title: Controllable Procedural Terrain Synthesis Using Curve Networks

abstract:
We present a procedural technique for the synthesis of detailed and controllable terrains. We generate terrain based on a sparse curve network representation, where interconnected curves are distributed in the plane and can be procedurally assigned height. The user controls the placement and elevation of peaks. We employ path planning to procedurally generate irregular curves around peaks. Optionally, the user can specify base signals for the curves. Then we assign height to curves using biased random walks with controlled probability distributions, a process which we show produces signals
with distinct shapes. The structure of a curve network partitions space into individual patches. We interpolate patch heights using mean value coordinates, after which we have a complete terrain heightfield.


title: The Use of Diazomethane to Enhance the Selectivity of Bisphenol A Imprinted Polymers

abstract:
Bisphenol A (BPA) is an estrogen-mimicking chemical that can be selectively extracted from water using a molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP). However, the presence of non-specific binding sites has thusfar limited the utility of BPA-MIPs in sensor applications. This project explored two approaches to reduce or eliminate these sites: Optimizing the molar ratio of functional monomer (methacrylic acid) to cross-linker (ethylene glycol dimethacrylate) to template, or partially esterifying the carboxylic acid residues by site-selective chemical modification via treatment with diazomethane. Results
show esterification with diazomethane to be more efficient in blocking non-specific binding sites than optimization of the template to monomer to crosslinker molar ratio. The efficiency and selectivity of the diazomethane-treated molecularly imprinted polymer (TMIP) particles were then compared with those of a commercially available MIP, either uniformly dispersed in the sample solution or densely packed into a cartridge, for solid phase extraction.


title: Antioxidant Activity of Oat Bran Hydrolyzed Proteins in Vitro and in Vivo

abstract:
In this thesis research evaluated the potential of oat protein hydrolyzed (OPH) with trypsin (better in vitro antioxidant activity relative to alcalase hydrolysate) to reduce oxidative in vivo. Three different concentrations (1, 10, and 100 mg OPH/g diet) were added to the diet of CD-1 male mice. The animals were divided into five groups, normal diet (ND), high fat (HF), and HF containing 1, 10, and 100 mg OPH/g. The study lasted for 3 weeks after which, mice were scarified.  Blood, liver, brain, muscle, lung, and heart tissues collected for analysis. Erythrocytes of mice on 100mg OPH/g had
higher (p < 0.05) peroxyl radical scavenging activity compared to HF group. The activity of the antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase (SOD) in the liver of mice on HF diet was 13.2% lower compared to the activity of those on the normal diet. Advanced oxidation protein products (AOPP) level in the brain and heart of animals supplemented with 10 mg OPH/g was lowered significantly compared to the rest of the groups. Supplemented with OPH increased (p < 0.05) vitamin C level but did not affect vitamin A or E concentrations  in the liver compared to the high fat diet in group. In
conclusion, addition OPH to high fat diet reduced oxidative by either increased the total antioxidative capacity of erythrocytes, by reducing protein oxidation or nitric oxide depending on the organ. From these results, it appears that OPH can have beneficiary in conditions associated with oxidative stress.


title: From Discovery to Precision Measurements: Electron Identification, Electron-Like Backgrounds, and Measurement of the Differential Fiducial Cross-Sections of the Higgs Boson in the Four-Lepton Decay Channel with the ATLAS Detector

