple and reliable method when tuning the voltage control loop. • A systematic single-phase modelling methodology: a synchronous dq0 frame model of the single-phase inverters is developed. It allows the application of three phase stability analysis techniques/tools to single phase systems.


title: Soundscape: The Background City

abstract: Sound is a natural phenomenon shaped by time and space. Time affects a sound's pitch while the physical or built environment surrounding the sonic event directly influences its volume, clarity and its decay. Thus, architecture and sound form an inseparable bond. Soundscape - The Background City explores various soundscapes we encounter in our lives living in urban Ottawa though space and time. How are different soundscapes visualized and mapped to distinguish themselves from one another? Can they be enhanced, orchestrated or subdued to be better understood? As this transfers through to spatial production, the emerging project asks how the awareness and manipulation of daily soundscapes can be a catalyst towards sonic discovery in Ottawa's urban core. We explore how urban soundscapes, framed by architecture, affect an individual's experience of their surroundings, built or unbuilt.


title: Using Mobility for Agility: Enhancing Wireless Networks with Aerial Access Nodes and User Involvement

abstract: Considering numerous futuristic applications that will be enabled by wireless networks, one may wonder the essence of the next evolution in wireless networks. Recently, concepts and technologies such as polar codes, wireless network virtualization, millimeter wave communications, and non-orthogonal multiple access have emerged as new enablers. They provide promising solutions for significant problems by enhancing capacity, flexibility, and spectrum usage. However, they cannot address precisely the most needed new capability to handle diverse applications without relying on to gross over-engineering: Agility. This study proposes a new solution to dramatically improve agility without leaning on over-engineering: Using mobility for agility, where the inherent support of wireless networks for user terminal mobility is used to support the mobility of access points. In addition, we propose to influence the user demand in space and time to flexibly shape the network from both sink and source perspectives. We propose the spatial network configuration (SNC) scheme, which utilizes drone-base- stations (drone-BSs) to re-configure topology of access points, and user-in-the-loop (UIL) to influence demand of users. Drone-BSs are shifting paradigms of heterogeneous wireless networks by providing radically flexible deployment opportunities. On the other hand, their limited endurance and potential high cost increase the importance of utilizing drone-BSs efficiently. Therefore, we thoroughly investigate efficient utilization of drone- BSs from placement methods to refinements on air-to-ground channel modelling. To further exploit drone-BSs, we influence locations of users via the UIL method, which aims at influencing mobility of the users by offering incentives. Finally, we investigate the SNC scheme with a holistic approach and propose the drone management framework. We show that the integration methods severely affect the network performance when wireless access virtualization is applied. Furthermore, we survey the latest developments in 3GPP 5G Release-16 standardization to discuss the capabilities and shortcomings of current and prospective wireless networks to integrate drone-BSs efficiently. All in all, this study shows that it is time to re-imagine future wireless networks in three dimensions.


title: John Boyle, Greg Curnoe and Joyce Wieland: Erotic Art and English Canadian Nationalism

abstract: This dissertation concerns the relation between eroticism and nationalism in the work of a set of English Canadian artists in the mid-1960s-70s, namely John Boyle, Greg Curnoe, and Joyce Wieland. It contends that within their bodies of work there are ways of imagining nationalism and eroticism that are formally or conceptually interrelated, either by strategy or figuration, and at times indistinguishable. This was evident in the content of their work, in the models that they established for interpreting it and present in more and less overt forms in some of the ways of imagining an English Canadian nationalism that surrounded them. The three artists are contextualized in the terms of erotic art prevalent in the twentieth century and makes a case for them as part of a uniquely Canadian mode of decadence. Constructing my argument largely from the published and unpublished writing of the three subjects and how these played against their reception, I have attempted to elaborate their artistic models and processes, as well as their understandings of eroticism and nationalism, situating them within the discourses on English Canadian nationalism and its potentially morbid prospects. The artistic material discussed consistently revels in irony, negativity, sarcasm and parody, treating abstraction, politics, and pornography on exchangeable footing and frequently mocks or derides the sociological value of art while simultaneously positing itself as a nationalist art. For these three artists, nationalism was paradoxically conceived not so much as the affirmation of a living community but of its deadness, noting its irreality, celebrating its destruction, or satirizing whatever values it could claim. In Curnoe and Boyle, art was a radical materiality that denied any privilege to meaning or experience, denigrated the value of the viewer, perverted a rational sense of representation, effectively treating the subject as another machine for processing matter and refusing it narrative substance. Meanwhile, Wieland created a hyper-symbolic mode of imagining the world that derided the subject and their phenomenal life as little more than excrement and treated the symbol or stereotype as the vessel of a holy transcendent reality.


title: The Molecular Biology of Dehydration Tolerance: Regulation of Gene Expression and Function in Xenopus Laevis

abstract: The African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis, has been used as a model organism for cellular and developmental biology for nearly a century. Comparatively unstudied is its natural tolerance to dehydration brought about by seasonal drought evaporating its aquatic habitats. To survive the loss of >30% body water content, these animals employ several tissue-specific adaptations ranging from switching to ureotelism to relying on anaerobic metabolism as oxygen transport decreases with increased blood viscosity. Previous studies have indicated dehydration responsive gene expression and function is regulated with multiple mechanisms. In this thesis I further establish X. laevis as a dehydration tolerance model organism by determining suitable RT-qPCR reference genes in eight tissues. I then investigate regulatory mechanisms capable of large-scale regulation, namely, DNA methylation and histone modifications, microRNA, and reversible protein phosphorylation. Global levels of epigenetic marks showed little response to dehydration apart from increased 5hmC and decreased H3K4me in the liver, suggestive of epigenetic reprogramming. MicroRNAs, which are short RNAs that negatively regulate translation of specific mRNAs, were then examined in the heart. This analysis revealed a trend of downregulation during dehydration, and the enrichment of several important pathways including cardiac muscle contraction and glycolysis and gluconeogenesis. Particularly telling is the near uniform prediction of decreased regulation of all glycolytic enzyme transcripts that may support increased anaerobic glycolysis capacity during dehydration. Next, I analyzed the liver and skeletal muscle phosphoproteomes during dehydration and found a strong and concerted response by the liver and not muscle. Also emerging from the data was the significant upregulation and phosphorylation of a hypoxia inducible PFKFB isozyme in the liver known to support glycolysis in many cancers. Together these results significantly advance our understanding of the molecular biology of dehydration tolerance and provide multiple clear directions for future studies.


title: Layers: Lac Leamy + LeBreton Flats

abstract: This thesis explores cut and fill operations to create an occupiable archive of LeBreton Flats' intertwined industrial and environmental histories. Employing visualization techniques which draw historical elements into dialogue, the thesis develops a method for understanding the cut and fill operations and flow formations which have shaped the region since the turn of the 19th century. The thesis envisions a reflective landscape for LeBreton Flats, which currently sits as a vacant brownfield west of the parliamentary precinct in Ottawa, Canada's capital city. This project uses time-based studies and sectional and layered drawings to question the perception of impermeable boundaries between land and water. Translation of the dynamic qualities of the site to a tangible scale is achieved through a series of constructions embedded within a reimagined landscape. These constructions provide frameworks through which temporal processes of environmental fluctuation and human control are rendered visible and accessible.


title: Off the Field: Reimagining Sport, Community, and Landscape at Polo Park, Winnipeg

abstract: Throughout history, sports have played a fundamental role in shaping and reshaping how societies forge a lasting sense of cultural belonging. Physical culture in the development of the modern city has developed both the structure of civic consciousness and the processes of urbanization. Architecture as a vessel of collectivity has been central to the public exercise of sport in the city. Off the field imagines the re-appropriation of an urban stretch of Omand's Creek, which once meandered through Polo Park in Winnipeg, Manitoba. What was formerly an area dedicated to physical activity and appreciated for its natural landscape, is now a regional shopping district covered in concrete parking lots. The relationship between humans and nature is explored through the physical separation between each other and the outdoors. The project responds to the needs of the site by restoring the urbanized stretch to the diverse recreational landscape it once was.