abstract:
The Higgs boson was proposed in 1964 as part of a solution to the problem of how certain subatomic particles acquire mass.  Until its discovery at CERN's Large Hadron Collider in 2012, the Higgs boson was the last missing piece of the Standard Model of particle physics.  This thesis studies the Higgs boson in the four-lepton decay channel: H->ZZ*->4l, where the leptons may be electrons or muons, using ~25 inverse femtobarns of data recorded by the ATLAS detector at centre-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV in 2011 and 2012, respectively.
Particular attention will be given to the
role of electrons in the search for and study of the Higgs boson.  An offline electron identification algorithm, the MultiLepton menu, was developed in order to efficiently distinguish true reconstructed electron objects from the hadronic background.  It achieved an efficiency of ~95% and excellent background rejection, and contributed to the discovery of the Higgs boson.
The reducible electron-like background in the H->ZZ*->4l channel has been studied, and a data-driven method for estimating the background contributions of the Z+jets, Z+bb, and tt processes was developed and
implemented as a cross-check for the final analysis, published in 2014.
Several precision measurements of the Higgs boson's properties have been performed in the H->ZZ*->4l channel, including the first measurements of the inclusive and differential fiducial cross-sections, using the method of bin-by-bin correction factors.  The inclusive cross-section has been measured to be 2.11 +0.53/-0.47(stat.) +/- 0.8(syst.) fb.  Differential cross-sections have been measured for six observables; no significant deviations from theoretical Standard Model predictions have been observed.  An
alternative method for extracting the differential cross-sections, the Bayesian iterative unfolding method, has been studied and has been found to yield results consistent with the nominal results.  This method shows particular promise for future precision measurements in the high-statistics regime, where resolution effects may degrade the performance of the method of correction factors.


title: Electron Impact Ionization in EGSnrc

abstract:
Knowledge of the x-ray spectra enables system designers to predict patient dose accurately and develop better methods to reduce patient dose. Consequently, it is important to correctly implement these cross sections within Monte Carlo (MC) codes, such as EGSnrc.
X-ray spectra of low energy electron impacting on tungsten, molybdenum, and titanium are calculated using the EGSnrc BEAMnrc code with two Electron Impact Ionization (EII) cross-sections, one implemented by Kawrakow and another by Salvat (Penelope cross-sections).
The spectra calculated with the two cross sections are compared to
experimental ones obtained by Tian et .al ant PTB. It is found that agreement is less than satisfactory when using the Penlope data, while the Kawrakow cross sections underestimate the values for the characteristic x-ray peaks. Further these differences are analyzed through air kerma calculations. Overall, the results indicate that further investigation into the theoretical aspects of EII is required.


title: 1984, 2001, 2015

abstract:
Technology has always been a double edged sword.  In the very near-future domestic drones will operate commercially, far beyond the current confines of military applications.  This creates a radically new social and spatial condition.  Our existing transportation infrastructures and our built environment will need to evolve in response to the wide spread integration of autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles [UAV/Drones].  UAV's are a controversial technology that boldly embodies many of societies concerns; challenging our notions of privacy, security and surveillance in both private and
public space.  Drones can inflict unimaginable terror and oppression upon an entire population when weaponized.  Conversely the same technology can produce incredible new efficiencies in both communications and distribution on a global scale.  Drones have proven themselves incredibly useful for Architects in various ways, but how will the presence of UAV’s in our skies affect the ways we design and build in the near future?


title: Fluid Approximation of Smart Grid Systems: Optimal Control of Energy Storage Unit

abstract:
A model of the smart grid system with two different energy sources
- the main grid and the energy storage units - is considered. The
arriving power demands can be activated by either type of energy
sources, with differing rates and costs. Finding an optimal policy
that minimizes the expected long-run operational cost of the system is
the main interest of this work.
The problem is considered in a so called heavy traffic regime, and
is solved using fluid approximation techniques. The formal scaling
limit of the problem leads to a simple deterministic optimization
problem, whose
solution is shown to be an achievable lower bound on
the limiting cost of the stochastic problem. Three different
scenarios are considered according to whether the batteries are
disposable or rechargeable and whether the arrival rates are
homogeneous or nonhomogeneous. The solution method provides a good
alternative to numerical methods such as Markov Decision Processes.


title: Consumer Switching Costs in Mobile Telecommunications

abstract:
In this thesis I investigate the effectiveness of promoting competition through a reduction in consumer switching costs in the mobile telecommunications market. I modify an analytical model by Shi et al. (2006) to determine whether a reduction in switching costs can stimulate competition in Canada’s wireless telecommunications market. More specifically, I use the example of eliminating fees for unlocking mobile phones. Given the results of the analytical model, I survey the empirical research of switching costs in mobile telecommunications and find evidence that supported the conclusions of
our model. From this evidence I am able to make several policy suggestions for future consideration.


title: Deterministic Factorization of Polynomials over Finite Fields

abstract:
We give new results for the problem of deterministically and unconditionally factoring polynomials over finite fields. We give efficient algorithms for the factorization of some odd degree polynomials over finite fields. We remove the assumption of the Extended Riemann Hypothesis from a well known algorithm for factoring polynomials over finite fields in the case that the degree of the polynomial to be factored is coprime to phi(p-1) where p is the characteristic of the field and phi is the Euler totient function. We also give new results on the factorization of polynomials of bounded
degree.
    Using new tools we give a concrete proof of a result from the literature that a polynomial of degree n over the finite field can be factored deterministically in a number of operations that is polynomial in n^l where l is the least prime factor of n and log(p).


title: Analytic Continuation of Generating Functions for Two-Dimensional Random Walks in the Quarter Plane

abstract:
We will be considering two dimensional queueing systems which can be equated to a random walk in the quarter plane. For simplification, we use a bivariate generating function $\pi(x,y)$ to represent the stationary distribution and we derive a functional equation that will incorporate the unknown bivariate generating function and two unknown univariate generating functions, $\pi_{1}(x)$ and $\pi_{2}(y)$, which represent the two boundary stationary distributions. Employing suitable conditions and adhering to certain values, we are able to reduce the functional equation to one which only
contains  both $\pi_{1}(x)$ and $\pi_{2}(y)$. Various techniques exist to compute  $\pi_{1}(x)$ and $\pi_{2}(y)$, however, in order to successfully employ these methods, the original domains of analyticity for $\pi_{1}(x)$ and $\pi_{2}(y)$ need to be expanded. In this instance, analytical continuation is critical.


title: Mapping graben-fissure systems in the Mead quadrangle, Venus

abstract:
Graben–fissure systems can have radiating, linear or arcuate/circumferential geometry and are generally interpreted as the surface expressions of underlying dyke swarms on Venus. Coronae on Venus are large, circular surface features and form in response to magmatic loading of the crust over zones of partial melting at the tops of mantle plumes that impinge on the base of the thermal lithosphere. This project has mapped 32 different graben-fissure systems in the study area (10°-20° N, 30° -50° E) within the Mead Quadrangle: 24 of these systems are spatially associated with 4 different coronae
(Didilia, Pavlova, Isong, and Ninmah), and in 8 cases are genetically linked. Eight remaining systems are not related to coronae.  Five have foci associated with known magmatic centers (corona or volcano). Two others radiate from a cryptic magmatic center. Additional arcuate systems are interpreted to be circumferential about magmatic centers.


title: The Gendered Implications of the Expansion in Commercial Sugarcane Production: A Case Study of Contract Farming in Magobbo, Zambia

abstract:
This paper presents evidence on the gender differentiated effects in the nucleus-estate outgrower arrangement from a case study of a sugarcane outgrower scheme in the community of Magobbo, Zambia. Specifically, the paper explores women’s participation in the scheme, access to employment, decision-making, control of household income, and access to natural resources. Women are disadvantaged in these areas overall, though there is a key generational difference. As well, both women and men enjoy increased economic stability and improvements in family diets. I find that the outcomes observed are
influenced by: 1) the existing inequalities in access to land and discriminatory gender norms; 2) the institutional arrangements of the outgrower model; and 3) the gendered division of labour. These findings contribute a nuanced discussion of the gender differentiated effects of agricultural investments to the literature on women in contract farming and large-scale land acquisitions for agriculture.