title: Ambivalence in the Leader-Follower Relationship: Dispositional Antecedents and Effects on Work-Related Well-Being

abstract: Although ambivalence is a long-standing topic of interest in the social sciences, leader-member exchange (LMX) ambivalence and other measures of ambivalence in work settings have only recently attracted attention in the Management literature. To enhance our understanding of the nature of LMX ambivalence, this research investigated specific dispositional antecedents of LMX ambivalence, and whether and how it may influence employee work-related well-being. Using a two-wave design, survey data were collected from employees and their supervisors in a large public organization. Results revealed that specific personality traits, including both supervisor dominance- and prestige-seeking and employee hostility, were significant predictors of LMX ambivalence. Furthermore, LMX ambivalence was found to be significantly associated with two focal measures of work-related well-being: work engagement and emotional exhaustion. Moderated mediation analyses indicated that these relationships were mediated by employee psychological need fulfillment; however, these effects were contingent on two moderating factors - employee collectivism, and perceived meaning in one's work. Overall, these results suggest that supervisor and subordinate dispositional characteristics may contribute to the development of LMX ambivalence. Moreover, complementing previous work (Lee et al., 2019), these findings signal that LMX ambivalence contributes unique variance in predicting employee key work outcomes beyond traditional operationalizations of LMX. Further research is needed testing the nomological net surrounding LMX ambivalence, and when and how LMX ambivalence affects different employee attitudes and behaviors.


title: Using Smart and Secret Sharing for Enhanced Authorized Access to Medical Data in Blockchain

abstract: In this thesis, we analyze the challenges of using and sharing electronic health information exchange (HIE) in hospitals and clinics. In Canada, there is a lack of HIE platforms that provide interoperability for hospitals and other medical institutions across the country. In this research, we explore a potential use case of utilizing blockchain technology as a tool to facilitate better HIE between users involving patients, doctors, and researchers. Our proposed proof-of-concept evaluates the impact of using and implementing smart contracts to assist in automating the digital identity and access management of medical data via the use of public-key cryptography. In addition, we apply Shamir's secret sharing scheme by distributing the public keys of users to safeguard better the identities and data of users in our system. We evaluate our proposed solution in the context of scalability, complexity, and efficiency, as well as comparing our approach to other blockchain-based healthcare solutions.


title: Naming Place in Kanyen’kéha: A Study Using the O’nonna Three-Sided Model

abstract: Human interactions with place are the stuff of life and aspects of place such as landscape and environment have shaped human activity since activity could be considered "human". Why and how we choose to name place, as well as which places are named or nameless provides insight into many of the different aspects of life, from knowledge of resources of the area, navigational information, and knowledge of significant events in the vicinity (Afable and Beeler, 1996, Stewart, 1975) to the movement of people across a landscape, their value systems, and even spirituality. Furthermore, recent work by Levinson, Burenhult, Mark and others demonstrates that the division of landscape is not universal, but rather is shaped by linguistic and cultural practices. Some place names encode these differing views of the delineation of landscape. This dissertation argues that place names lie at the intersection of landscape, language and culture and outlines a new interdisciplinary philosophical framework and methodology for their study which draws from the fields of linguistics, geography and anthropology for their examination. Together with members of the Kanyen'kehá:ka, this framework and methodology, called the O'nonna Three-Sided Model, are used to explore the relationship of the Kanyen'kehá:ka to their landscape. In analyzing the meaning of the lexical semantics of Kanyen'kéha place names, patterns emerge which provide insight into Kanyen'kehá:ka geography and culture. In the discussion, I demonstrate how these patterns can be viewed in different ways demonstrating why the three components of language, landscape and culture are vital to form a holistic picture of the way that people name place. Patterns also emerge in the grammar of place names and I show how close examination of these patterns, and the linguistic mechanisms used to describe place, may lead to surprising conclusions that may not have been obvious at first glance. Finally, I show how the dual components of meaning and grammar of place names provide insight into cognition, linguistic relativity and the universality of the human experience. Keywords: place names, Kanyen'kéha, Mohawk, ethnophysiography


title: In Hot Water: A Lobster Tale

abstract: This thesis is a speculative form of survival through adaptation for both humans and lobsters in the rural, coastal site of Arisaig, Nova Scotia. By hybridizing buildings, infrastructure, and landscape that support the industries of lobster fishing and tourism, the symbiotic relationship between humans and lobsters becomes apparent, through cycles of seasons, lobster growth, and human activity. What does it look like if these cycles are adapted due to rising water temperatures as a result of climate change? How do we adapt to enable survival of lobsters, and lobster fishing? Fisheries, tourism, and culture are separate, yet interconnected elements of rural coastal life, where industry not only is economic, but also ingrained in the culture of the place. This triad forms the basis of investigation of this thesis. The result is a synthesis of layers of interconnectivity of industries and species that work together to nurture survival of each other.


title: Perfect Self-Interference Cancellation in Channel-Unaware Two-Way Relay Networks

abstract: In cooperative communications, some nodes act as relays to assist other nodes to transmit their information. Relay technology extends radio range by processing wireless signals between the transmitter and the receiver. Relay networks can be classified into two categories: one-way relay networks (OWRNs) and two-way relay networks (TWRNs). We focus on channel-unaware TWRNs. Since in TWRNs both nodes transmit at the same time, the received signal at each relay contains messages originating from both nodes. The combination of the two messages is processed and broadcast from each relay. Consequently, each node receives not only the desired signal sent from the other node but also an SI component sent from the same node in the previous phase. The existence of SI has a deleterious effect on the system performance, and hence must be cancelled prior to detection. SI cancellation depends on CSI availability at the nodes. When perfect CSI is available its cancellation is straightforward. However, the main challenge in TWRNs is to cancel SI perfectly when no CSI available at either the nodes or the relays. Several approaches for mitigating the effect of SI in channel-unaware TWRNs have been proposed in the literature. These proposed schemes rely on CSI, SI or noise estimation which result in estimation error, imperfect SI cancellation and error propagation. In order to overcome the aforementioned drawbacks, we develop a novel relaying scheme for channel-unaware TWRNs with multiple-antenna half-duplex (HD) amplify-and-forward (AF) relays. This scheme enables the self-interference to be cancelled perfectly by joint space-time processing of the relay received signals. To overcome the restriction of having even number of active antennas at each relay, we developed another new signalling scheme that enables self-interference to be perfectly cancelled in the absence of CSI when HF AF relays have a single antenna each. This scheme relies on mode-switching technique.To analyze the effectiveness of the proposed schemes, we derive upper bounds on the pairwise error probability. Using these upper bounds, we compare two schemes and provided a nonintuitive fact that increasing the number of relays and using SP(2) code does not necessarily yield better performance than using less relays with the Alamouti code.


title: Factors influencing infectious agent communities and infection burden in free-ranging migratory adult salmonids across Canada

abstract: While the importance of disease-induced mortality in wild fish populations has been purported, little research has investigated infectious agent dynamics in free-ranging fishes. The objective of this thesis was to investigate host-pathogen dynamics in three ecologically, culturally, and economically important salmonid species to characterize biological and environmental factors that mediate host response and survival associated with relative infection burden (RIB). To achieve this goal, a synthesis of the current state of wild fish epidemiology was conducted, with a focus on novel genomic techniques and ways in which they can be used to complement commonly employed fisheries field methods. High throughput qPCR and non-lethal gill biopsies were then used in three separate field studies to investigate RIB of microbial infectious agents and genetic biomarkers of host condition. To characterize the transcriptomic response of a long-lived, iteroparous salmonid to infectious agents and investigate the potential for invasive pathogens in Arctic waters, Arctic char from three separate populations were sampled during the fall migration, revealing site-specific differences in pathogen species richness and RIB, and provided new records for detection of likely endemic infectious agents. To investigate the influence of high water temperatures, Atlantic salmon were experimentally displaced downstream of a barrier and periodically sampled to track changes in infectious agent prevalence, relative infection burden, and host response over a 32 day period. Here, river temperature was significantly related to stress and immune biomarkers, while RIB was negatively associated with body condition. Finally, radio telemetry was used to track post-release survival and behaviour of coho salmon exposed to experimental fisheries stressors to characterize interactions between fisheries stress, host condition, and RIB. Fishery treatment and RIB were not associated with survival, however relative infection burden was associated with post-release behaviour in that high RIB began up-river migration post-release sooner than fish with lower RIB. The duration of handling alone was significantly related to mortality irrespective of fisheries treatment. Together, these findings demonstrate the diversity of factors associated with infectious agent communities and host response, and provide valuable information for the ongoing monitoring and investigation of wild salmonids.