title: Identity Development During Emerging Adulthood: Transitioning Through the University Experience

abstract:
Although identity development is most active during late adolescence and emerging adulthood and post-secondary education is regarded as a normative experience for the majority of individuals in Westernized societies, there remains a lack of longitudinal research investigating identity development during the transition to university.  In his formative writings, Erikson emphasized the need for researchers to account for the influence of social context and environment in the examination of identity development.  The aim of this study was to explore the process of identity development within
early emerging adulthood (18-24 years of age), during the transition to university using Eriksonian-measures.  More specifically, this three-wave longitudinal study examined the influences of social capital (social belongingness and university fit), psychosocial maturity (ego strength development), coping strategy use, and perceived stress on identity development.  The study included 771 first-year university students at large Canadian university, with 554 females and 217 males aged 18 to 24 (M = 18.35, SD = 1.47).  Using the Identity Issues Inventory (I3, Côté and Roberts, 2005), identity
formation was assessed from two broad perspectives, each with two developmental task domains:  self-identity with Integration and Differentiation; and social identity with the domains of Work roles and Worldview.  Multivariate multiple regressions, with interaction terms, were conducted to examine identity development, during the first year of university, after controlling for incoming levels of identity formation in each of the four task domains (Integration, Differentiation, Work roles, and Worldview).  Research findings highlighted the importance of social belongingness, perceived fit, and
psychosocial maturity, in particular, as capital resources that were supportive of identity development during the first year of university.  In addition, participants’ perceived levels of stress were found to impede identity formation in both phases of the study (Time1-2, Time 2-3).  Finally, the results highlighted some unexpected gender differences in the identity development of university students.  Evidence from the present study would suggest that it is from within this complex social context that emerging adults must develop a distinct, cohesive, and adult sense of self.
Keywords:
identity development; social belongingness; ego strengths; psychosocial maturity; social capital; emerging adulthood; transition to university


title: Space Environment Modelling and Torque-Optimal Guidance for CubeSat Applications

abstract:
CubeSats and nano-satellites provide flexible low-cost platforms for the academic and scientific communities to conduct cutting-edge research in the harsh environment of space. The mission life of nano-satellites is often limited by the attitude actuators, and it is therefore beneficial to reduce torque and angular momentum usage during reorientation maneuvers.
In this capacity, a computationally lightweight torque-optimal guidance algorithm was formulated, solved using pseudospectral methods, and validated in a MATLAB-Simulink environment. A low-computation atmospheric density model,
developed in support of this research, was extensively validated via performance assessment of passive CubeSat aerostabilization.
Results indicate that this torque-optimal guidance algorithm demonstrates substantial improvements in performance and pointing accuracy over an Eigenaxis controller for similar maneuvers, with low to moderate computational overhead. In doing so, it presents a significant advancement towards the development of intelligent GN&C systems for small satellites.


title: Indirection and Character in "Song of Myself"

abstract: In the 1980's and 1990's, a number of critics came to the conclusion that Whitman aspired to an unmediated act of poetic self-representation. I revisit this conclusion, arguing that although it is true Whitman considered his poetry an extension of his personality, he also believed personality is ineffable, and as such avoids exposing it to engaged representation. Instead, he proceeds according to his theory of "indirection"--that is, the poem does not represent his personality as such, but rather evokes a vague atmospheric quality meant to approximate the peculiar resonance of his own personality. I inquire into the specific means available to Whitman's indirect method, as well as the challenges indirection presents to dominant reading practices.


title: Connecting Bodies: Re-examining Ritual Murder in Venda

abstract:
Ritual murder in the Venda region of South Africa is both real and imagined; it is spoken about, ‘real’ cases are identified by officials and the lay public, and the act of ritual murder articulates wider tensions that persist within this region post-Apartheid. This thesis will show that people in Venda talk about ritualized murder in a way which speaks to wider socio-economic, gendered, class, ethnic-national and global conceptualizations and practices and how they saw themselves fitting in to these processes.  Drawing on Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Margret Lock’s (1987) “three bodies”
framework, in this thesis I will examine discourses and practices about  ritual murder as a way to understand the interplay between the individual, social, and political spheres of organization.