title: Escaping the Asylum: Reimagining the Architecture of Psychiatric Care

abstract: While most individuals with mental illness currently receive treatment in the community, dedicated psychiatric care facilities are critical spaces for those in crisis. Yet their low tolerance for risk mandates that architecture must anticipate and mitigate instances of patient violence, self-harm, and escape. However, by designing for the most at-risk patient, the architect presumes the same likelihood of risk for all patients, often leading to reductive and uninspired spaces. In psychiatric care, the architectural environment can enhance or undermine patient wellness, staff interactions, and even public perception. To contribute to redefining the mandate of architecture in this context, this thesis proposes a catalogue of architectural details that seek to prioritize patient well-being and facilitate therapeutic interactions while remaining safe and appropriate for those in psychiatric crisis. These details are then situated within proposed renovations of Psychiatric Emergency Services (PES) at The Ottawa Hospital.


title: Revisiting the Contemporary Flow of Influence in Political Marketing

abstract: This dissertation examines the extent to which the flow of influence and innovation between commercial and political marketers is bidirectional and operating as a feedback loop rather than merely being a unidirectional flow from commercial to political marketers as is commonly assumed in the political marketing literature. It uses in-depth elite interviews to examine that subject matter and those interviews are also used to answer three research questions: First, to what extent is political marketing influencing the practice of commercial marketing? Second, how have changes in marketing strategies and technology impacted both political and commercial marketing? Third, what are the likely consequences of the relationship between political marketing and commercial marketing? With these research questions in mind, analysis focuses on two broad areas that exemplify the bidirectional flow of influence and innovation being sought for: marketing and technology.


title: Establishing and Pushing the Knowledge Boundaries of Electroimmobilization in Fisheries Science

abstract: Researchers and fisheries professionals must handle fish while considering the safety and welfare of both fish and handler. Pharmaceuticals have long been used during fish handling procedures (e.g. surgeries), but have drawbacks such as the inability to immediately release wild fish post-exposure. The use of electricity to immobilize fish ("electroimmobilization") is a viable and effective alternative, yet its novelty comes with difficulties for its formal incorporation into animal care guidelines. I provide the first review of the electroimmobilization, synthesizing current knowledge, gaps, and future directions. I then use an experimental approach to address whether pharmaceuticals may be beneficial when applied in conjunction with electroimmobilization. I found that fish electroimmobilized during a short-term surgical procedure did not benefit from the application of a local analgesic to the surgery site. Overall, much evidence exists to support the use of electroimmobilization instead of pharmaceuticals, but many questions still remain unanswered.


title: INTERSTICITY: A speculative re-mapping of Toronto’s laneways

abstract: Toronto is home to twenty-five hundred laneway passages that form a network of fragmented spaces, making up a large portion of the city's circulation infrastructure. While primary roadways are likened to arteries, laneways are considered capillaries; unconscious passages that perform a supporting function within the city. With such a dense population of laneway conditions interspersed throughout Toronto it is apparent that they expose an equally fascinating ontological condition in their urban typology. With recent attention directed towards revitalizing laneway environments in Toronto, it becomes necessary to explore their present conditions and qualities in order to speculate on their stance in the future. InterstiCity proposes Toronto's laneways as a third city; an entity independent from but bound between public spaces and private limits. This thesis re-maps Toronto's interstitial spaces, establishing a critique of current revitalization strategies, while simultaneously revealing the rich identity of Toronto hidden in the history of its laneways.


title: Operational performance benchmarking for commercial buildings by using text analytics on work order logs and tenant survey data

abstract: Operational performance metrics are necessary to detect anomalous floors, equipment, and work-order categories in large commercial buildings. To this end, this thesis presents a method to extract operational performance metrics from computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS) and text-based tenant surveys. The method was demonstrated by using work-order logs and text-based tenant survey data gathered from four large commercial buildings in Ottawa, Canada. The analysis of CMMS data highlights the potential of decision trees, Sankey diagrams and association node networks to effectively visualize anomalies in building complaint patterns. Investigation of the text-based tenant surveys using established text analytics algorithms reveals that classifiers are more accurate for sentiment analysis than lexicon-based methods while both association rule mining and topic modelling algorithms successfully uncover key operational insights. Finally, a software tool mock-up was developed that combines the most impactful elements from previous work for building owners to visualize complaint patterns and maintenance workflows.


title: The Development of the Chicken Skull and the Histology of Some of its Sutures

abstract: The use of differing definitions of homology has led to controversies about the identity of bony elements in vertebrate skulls. An example is the controversy concerning the identity of the avian frontal, which has been assigned that name based on its location and shape. However, developmentally, it has been suggested to be a fusion of the frontal and parietal (i.e. frontoparietal). To assist in resolving this controversy, a search for a suture in the gap between the two ossification centres of the chicken's frontal was attempted. The production of a staging table of the chicken skull revealed a putative suture would be found between stages HH36 and 37. Histological examination of the developing frontal failed to find any evidence of a frontal-parietal suture, leading to the conclusion that the avian frontal is a single element formed from two ossification centers and is not a frontoparietal.


title: Does quality matter? An evaluation of the relationship between United Nations peacekeepers and civil war violence

abstract: Why are some groups of peacekeepers more effective at managing civil war violence than others? Existing studies of operational effectiveness have focused on the quantity, profession, and geographic location of deployed personnel and have suggested that each of these is independently important. However, the relationship, if any, between the quality of UN peacekeepers and their ability to manage on-going violence remains critically understudied. To address this gap, this study begins by developing a novel definition of "peacekeeper quality" that consists of two key factors: professional capabilities and a willingness to act. It then evaluates the extent to which variation in peacekeeper quality contributes to operational effectiveness, at both the state-level and the local-level. I argue that higher quality peacekeepers are more effective than lower quality peacekeepers because they have an easier time coercing local conflict actors. To test this argument, I use an explanatory sequential methodology - a form of mixed method research that uses qualitative data to help interpret the results of a primarily quantitative study. It starts with a cross-national analysis of all intrastate conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa from 1991-2017 to determine if variation in average operational quality affects the severity of violence at the state-level. It then proceeds to a geographically disaggregated analysis of three peacekeeping operations located in sub-Saharan Africa from 2010-2017 to determine if variation in the average quality of individual groups of peacekeepers affects the severity of violence at the local-level. Finally, it presents a process tracing case study of MINUSCA's intervention in CAR from 2014-2018 that examines both overall trends and discrete conflict episodes. In short, this dissertation shows how and why peacekeeper quality matters. Specifically, it shows that the UN's highest quality peacekeepers are its most effective, that the quantity of peacekeepers continues to affect violence when controlling for quality and that peacekeepers are better at protecting civilians from harm than they are at managing battlefield violence. As a result, future attempts to evaluate the relationship between peacekeepers and violence, or to improve the UN's operational effectiveness, should also account for the role played by peacekeeper quality.


title: Development of Canada’s Temporary Foreign Workers Program Since 1990

abstract: As the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) has evolved into a fixed feature of Canada's economic immigration landscape, extensive scholarship has examined its outcomes, especially the program's impact on migrants. The scholarship, however, has failed to analyze the TFWP itself. Through a content analysis of government documents, this research fills this gap by investigating how the TFWP itself and the surrounding environment have influenced the program's development since 1990. Guided by Mahoney and Thelen's (2010) "Theory of Institutional Gradual Change" and Brenner and Theodore's (2002) "Actually Existing Neoliberalism", the analysis of the TFWP's objective, rules, and structure resulted in the illumination of the development process and the significance of internal and external factors. It was found the TFWP developed gradually through the mode of layering and that this process was influenced by its existing framework and the social-economic-political environment.


title: Thread Homeostasis - Real-Time Anomalous Behavior Detection Using Short Sequences of Messages for Safety-Critical Software

abstract: Safety-critical systems must always have predictable and reliable behavior, otherwise systems fail and lives are put at risk. Even with the most rigorous testing it is impossible to test systems using all possible inputs. Anomaly detection has been proposed as a technique for improving the fault tolerance of safety-critical systems. Past work, however, has been largely limited to behavioral parameter thresholds that miss many kinds of system deviations. Here we propose a novel approach to anomaly detection in fault-tolerant safety critical systems using patterns of messages between threads. This approach is based on techniques originally developed for detecting security violations on systems with UNIX-like system call APIs; here we show that they can be adapted to the constraints of safety critical microkernel-based hard real-time systems. We present the design, implementation, and initial evaluation of tH (thread Homeostasis) implemented on a QNX-based self-driving car platform.


title: Preschoolers' Saving Performance: The Role of Budgeting and Psychological Distance

abstract: The current study explored how creating a budget for oneself versus another might improve preschoolers' saving performance. Children were given tokens to purchase later available more-preferred prizes instead of spending them on immediately available less-preferred prizes. N=75 three- to five-year-olds were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: Baseline, Budgeting-Self, or Budgeting-Other. Children completed a general planning task, a Theory of Mind Scale, and a general language ability measure. Children saved significantly more tokens in the Budgeting-Other condition compared to Baseline, p = .001. More children were Savers (saved at least one token) in the budgeting conditions compared to Baseline, p =.001; however, the proportion of savers did not differ between budgeting conditions. Children who were Planners (budgeted at least one token) were more likely to be Savers, p =.009. The other cognitive measures were not significant predictors of saving.


title: MGluR5 Modulation Effect on Protein Degradation in Parkinson's Disease

abstract: Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease that is characterized by motor symptoms and dysregulation of the dopaminergic system. One of the main hallmarks of PD is abnormal alpha-synuclein (a-syn) aggregation. In our experiment a-syn fibrils and A53T adenovirus will be added to SH-SY5Y cells to mimic PD conditions of protein aggregation and overexpression. This thesis investigates the possibility of clearing a-syn fibrils from SH-SY5Y cells using an allosteric mGluR5 inhibitor, CTEP. We found that CTEP contributed to significant elimination of a-syn fibrils form SH-SY5Y cells. Assessment of AKT/mTOR pathway has shown that CTEP action is mTOR dependent. Additionally, we found a significant upregulation of autophagy system components, such as Beclin1, Atg5-Atg12 complex, Atg7, Atg101 and Atg3, and significant downregulation of inhibitory pULK1 in response to CTEP administration. We conclude that CTEP is a useful pharmacological agent in managing abnormal a-syn aggregation.


title: CALPHAD Based Cellular Model of Dendrite Growth in Welds

abstract: A computational model of dendritic growth based on the CALPHAD thermodynamic model was developed in this study. The dendrite growth was simulated using cellular automata (CA) with the equilibrium conditions in interfacial cells. The developed novel model (CA-CALPHAD) overcomes the current limitation of the published CA models, in which linearized phase diagrams are used, and allows for the investigation of some practical alloys such as stainless steels. To reduce the computational time, the study proposes a specific data structure to store the thermodynamic information and an efficient interpolation scheme to retrieve the information during the simulation. The model takes into account the curvature effect of the evolving solid/liquid (S/L) interface by incorporating the capillarity undercooling into the thermodynamic information during the simulation. The finite volume (FV) numerical scheme was used to solve the mass and heat diffusion equations. The developed CA-CALPHAD model can be used to investigate the free growth, constrained growth, and competitive growth of dendrites in response to different solidification parameters. The results of modeling include the dendrite morphology, dendrite size, solute segregation in the dendrite, dendrite growth rate, dendrite tip radius, and the spacing between primary and secondary dendritic arms. Finally, a procedure of linking the developed CA-CALPHAD model to a computational welding mechanics tool (CWM) was developed producing a holistic multiphysics model (CWM-CA-CALPHAD). Therefore, the model can be used to predict the microstructure of a weld in response to realistic welding parameters and weld joints design.


title: An Exploration of the Colonial Impacts of the Indian Act on Indigenous Women in Canada

abstract: This dissertation explores the impacts of the Indian Act on Indigenous women in Canada. Indigenous women saw their identities as leaders and matriarchs mediated through colonial legislation that deemed them "less Indian" than their male counterparts. Paternalistic policies against Indigenous women were internalized by Indigenous communities, resulting in high rates of abuse and inequality today. Indigenous women are reclaiming their rights through Court cases that challenge gender-discriminatory Indian Act provisions, including the Descheneaux case, which challenged Canada to address the discrimination and sexism disproportionately affecting Indigenous women. However, Canada continues to define Indian Status based on historic colonial legislation such as the Gradual Enfranchisement Act of 1869. Individuals with ancestors that lost status before 1869 are not recognized as Indians in Canada. Indigenous peoples continue to be imprisoned by colonial policies regarding their identity, disproportionately affecting Indigenous women as they have never had equal status provisions under the Indian Act.


title: Deportability, Labour and Health in Canada’s Late Capitalism

abstract: This dissertation explores the political economy of the physical and mental illnesses that the migrant workers experience while living and working under conditions of illegality in Canada's late capitalism. The dissertation is divided into three parts. The first part locates four social determinants of health underpinning the structural vulnerability to which the Latin American undocumented workers are subjected in this particular context. The second part describes the mental and physical health illnesses that the undocumented workers develop while living and working in Canada without authorization, according to the type of industry they work in (1.—Multinational Corporations, 2.—Medium-size local industries and 3.—Underground workers' cooperatives) and to the type of work they do. The empirical evidence illustrates that the undocumented immigrants who work for medium-size local enterprises, those who have been affected by deportability and deportation, as well as those who lost their legal status after being engaged in refugee claimant applications, are more likely to develop the most dramatic forms of physical and mental health diseases, all linked to what is called here "short- term historical trauma." In contrast, undocumented workers who work for underground workers' cooperatives are more likely to report better physical and mental health outcomes. Cooperative labour, free time and social solidarity make this possible. Overall, this thesis indicates that --as explored in part three-- under the social conditions organized by late capitalism, social solidarity and engagement in non-waged cooperative labour constitute social mechanisms by which undocumented migrants can access to forms of refuge, care, solidarity and social recognition that partially emancipate them from illnesses, suffering and social death. This thesis is based on an ethnographic work that I carried out over 24 months in Montreal. During that period of time, I worked side by side with Latin American undocumented workers in slaughterhouses and meatpacking factories, construction and home renovation companies, employment agencies, and as industrial cleaner for multinational corporations, spaces where I carried out direct empirical observation in the points of production and conducted 47 in-depth interviews on illegality, labor and health. I also conducted ethnographic work in hospitals and deportation centers.


title: The South African War (1899-1902) and the Transperipheral Production of Canadian Literatures

abstract: This dissertation explores the South African War (1899-1902) and Canadian literary production. I examine newspapers, periodicals, and books published during and shortly after the War to argue that early articulations of Canadian identity, settler colonial discourses of whiteness and gender, and ideas about national literature were informed by Canada's participation in a conflict in a distant settler colony. In chapter one, I study how the Canadian Magazine produced a nationally-identifiable image of the volunteer soldier and the mounted policeman. This construction of the soldier occurred when the emergence of a "modern realism" in literature was debated. In this period often characterized by romantic nationalist discourse, I identify a contiguous materialization of a form of realism in the pages of the Canadian Magazine, as editors and writers portrayed the War. In chapter two, I turn to the understudied participation of forty Canadian school teachers in War internment camps and reveal how the women were constructed as models of Canadian femininity through national media coverage. I study E. Maud Graham's writing and recuperate uncollected letters by Florence Randal Livesay to argue that their narratives, rather than benevolent feminized observations, enacted a settler femininity that was not simply British, but British Canadian. In the final two chapters, I trace how the War occupies a complicated place in an ambivalent literary memory. I examine fiction by Gilbert Parker, Stephen Leacock, and Sara Jeannette Duncan. Parker's imperial romance centring Britain is a model that Leacock and Duncan resist; they use the romance as a foundational genre to represent Canadian experience in a triangulated relationship with South Africa and Britain. I trouble Leacock's representation of South Africa as a romantic space that exposes, by contradictorily silencing, criticism of war and settler violence. I reveal how Duncan depicts Canadian experience as resisting the lingering effects of martial imperialism in order to centre women in future imperial projects. I argue that the settler race-making enacted in the texts I examine depends on an emergent realism that, produced by the discursive and material transperipheral connections of the War period, registers the insufficiency of the romance and its binary structures.