title: Is Cyber Aggression a New Form of Social Aggression?: An Examination of the Frequency and Motivations for Using These Behaviours

abstract:
The current study examined the frequency and motivations for using social aggression and cyber-social aggression against a friend in the past school year. 429 students (females, n =227) completed a set of self-report measures. The majority of youth (86%) indicated using social aggression and half (51%) of students reported using cyber-social aggression against a friend in the past school year. Girls reported using more socially aggressive behaviours than boys, with no sex differences for cyber-social aggression. Factor analytic results indicated a five factor model for both the Motivations
for Social Aggression Scale (Acceptance, Revenge, Amusement, Jealousy, Anonymity), and the Motivations for Cyber-social Aggression Scale (Jealousy, Revenge, Amusement, Social Image, Anonymity. Results have implications for the study of social and cyber-social aggression, and highlight the importance of addressing the motivations for using these behaviours when developing future interventions.


title: Le contact culturel dans l’Autobiographie de Pierre Joseph-Marie Chaumonot, un Jésuite nomade.

abstract:
Cette thèse examine le contact culturel dans l’Autobiographie du Père Jésuite Pierre Joseph-Marie Chaumonot (1611-1693). Elle est divisée en trois parties. D’abord nous examinons les transformations culturelles de Chaumonot pendant sa jeunesse, sa nature nomade, et la façon dont le récit de sa vie est modelé sur le Bildungsroman et la vie de Jésus Christ. Ensuite, dans les deux chapitres qui suivent, nous analysons le contact entre ce Jésuite nomade et les Nations amérindiennes de Nouvelle-France, d’abord avec les Hurons, et ensuite avec les Iroquois et les Neutres afin de trouver des
transferts culturels bidirectionnels ainsi qu’un rapprochement culturel.


title: Reconfigurable Matching Networks for High Power GaN Microwave Amplifiers

abstract:
This thesis demonstrates the feasibility of using a GaN monolithic reconfigurable matching network to provide variable load impedance matching coverage for microwave power amplifiers operating in the X-band (8-12 GHz).  The National Research Council's GaN500 (0.5 micron) HFET process, fabricated at the Canadian Photonics Fabrication Center (CPFC), is employed throughout this work.  An initial investigation of various switch topologies is first conducted, showing the advantages and limitations of using single and multi-transistor switch realizations for the development of a multi-stage
programmable impedance tuner (PIT).  Then, the design, optimization, fabrication and testing of a single stage of the proposed PIT structure are presented.  The results show an extensive range of impedance coverage on the Smith Chart can be achieved, although this range is limited by losses.  Finally, the co-integration of the resulting programmable tuners within a GaN power amplifier circuit is simulated, and its performance is studied.


title: Methodology and Experiments to Determine Soot and NOx Yields from a Vertical Lab-Scale Flare Burning Alkane-Mixtures and Ethylene

abstract: Species yields and combustion efficiency of lab-scale flares, turbulent non-premixed buoyant flames, were measured. A new facility was constructed allowing gas mixtures to be burned on 38.1 to 76.2 mm diameter flares at flow rates up to 410 standard litres per minute. A methodology was developed to quantify species yields and combustion efficiency within calculated uncertainties. Results showed combustion efficiencies greater than 97.8% in all cases, with up to 90% of the non-CO2 carbon emitted as soot. Soot yields were heavily dependent on flare gas chemistry, ranging from an average of 7.34∙10-5 kg-soot/kg-flare-gas for methane tests to 1.20∙10-2 kg-soot/kg-flare-gas for ethylene tests. NOX data suggest that average mass yield per energy content of the flare gas is 3.76∙10-2 kg-NOX/GJ and is independent of exit conditions and fuel chemistry for the range of fuels considered. Results are compared with published soot and NOX emission factors and potential scaling methods are discussed.