title: Improved Arterial Input Function For Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging Using Phase and T1 Measurements

abstract: Perfusion is a bodily function that describes the transport of blood and nutrients to an organ. If characteristics of the blood flow to an organ can be measured, clinically useful quantitative data about the organ can be obtained. This is particularly useful in the diagnosis of tumours as their rapid and poorly-formed capillary network is unique compared to healthy tissue. Tumour perfusion information can be obtained by performing Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced (DCE)-MRI. Using DCE-MRI, blood flow into a tumour from a nearby artery can be computed by measuring the concentration of an injected contrast agent as a function of time. This measurement, known as the arterial input function (AIF), can be computed based on the change of either the intensity or the phase of the MR signal from the blood, due to the presence of a contrast agent. While both methods can be used to acquire the AIF, the change in phase is preferred due to its superior accuracy. Even so, the method conventionally used to obtain the phase-derived AIF has deficiencies that lead to an AIF intensity overestimation. The goal of this thesis was to determine a better method to obtain AIF data for patients with brain tumours by using a combination of MR signal phase and accurate T1 relaxation measurements. This was done by first characterizing and deriving equations for phase measurement errors and simulating these effects on the AIF using realistic, clinical parameters. T1 measurement methodology was developed and validated in static-water phantoms and applied to a flowing-water phantom system on which phase AIF data were also acquired. The novel AIF method was tested on this system before it was applied clinically to patients diagnosed with high-grade gliomas. The differences between the quantitative perfusion parameters from the new method and previous AIF methods were compared. The novel AIF measurement method presented in this thesis was designed to be less prone to experimental error than current clinical methods. Theoretical predictions, computed simulations, experimental work with MRI test objects, and clinical results all show that the new method for measuring the AIF is significantly superior to procedures currently used clinically.


title: Assessing Tradeoffs Between Solar Thermal and Wind Energy Integration in an Isolated Community Electrical-Thermal Grid

abstract: Remote Northern communities in Canada suffer from unreliable access to energy. These largely indigenous communities derive their energy from costly, non-renewable fossil fuel-powered electricity generators and space heaters. To address these issues, a mix of thermal and electrical generation options powered from wind and solar can be employed to serve a remote community's energy grid. This thesis uses the case study of MoCreebec Eeyoud Istchee to determine the benefits of implementing a coupled electrical-thermal grid to serve the community's residential energy needs. A model of the proposed energy system is built TRNSYS. Yearly household energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions of the model are compared to those of the case study. The study concludes that the proposed energy system results in higher household energy costs and lower greenhouse gas emissions. In an off-grid remote community, iterations of the proposed energy system cut costs and carbon emissions by more than 50%.


title: Reduction procedures in fraction arithmetic

abstract: In elementary school, students learn about fraction concepts and procedures. Concepts are knowledge about fraction facts and principles, for example, that two different fractions (i.e., 4/8 and 5/10) can have the same value. Procedures are algorithms that, when applied correctly, allow students to produce a correct solution (e.g., addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division). Knowledge of fraction procedures and understanding how those procedures apply is central to mathematical knowledge that students acquire in school and is used frequently in everyday life. The goal of the present research was to explore adults' use of a fraction procedure called reduction, a procedure that is taught to students but is sometimes an optional step in fraction arithmetic. Fraction reduction involves dividing the numerator and denominator of a fraction by a common factor. However, there is no existing research on fraction reduction, despite considerable interest in how students learn and apply fraction procedures. In three studies, I assessed the factors that determined the selection and implementation of fraction reduction. I hypothesized that characteristics of the solvers and of the problems would both contribute to people's use of reduction in fraction arithmetic. In Study , 720 participants were assessed on their conceptual and procedural understanding of fractions and profiled as either conceptually- or procedurally-strong solvers. I found that solvers' strategy selection was related to their understanding of fraction concepts and procedures, the required operation, and whether fractions within a problem shared a common denominator (i.e., denominator relation). In two subsequent studies, a smaller group of 59 participants from the larger sample solved fraction arithmetic problems and provided written protocols. In Study 2, I found that a combination of denominator-relation, and operation predicted use of reduction. In Study 3 (n = 27), I found that, when solvers multiplied fractions, conceptually-strong solvers were more likely to reduce fractions than procedurally-strong solvers. These findings are discussed in relation to the potential impact of fraction concepts and procedures on selection of the reduction procedure.


title: Rival Consolidation in Nascent Insurrections: Why Some Militant Groups Wage Sustained Insurgencies

abstract: Why do some militant groups wage sustained armed conflicts (or insurgencies) while other groups do not? I argue that shifts in nascent rival relations between militant groups, from competition to consolidation, are key to understanding this puzzle. A militant group which has consolidated its rivals - whether by destruction, merger, or hegemonic dominance - should be in a stronger position to fight the target state than groups preoccupied with counterproductive violence against rivals within a militant movement. This thesis uses a multi-method, three-stage, research design starting with a novel quantitative regression analysis of 246 prominent militant groups worldwide from 1970- 2007, featured in the Global Terrorism Database (GTD). I find that, on average, organizational characteristics (i.e. ideology and organizational structure) and constituency dominance are stronger indicators for engagement in sustained insurgencies than traditional proxies for observable group capabilities (i.e. group size, state sponsorship, etc.), challenging conventional wisdom. The second stage narrows in on a more bounded population (Middle Eastern and North African insurgent groups) and uses cross-case comparative methods to build my theory based on three forms of primary rival relations: competition (infighting or outbidding), strategic alliance, and hegemonic consolidation. I then use process tracing methods to explore within-case inferences and identify causal mechanisms in three diverse case studies: Hezbollah, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), and the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood. Rival consolidation helps dominant groups mobilize resources effectively and overcome two major organizational hurdles: collective action and principal-agent problems. Without major competitors, dominant groups attract recruits and support, while militant leaders divert their attention to strengthening organizational capacity and preparing for war with the target state. Hegemonic militant groups are also in a stronger position to ensure compliance among rank-and-file operatives, attract outside support, and secure critical safe haven to sustain an insurgency. My temporal theory of rival consolidation offers a more compelling explanation that accounts for the timing of sustained insurgency onset, compared to scholarly accounts that rely on largely static factors or remain incomplete. From a policy perspective, this thesis challenges assumptions and presents a generalizable framework identifying nascent rival relations as a pragmatic indicator that can help practitioners anticipate potential insurgent threats.


title: Performance Improvements of In-Network Caching in ICN-Based Networks

abstract: The continuous development of networking technologies and smart devices has led Internet traffic, especially for the multimedia content traffic, to increase drastically both in wired and wireless networks. Similarly, the fast developing of wireless networks, such as 5G, has led the Internet of things (IoT) to be growing at an unprecedented pace. However, the traditional host-centric IP Internet is based on host-to-host communications which is not suitable for satisfying the requirements of content delivery. Hence, information-centric networking (ICN), one of the emerging next-generation Internet paradigms, is proposed to overcome these challenges. With the ubiquitous in-network caching, ICN can facilitate content delivery and reduce network delay. Both 5G and IoT can use the concept of ICN to constitute ICN-5G and ICN-IoT networks respectively. However, the requirements of in-network caching may vary for different networks. This thesis focuses on designing in-network caching approaches for different networks, including pure ICN networks, ICN-5G networks and ICN-IoT networks, from a theoretical perspective and a practical perspective. Both reactive and proactive caching approaches are discussed in this thesis. Moreover, by leveraging the concepts of software-defined networking (SDN) and machine learning (ML), the efficiency of in-network caching can be significantly improved.


title: Serving Each Other: Sharing Economies and Affective Labour in Montreal’s Kiki Scene

abstract: Against a tense socio-political backdrop of white supremacy, intensifying pressures of neoliberal fiscal austerity, and queer necropolitics, this thesis addresses performance-based activist forms of place-making for urban-based queer, trans, and gender nonconforming communities of colour. Using participant observation and qualitative interviews with pioneering members of Montréal's Kiki scene and Ottawa's emerging Waacking community and interpreting my findings through the theoretical lens of queer of colour theory, critical whiteness studies, queer Latinx performance studies and Chicana feminism, I argue that Kiki subculture, which is maintained by pedagogical processes of 'each one, teach one', is instrumental in facilitating i) life-affirming queer kinship bonds, (ii) alternative ways to simultaneously embody and celebrate non-normative gender expression with Black, Asian, and Latinx identity, iii) non-capitalist economies of sharing, and iv) hopeful strategies of everyday community activism and resilience to appropriative processes during economic insecurity and necropolitical turmoil.


title: Geographic variation in reaction norms of phenological traits in the greater duckweed, Spirodela polyrhiza

abstract: Variability is a ubiquitous feature of natural environments. Organisms can adapt through several methods such as adaptive phenotypic plasticity, changes in phenotype in response to reliable cues predicting fitness outcomes across environments, and bet hedging, the maximization of geometric mean fitness. The greater duckweed Spirodela polyrhiza is an ideal system to study the evolution of these strategies. Phenology of production of overwintering structures called turions, a phenotypically plastic trait that can prevent reproductive failure, is vital to fitness. Here I use S. polyrhiza populations collected from a latitudinal gradient to study how life-history traits evolve in response to variable environments. I hypothesized that reaction norms in turion formation differ across latitudes due to differences in season length and environmental predictability. I found support for the first hypothesis, showing that reaction norms in turion phenology do differ with earlier turion production at higher latitudes under warm, but cold experimental treatments.