title: Multi-agent planning for interactive emergent narrative systems

abstract:
Generation of narrative is a domain that is mostly exclusive to human authors. Most current narrative generators use planning to adapt or follow a human authored story or guideline. This work proposes an engine for Creation Of Novel Adventure Narrative (CONAN). It uses a procedural approach to story generation that uses series of quests to make a rich player – NPC (non-player character) interaction from which a structured narrative can emerge. The engine is tested on its ability to create quests, which are sets of actions that must be performed in order to achieve a certain goal, usually for
a reward. Compared against human structural quest analysis, the current engine was found to be able to replicate the structure found in commercial video game quests.


title: 3-D and the Cinema of Distractions: The Rise of 3-D as a Gimmick, and Its Inevitable Fall

abstract:
3-D has had a long and tempestuous relationship with mainstream cinema. From its early days as a parlour attraction to its use as a gimmick in the huge Hollywood blockbusters now being made, the cinematic standardization of 3-D has always been in question due to its cycle of success and failure. By examining what factors influenced the decline of other film gimmicks—notably economics, technology, and psychology—and examining how closely 3-D is being affected by those same pitfalls, it is determined that 3-D is seeing yet another downfall. The reason for the consistent renaissance of 3-D
technology in particular is also considered, as the industry is doubtlessly using it as a stepping-stone for the development of cinema as a form of virtual reality.


title: Taking Back the News? A Study of Muslim Media in North America as Alternative Media

abstract: This thesis examines the role of Muslim media in providing unique discourses in the media landscape that differ from the mainstream media. Two print Muslim newspapers, The Muslim Link and Muslim Link, are used as a case study to explore how the journalism, goals and practices of the Muslim media differ from the mainstream media. A mixed method approach, comprising comparative content analysis, discourse and text analysis and interviews, is used in the study. The content of both Muslim newspapers is compared to the mainstream newspapers of their respective regions. Drawing from theoretical perspectives on alternative media, the findings show, in varying ways, that these Muslim newspapers are able to provide an alternative in terms of their coverage, representations and discourses. The newspapers are also able to foster social and political engagement in their communities and in many ways attempt to write the Muslim community’s own narrative about itself.


title: Prediction and Assessment of the Surface-Based Aeroacoustics of Vertical-Axis Wind Turbines

abstract:
Aerodynamic and aeroacoustic prediction tools are developed for rigid rotor blades to provide insight into the aeroacoustics of vertical-axis wind turbine rotor blades. The aerodynamic component uses an unsteady inviscid panel method over the surface of the blades to predict the unsteady pressure distribution over the surface, with vortex particles shedding from the blades to represent their freely-convecting wake. The aeroacoustic component employs a non-penetrable version of Formulation 1C of the Ffowcs Williams-Hawkings equation to predict the noise from surface-based acoustic sources
called thickness and loading noise. The prediction tools are compared to accepted results for fundamental test cases and vertical-axis wind turbines before being used to investigate the aerodynamics and acoustic noise of vertical-axis wind turbine rotors. Investigations into the effects of the blade geometry, the geometric scale of the rotor, the number of rotor blades, and the tip-speed ratio of the rotor on the acoustic field are presented.


title: Italy's New Anti-Corruption Law: Factors that Affect Regional Implementation

abstract:
Corruption is a central cause of economic, financial, and political risk and instability; depreciated social capital and trust; democratic deficit; and violence and terrorism. It is thus no surprise that as regionalization and the integration of global markets has intensified, the fight against corruption has become an important part of the global policy agenda. This thesis investigates Italy’s new Anti-Corruption Law (Legge n. 190/2012)—a law that was passed by Mario Monti’s technocratic government in 2012, as part of a series of structural reforms designed to stabilize the Italian economy.
This thesis looks at the Anti-Corruption Law from a regional lens. By speaking to Italian academics, jurists, politically-engaged citizens, regional anti-corruption officials, and Transparency International Italia, this thesis evaluates the implementation of the Anti-Corruption Law in two regions and identifies factors that affect its implementation at the regional level.