title: The International Response to Disease Outbreaks: The Relevance of Epistemic Communities in International Cooperation

abstract: This research explores the question, why does the level of international cooperation vary in the international response to pandemics? The research presents an analytical model to analyse the differences among the levels of international cooperation in four disease outbreaks: Influenza H1N1 in 2009, MERS-CoV in 2012, Ebola in 2013-2016 and Zika in 2013-2016. The model introduces sixteen indicators categorized in four main areas: i) international participation; ii) international assistance; iii) scientific response and; iv) policy convergence. These indicators facilitate comparison across cases and show that Influenza H1N1 had a high level of cooperation; MERS-CoV a low-medium level; Ebola a low-medium level; and Zika a high level. This study applies the theory of epistemic communities developed by Peter Haas to explain variation in the level of cooperation in global health. The research identifies an epistemic community for each case and examines three general characteristics underlined in Haas' theory: a) the creation of consensual knowledge; b) the dissemination of knowledge to the policymakers and; c) the institutionalization of bureaucratic power. This research shows that these characteristics are present in all epistemic communities, but their quality varies from one community to another and influences cooperation. While some epistemic communities created consensual knowledge and a clear policy goal, they were unable to disseminate their knowledge to relevant policymakers, and thus had limited bureaucratic power. Other epistemic communities established consensual knowledge, disseminated it to key policy makers and therefore exhibited enough bureaucratic power to influence the policy-making process. The proposed framework presents a comprehensive and simplified model that measures these characteristics. The findings show that in the absence of a clear consensus regarding the nature of the problem and possible solutions among members of the epistemic community; the inability to disseminate this consensual knowledge to policymakers; and the building of bureaucratic power through their participation in crucial parts of the process; the ability to influence global health governance towards cooperative outcomes is diminished.


title: Using a two-phase xenon time projection chamber for improved background rejection in searches for neutrinoless double-beta decay

abstract: The nature of the neutrino masses is an important open question in particle physics; neutrinos were conceived and implemented into the Standard Model as massless, and their masses, now known to be nonzero, represent an area of new physics. Essential to the investigation of this area are mechanisms by which one might measure these masses, including the hypothetical neutrinoless double-beta decay, which has a lifetime related to the neutrino masses. Experiments searching for this rare decay, such as EXO, are impacted heavily by sources of background radiation. Here, a prototype two-phase time projection chamber is described, having superior temporal resolution to the existing EXO architecture. A machine-learning analysis of data from this prototype is used for pulse-shape discrimination, which has the potential to significantly increase EXO's sensitivity; the preliminary efforts described here are able to reduce backgrounds by 94%, while rejecting only 21% of the signal.


title: Automatic Arterial Wall Detection and Diameter Tracking Using M-mode Ultrasound

abstract: In this research, an algorithm to automatically detect artery wall region and estimate systolic and diastolic lumen diameter of the artery is proposed using ultrasound radio-frequency signals acquired with a single ultrasound transducer in M-mode.Detection of the region containing the artery walls is obtained using a machine learning trained classifier. Artery lumen diameter is estimated using peak detection and correlation technique.The proposed algorithm is first tested on M-mode signal acquired with human in-vivo experiments using a clinical ultrasound imaging system and a wearable ultrasound sensor (WUS).The machine learning-based artery wall region classifier was able to detect the artery wall region in M-mode signals acquired from the clinical ultrasound acquisition system with an accuracy of 88.9%. In the case of data acquired from WUS, it is 88.3%.Further, the diameter estimated with the proposed technique was within the range of the average diameter of the common carotid artery observed in humans.


title: Narrators, Navigators and Negotiators: Foreign Service Officer Life Stories from Canada's Africa Refugee Resettlement Program, 1970 to 1990

abstract: This dissertation critically examines the life stories of three Canadian Foreign Service officers, in order to tell a history about how officers "heard" and decided on the claims of refugee applicants who sought admission and resettlement to Canada through its Africa Refugee Program from the early 1970s to 1990. This focus allows the study to explore the relationship between officers' individual agency and structure in the implementation of Canadian refugee policy, and to present a hitherto under-represented part of Canada's immigration history. The research argues that the context and conditions of refugee selection can be more fully understood by explaining: the material and ideational structures within which the officers (hearers) navigated; the many types of relationships they negotiated; and the narratives they created, both about themselves and about their role in refugee selection. This work conceptualizes the officers as "narrators" (past and present), "navigators" and "negotiators." The dissertation is situated within the literature on oral history, immigration to Canada, and the interdisciplinary study of the management of migration and refugee movements. It draws on substantive oral history interviews the author conducted with the three officers. In order to situate these life stories within the prevailing state structures of the time, the research draws on primary sources, including Government of Canada policy documents, the 1976 Immigration Act, Annual Reports to Parliament on Immigration Levels Plans and Ministry of Employment and Immigration Statistics. This work argues that, notwithstanding limitations on their autonomy, the degree and nature of discretion and agency that officers exercised varied depending on the local context of implementation and the particularities of the refugee applicant or situation. Together, the life stories reflect a collective narrative about the settings, conditions, constraints and interests that shaped how the officers "heard" refugee applicant stories while they implemented Canada's humanitarian and resettlement policy through the Africa Refugee Program, in its earliest and formative years. Collectively, the life stories put a human face on complex bureaucratic processes, and demonstrate that individual agency matters and affectS outcomes in policy implementation.


title: Functional Properties of Hybrid Resonances in Plasmonic Nanocrystals

abstract: Metal nanocrystals support unique light-matter interactions through a phenomenon known as the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR). These resonances show a great deal of sensitivity to their local environment, and by altering this environment it is possible to produce new, "hybridized" plasmon modes. The far-field spectral qualities, and the near-field electromagnetic properties can by heavily manipulated through the generation of hybridized plasmon modes. This work explores the properties and functions of hybridized plasmon modes in a variety of systems. Finite-difference time-domain modelling use used to correlate the experimental spectral response is with the calculated near-field spatial distribution of hybridized modes in a number of systems involving silver nanocubes (AgNC). These systems demonstrate it is possible to carefully monitor the environment of a nanocrystal, induce an unusually sharp spectral extinction in dielectric-coated AgNCs, and manipulate the spatial distribution of plasmon modes in colloidal composite Ag@Cu2O core-shell nanocrystals. These properties are applied to functional materials, including photothermal and colour patterning of a plasmonic system driven by the embedment of an AgNC into a polymer matrix. The spectral signature of hybridized plasmon modes is used to both characterize and manipulate the degree of photothermal heating in this thermoplasmonic patterning system. Hybridized gap-plasmons are used to generate wide range of colours, with controllable palettes using AgNC-over-Au and AgNC-over-Ag nanoparticle-over-mirror (NPoM) films. Lastly the potential for alternative plasmonic materials for ultraviolet (UV) plasmonics was explored. The potential for In and Al nanocrystals for UV surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy was investigated. All these systems demonstrate the potential and advantage of using hybridized plasmon modes to manipulate the far-field and near-field optical response of functional plasmonic materials.


title: The Design, Development and Evaluation of a Digital Literacy Game for Preteens

abstract: The goal of our research is to develop an effective and empirically validated persuasive digital literacy game for tweens, meant for classroom use. Our secondary goal is to explore whether procedural rhetoric is an effective approach for designing digital literacy games. We developed the game in collaboration with MediaSmarts, a not-for-profit organization. The game, A Day in the Life of the JOs, is available in both English and French, and accessible on desktop computers and tablets. Thus far, the game has been launched in over 300 Canadian elementary schools. We conducted two user studies to evaluate the usability and effectiveness of the game with children and teachers. We found that the game was usable, effective at improving children's digital literacy, and was positively received. Our study with teachers show similar trends, and indicate that the game meets curriculum requirements, and can be used in classrooms. We also provide a model to conceptualize issues that teachers identify with children's use of digital media, and how they help them resolve these issues.