title: Reliable, Real-Time Acceleration Measurement Toward Automated Monitoring of Driver Behavior

abstract:
As in other countries, Canada needs to be ready to care for an aging population. Innovation is needed to make health care more efficient and effective. One solution is to monitor health remotely using the Internet. Driving is a high-order function, and its loss can be catastrophic for an elderly person’s independence. Unfortunately, physicians do not have the tools they need to adequately determine their patients’ driving ability. This thesis details the design and implementation of a remote patient monitoring system that is capable of real-time monitoring, tests its performance, and utilizes
it to observe aspects of driver behavior.
Data were collected on sixteen acceleration/deceleration profiles using accelerometers, GPS, and dashboard velocity. The resulting acceleration waveforms were filtered with an adaptive filtering algorithm and compared. Differences between hard and soft acceleration profiles are clearly visible, and notable features of each may be characteristic of individual driver behavior.


title: In with the Old and Out with the New Adaptive Re-use of our Dying School

abstract: Architecture and communities together create a ‘sense of place’. Communities transform over time due to the economic and social needs. Consequently, architecture should be transforming as well in order to respond to surrounding context, however it is not. Among many structures, schools are important to create a sense of community for neighborhoods. Schools today are under enormous pressure to maintain educational excellence meanwhile facing continuous budget cuts. Historic schools like any other form of architecture have layers of history, values and memories. The history behind a structure consists of forms of transformation based on alternation and recreation that continue the life of a building. This thesis seeks to explore the relationship between architecture and communities through adaptive reuse and participatory design in order to enrich the experience and meaning of the building.


title: The Aquatic City, Post-Oil Phase of the Caspian Sea

abstract:
In the midst of all the political struggles in the Caspian region the only thing that is certain is that the resources will be exploited one day. All regional countries are hoping for a secure access to a largely untapped reservoir of oil. Rigs will be installed, pipelines will flow, and the oil will be sold. Yet as this process moves inevitably forward, it is also becoming clear that the petroleum economy and its associated operations will have a limited lifespan. Beyond that moment when the last barrel of oil leaves the seabed, the Caspian will remain. A wasteland of what once was a unique
eco-system. This thesis proposes to develop a strategy for post-oil reactivation of the Caspian Sea (specifically in Iran) by reviving abandoned offshore platforms; a plan that identifies potential new resources and establishes activities that will form the basis for ongoing occupation of the sea.


title: Transforming Borders: Transforming the Airports Built Environment Through Environmental Psychology, Proxemics and Therapeutic Design

abstract:
Within a hyper-culture, people suffer from mental fatigue caused by daily stress and strains. The airport is a prime example of a space that heightens anger, anxiety and stress unintentionally due to the unique nature of air travel. The environment of air travel exposes a series of potential adverse events within a brief and concentrated period of time that evokes negative emotions. The airport provides a unique situation where psychology, anatomy and architecture meet and overlap with the potential to resolve most of the situations leading to anxiety and instead create a space designed to be
therapeutic rather than induce stress. The unplanned voids of waiting spaces have the potential to become spaces that will not only serve the purpose of waiting but also create a restorative environment rather than an uncomfortable void.


title: Outsiders

abstract:
The awkwardness of the suburban environs could be likened to a young teen: unsure, flippant, aggressive, and ill prepared, and for these we can forgive them. It takes time to refine character. How best to guide their development? The worry of course, is that the damage is done, and we've entered into the relationship too late to have any significant impact on the outcome. Or, have we caught it early enough, and we hope we have, that we could nurture and train it back into a healthy, productive and inspired place to be. This thesis will defend how to put an end at once to the nowhere of
the suburban utopia, and a beginning to place, purpose and posterity.