title: The Development of Spatial Memory Processes and Associated Cellular Correlates in Juvenile Rats

abstract: The late postnatal period is marked by neurodevelopmental changes, from gross morphological alterations to finite cellular and molecular variations. The hippocampus is one such structure that undergoes extensive morphological and cytological remodeling during the juvenile period, which is thought to mediate the maturation of cognitive processing. Hippocampal remodeling leads to the strengthening of intra-hippocampal and hippocampal-cortical connectivity, allowing for the consolidation of information into remote stores within extrahippocampal regions. A link between changes in the duration of α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid receptors (AMPAr)-mediated synaptic responses in the hippocampus and the emergence of spatial navigation has been shown. AMPAr are made up of 4 subunits, of which GluR1 and GluR2 have been shown to play the most prominent role in cognitive processes. The current thesis investigated whether preadolescent spatial memories acquired during this period of hippocampal synaptic modification persist beyond 24 hours and stabilize into the postadolescent period. We further aimed to identify the neural correlates thought to underlie the emergence of such processes, while determining training factors that may facilitate spatial memory processing. To this extent, rats were trained on spatial memory tasks during the period of hippocampal remodeling and assessed at either recent (24h) or remote (3 week) testing intervals. Their performance on the tasks was compared to adults in order to delineate the developmental period in which memory processing in juveniles resembles that in adults. c-Fos immunohistochemistry was performed on both the hippocampus and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in order to determine their contributions to testing performance at either interval, while Western blotting in both regions identified GluR1 and GluR2 levels following testing. Results indicated that the emergence of recent memory processing coincided with the initial onset of hippocampal remodeling, while remote memory processes showed a protracted development, manifesting during late-phase hippocampal remodeling. The pattern of memory consolidation suggests that the hippocampus is initially responsible for the processing of recently acquired information, after which it is stabilized and consolidated into remote stores within the ACC, rendering it independent of hippocampal activity. Both recent and remote memory processing are likely mediated by the development of synaptic components, particularly GluR1 and GluR2.


title: Factors Influencing Run Strength of Upper Yukon River Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha)

abstract: Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) are anadromous fish distributed around the Pacific Ocean.  Pacific salmon generate numerous ecosystem services related to the nutrition, livelihoods and culture of humans. Widespread declines in this vital resource over the past century and specifically the last few decades have prompted efforts to identify the drivers of and remedy Pacific salmon decline. I used quasi-Poisson Generalized Linear Models (GLMs) to quantify the influence of multiple environmental and anthropogenic factors on the run size of Yukon River Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha)  that spawn upstream of Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada. The main predictor of population variation was sea surface temperature, discernable during both marine entry and exit. Whitehorse Chinook Salmon are a small, edge population and my findings suggest that they may experience exacerbated effects of future perturbations to North Pacific and global climate compared to other populations of the same species.


title: Greenhouse Gas Production and Transport Within Tile Drained Agriculture Systems

abstract: Agriculture systems are becoming a growing concern regarding greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; specifically, methane (CH4), carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrous oxide (N2O). This study focused on GHG transport within two controlled tile drained agriculture sites in Eastern Ontario. Subsurface and surface greenhouse gas fluxes were monitored throughout a transect at each site with sampling locations in the farm field and the shoulder and slope of the riparian zone in the fall of 2017 and the 2018 agronomic season. All sampling locations showed similar levels of CO2 and N2O emissions; however, CH4 is observed as effluxes in oxidizing soils and influxes in reducing soils. GHG transport increases as soil depth decreases with maximum fluxes occurring at the soil/atmosphere interface. GHG transport is elevated in soil horizons that display larger concentration gradients and lower water saturation levels. Surface emissions are primarily influenced by GHGs produced and transported in shallow soil horizons.


title: Parametric Modeling and Optimization of Electromagnetic and Multiphysics Behaviors of Microwave Components

abstract: Parametric modeling and optimization of electromagnetic (EM) and multiphysics behaviors are very essential parts of the design process of microwave components. For EM/multiphysics design, the computational cost of directly using EM/multiphysics simulator is very expensive because the simulation-driven design requires repetitive EM/multiphysics evaluations due to the adjustments of the values of design parameters. This thesis proposes new techniques to speed up the parametric modeling and optimization of EM and multiphysics behaviors. In the first part of this thesis, a novel technique is proposed to develop a low-cost EM centric multiphysics parametric model for microwave components. In the proposed method, we use space mapping (SM) techniques to combine the computational efficiency of EM single physics simulation with the accuracy of the multiphysics simulation. Our proposed technique can achieve good accuracy for multiphysics parametric modeling with fewer multiphysics training data and less computational cost. As a further advancement, to accelerate the multiphysics design circle, we develop a novel parallel EM centric multiphysics optimization technique. The pole-residue-based transfer function is exploited to build an effective and robust surrogate model. A group of modified quadratic mapping functions is formulated to map the relationships between pole/residues of the transfer function and the design variables. Using our proposed technique, the surrogate model can be valid in a relatively large neighborhood which makes an effective and large optimization update in each optimization iteration. Our proposed multiphysics optimization technique takes a small number of iterations to obtain the optimal EM centric multiphysics response. In the third part of this thesis, a novel decomposition technique is proposed to address the challenges of EM parametric modeling with geometrical changes in a large range. A systematic and automatic algorithm based on second-order derivative information is proposed to decompose the modeling problem with a wide geometrical range into a set of sub-range modeling problems. Multiple artificial neural network (ANN) models, hereby referred to as sub-models are independently developed. A new technique is proposed to combine the developed sub-models to obtain a continuous overall model by solving the multi-dimensional discontinuity problem. The proposed method can obtain better model-accuracy with short model-development time.


title: Exploring Self-Care and Its Associations with Burnout, Vitality, and Academic Goal Achievement in University Students

abstract: Interest in self-care has risen in the past years with little direct research on the subject. This thesis sought to clarify the concrete behaviours that define self-care and the construct's potential impact on academic goal achievement. Three pilot studies (total n = 798) compiled a list of 12 self-care behaviours to represent the construct. Review of existing research suggest that these behaviours can impact physical and psychological well-being. A final study (n = 95) explored the effects of self-care in undergraduate students over a university semester. Results found that the frequency of self-care is associated with increased feelings of vitality, and is negatively correlated with feelings of burnout. Frequency of self-care did not predict academic goal achievement.


title: Ozone Chemically-Enhanced Backwashes For Ceramic Membrane Fouling Control in Cyanobacteria-Laden Surface Water Applications

abstract: Membrane fouling in surface waters impacted by cyanobacteria is poorly controlled and results in high operating costs. A possible solution is the chemically-enhanced backwash (CEB). This research investigates the potential of using an ozone CEB to control the fouling caused by Microcystis aeruginosa in surface water on a ceramic ultrafiltration membrane. Batch ozonation and dead-end, continuous flow, experiments were conducted with ozone doses between 0 and 19 mg O3/mg carbon on the membrane. In the batch tests, ozone reacted more rapidly with the surface water than with cyanobacteria. The opposite was observed during a CEB, highlighting the contribution of the hydraulic force on CEB performance since ozone likely weakens the compressible cake layer formed by cyanobacteria on the membrane surface. Overall, all ozone CEBs were capable of recovering over 80% of the membrane's specific flux whereas only 66% overall was recovered without the use of ozone.


title: Empowerment Through Poverty Policy: The Evolution of Conditional Cash Transfer Programs in Mexico

abstract: I examine the family of Conditional Cash Transfer Programs (CCTs) in Mexico comprised of Progresa, Oportunidades, and Prospera - hereafter the Program. CCT programs encourage human capital investment in children while providing monetary support to recipients for their immediate needs. I first examine the evolution of the Program from its introduction in 1997 to 2017. I use qualitative primary and secondary research to track the progress of the Program. Oaxaca is used as a case study owing to its high levels of poverty and high concentration of Indigenous citizens. Primary data on poverty in Mexico and Oaxaca is used to contextualized my argument that the Program has failed to meaningfully address poverty in Oaxaca. ENCASEH survey data is then used to examine the outcomes of the program and deconstruct the issues causing its failure. I adopt a composite critical Marxist-Feminist framework with considerations of indigeneity for analysis of the Program.


title: Development of a Computer Vision Framework for Improved Remotely Piloted Aircraft Operations

abstract: This thesis proposes a computer vision framework to enable improved operations of Remotely Piloted Aircraft equipped with onboard image sensors. The main use of payload image sensors is to provide visual imagery data to the system for real-time or post-processing applications; the application of an image quality metric and the ground sampling distance of the image sensor can be used to predict the performance of an image sensor in enabling the image classification task. This information is used to determine the mission-specific operational envelope of the aircraft, to ensure that visual data  quality requirements are met. The application of a convolutional neural network for image processing is also presented. Finally, a vision-based positioning system is developed, and it achieves an average position estimation difference of 17.87 cm compared to a commercially available indoor localization system; this system provides a position update rate of 11.48 Hz.


title: Combustion Characteristics of n-heptane Through Temperature Variation Measurements Using Ignition Quality Tester

abstract: The constant volume combustion apparatus, known as the Ignition Quality Tester (IQTTM), is increasingly used around the world to measure the ignition delay (ID) of compression ignited fuels, and to calculate the derived cetane number (DCN) from correlations developed with the cetane number (CN). The IQTTM is widely used in research due to its capability to manipulate combustion controller parameters, including pressure, temperature, oxygen content and mass of injected fuel. Recently, the IQTTM has also been used to conduct experiments on fuels with a longer I D, such as gasoline. Most findings from previous research are based on instantaneous global pressure measurements to obtain ignition delay, whereas there are minimal spatial and temporal temperature measurements inside the combustion chamber of the IQTTM. This study will expand knowledge of combustion processes through temperature measurements, using a set of fine gauge thermocouples distributed at different locations inside the IQTTM combustion chamber. In this study, the temperature was recorded at 46 locations inside the IQT chamber during fuel injection and combustion. The experiments were performed at the lab of Advanced Engine Technology Ltd. - Ottawa. Two sets of experiments were conducted: injection fuel into nitrogen (no chemical reaction or combustion), and injection fuel into air (chemical reaction or combustion) an the range of ambient air temperatures and pressures was 530 − 590 o C and 10−21.4 bar, respectively. The temperature variations indicated that the biggest drop in temperature was at the chamber centerline, where most of the larger droplets of the fuel spray moved to. A drop was also found to a lesser degree in the region around centerline, while there was no temperature drop near the chamber wall or tail, which means spray did not reach there. A method developed to estimate the physical and total ignition delay based on the temperature measurements is introduced in this study. The combustion initiation lo- cation was predicted from the results of the ignition delay, and it was determined that during long periods of ID the fuel-air mixture becomes pseudo-homogeneous and ....


title: A Political Strategy for the Liberation of Women: Socialist Feminist Political Practice

abstract: This dissertation examines socialist feminism as it developed as a political force in English-speaking parts of Canada, especially Toronto, from the 1960s - 1980s. This project contributes to documenting, summarizing, and analyzing socialist feminist activity, with particular attention devoted to organizational forms and methods. The legacy of socialist feminism is remembered as a disinclination towards parties, leadership, and organization. In reviewing the history of socialist feminism, I show that this is not an accurate portrayal of the movement. Instead, there were heated debates about the best strategies for achieving the goals of the movement. Drawing on archival research, interviews and secondary sources, I look at what practices emerged from the development of socialist feminism that can inform contemporary projects for women's liberation. Socialist feminists rooted their analysis of women's oppression in relation to capitalist production and economic structures. Their political work on reproductive rights, childcare, housework, equal pay, anti-free trade, labour, and anti-war were all rooted in an understanding of how capital structured the lives of people. Throughout this dissertation, I'll show how this analysis helped strengthen the political work of the women's movement and political organizations on the Left. I also examine socialist feminism's relationship to communist and socialist organizing by women and around the woman question historically, alongside the developments in class struggle in Canada and the ideological and political divisions in the socialist Left. Reflecting on socialist feminism from our vantage-point today, I argue that a reconsideration of the role of the socialist political party is needed. A modern socialist left must be conscious of what tools cannot be discarded, or are indeed most critical, if it hopes to organize people in the thousands and millions required to bring about transformative, revolutionary change.


title: Validating the Deployment of a Novel Tether Design for Net-Based Orbital Debris Removal Missions

abstract: With the global push to commercialize space, humans are launching objects into orbit faster than natural effects are removing them. Orbital debris is especially dangerous as it is capable of exponential growth due to cascading collisions between orbiting objects. To ensure the long-term accessibility to space, high-risk objects must be actively removed to limit growth of the orbital debris population. One method of active debris removal is with a tethered-net to capture and tow an object out of orbit. This thesis continues the validation of a proposed novel tether configuration by focusing on its deployment dynamics. Tether elements are simulated using two numerical models, a lumped mass node system connected by massless spring-damper elements, and an absolute nodal coordinate formulation model. Their accuracy to predict the deployment motion of a tether is experimentally determined, and a complete capture scenario using the novel tether design is presented for the fist time.


title: Heterogeneous multiscale Monte Carlo models for radiation therapy using gold nanoparticles

abstract: Gold NanoParticle (GNP) dose-enhanced radiation Therapy (GNPT) is a proposed radiotherapy approach which aims to improve dose localization. In complement to experimental techniques, Monte Carlo (MC) radiation transport simulations are used for GNPT dosimetry. Simulations on a tumour scale require complex geometry models that are reliable and efficient, two traits often in contention. This work introduces a general MC framework, the Heterogeneous MultiScale (HetMS) model, towards efficient and accurate GNPT simulation. The HetMS model combines distinct geometries of varying detail on different length scales into one simulation. The HetMS framework is implemented in the fast MC code EGSnrc. EGSnrc, with custom applications and geometries, is cross-validated with PENELOPE and Geant4-DNA MC codes and is tested for self-consistency, passing the electron Fano cavity test. Simulations of microscopic scoring cavities containing GNPs across a cm-scale phantom were constructed using the HetMS method, enabling fast MC calculations of tissue dose on a tumour scale. Dose Enhancement Factors (DEFs), ratio of dose to tissue with GNPs over dose to tissue without, were determined at various tumour positions for many different GNPT scenarios. A cell model, with nucleus and cytoplasm as two concentric spheres, containing GNPs is simulated. Less realistic but efficient modelling approaches of gold in the cell (e.g., a contiguous gold volume) are insufficient for realistic DEF calculations. Cell DEFs are sensitive to the distribution of GNPs within the cell, with highest DEFs for nucleus and cytoplasm when GNPs are distributed over nuclear surface. By investigating variable cell/nucleus size and fluctuations in gold to a target cell and 12 neighbouring cells, expected variation in cell DEF is determined. The above work is combined to create more detailed GNPT simulations. Cell DEFs are calculated at many positions within a tumour-sized volume, which, combined with the DEF variations computed previously provide a range of expected cell DEF at each position within the tumour. These simulations provide many useful metrics towards GNPT; e.g., the lesser DEFs expected for a cluster of cells, the depth at which the primary fluence attenuation from gold drops DEF below unity, and the feasibility of different GNP configurations.


title: Designing Multidimensional Constellations and Efficient Detection Schemes for Sparse Code Multiple Access (SCMA) Systems

abstract: Sparse code multiple access (SCMA) is a class of non-orthogonal multiple access that is proposed to support uplink machine-type communication services. In this thesis, we investigate the design of SCMA systems from two main aspects: multidimensional constellations (MdCs) and efficient detection schemes. In an SCMA system, designing MdCs plays an important role in the system performance. Since the behavior of multidimensional constellations highly depends on the type of the channel, it is crucial to employ a constellation that is suitable for a certain application. In the fifirst part of this thesis, we highlight and review the key performance indicators (KPIs) of MdCs that should be considered in their design process for various channel scenarios. We also provide a survey on the known MdCs in the context of SCMA systems with their design criteria. The performance of some of those constellations are evaluated for uncoded and LTE turbo-coded SCMA systems under different channel conditions through extensive simulations. We then investigate the effect of the 5G low density parity check (LDPC) codes on determining KPIs in designing MdCs under various channel scenarios. Since the optimal maximum likelihood (ML) receiver for SCMA is too complex in most applications, one highly popular detection technique is the message passing algorithm (MPA), which exploits the sparsity structure of SCMA. MPA is a near-optimal technique, where its performance improves with increasing the signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) and the number of iterations. We design novel SCMA SNR-adaptive MdCs which result in substantial performance gains (as much as 2 dB) in comparison to the best known SCMA MdCs in the literature, especially in low-to-medium SNR regions when the number of MPA iterations has to be low, and in the presence of 5G-compliant LDPC codes. Sphere decoding (SD) based detection schemes for SCMA have recently received attention due to their promising features. However, the existing SD-based schemes can only be applied to systems with constellations that possess a certain structure. In the second part of the thesis, we propose an SD-based detection scheme, namely improved SD (ISD), for SCMA that achieves the optimal ML detector for any arbitrary regular or irregular constellations.