title: Contemporary American Art at the National Gallery of Canada (1967-79): The Surprising Legacy of Brydon E. Smith

abstract:
This thesis draws upon Bruno Latour’s concept of Actor-Network-Theory (ANT) to assess the active mediator role played by Brydon E. Smith, the National Gallery of Canada’s (NGC) first Curator of Contemporary Art, as the NGC began to collect postwar American art. Considering the ensuing expansion of its collection from 1967 to 1979, I focus specifically on Smith’s survey exhibitions of artists James Rosenquist (1968), Dan Flavin (1969), Donald Judd (1975) and their related acquisitions, as well as one by Jackson Pollock. Documentary sources in the NGC archives and a questionnaire and interviews
with former colleagues of Smith have provided important insights into his curatorial choices and methodology. This research clarifies how curatorial agency may shape the aesthetics and coherence of a public collection. The NGC’s newly acquired credibility in a broader North American cultural context is demonstrated through the critical reception of Smith’s exhibitions, publications and acquisitions.


title: Co-Housing+: Towards a Greater Urban Community in Toronto

abstract:
This thesis grew from understanding the present common values of today’s contemporary society, where people are less unified and prefer their secluded private realm showing diminished interest in integrating with the public sphere. The significance of social values and the benefits of being and living with others are lost to many societies impacted by the consumer culture. The research focuses on the enduring patterns of social relations and the design aspects of the well-established cohousing model in order attain the desired sense of belonging in the proposed design. The thesis proposes
co-housing+, a mixed-use community-oriented residential complex in Toronto, which is designed to promote a balanced private and public life for the inhabitants, creating an urban community.


title: There’s No Place Like Home…Anymore: Domestic Masquerade & Faux-Housewife Femme Fatale in Barbara Stanwyck’s Early 1940’s Films

abstract: Barbara Stanwyck’s performance as Phyllis Dietrichson is considered to be the quintessential femme fatale. Despite this, the consideration of her other femme fatale performances is minimal. Her contribution to the canon of the subversive figure can be located in her engagement with the domestic, specifically her disruption and transformation of domestic spaces through the utilization of her sexuality and sexualized image. This thesis will explore the ways her characters in the early 1940’s films BALL OF FIRE, DOUBLE INDEMNITY, and CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT are narratively and formally positioned as cinematic fatales in their representation and use domestic masquerade and gender performance in order to prove their narrative agency.


title: An Evaluation of Two Dimensional and Three Dimensional User Interfaces for Colour Selection

abstract: Three dimensional graphical user interfaces is a subject long studied, but due to its technical dependency on large amounts of processing power, it has not been possible to implement until recently. Due to these recent advances in computing technology there has been a recent research interest in the HCI realm focused on spatial interactive devices and complementary technologies. This paper introduces a technology system that was created after reviewing existing research and then used to create an application on top of the system framework that provides research data on 3D user interface applications.


title: An Economic Analysis of Children's Behavior and Academic Experiences in Canadian Schools

abstract:
Using a confidential Canadian dataset of children and youth (National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth), I have provided empirical evidence of the school performance, bullying behavior, and language immersion of children in four chapters of the Ph.D. thesis.
In the first chapter, the academic performance of children of immigrants is compared with that of their classmates of Canadian-born parents. The comparison starts when children are in kindergarten and continues until they grow up to become adolescents.
	In the second chapter, the bullying behavior of children is explored.
This chapter focuses on the identification of causality between parental control and children’s bullying behavior, which is generally under-investigated in the existing literature.  First, we build a theoretical model to capture the strategic dependence of children’s bullying behavior and the corresponding parental control. Then, we employ conditional fixed effects logistic estimation to test the theoretical conclusions.  The empirical results support our hypothesis that stricter disciplinary measures taken by parents are more effective in deterring the child from bullying when all the other
factors are held constant. The causality is carefully justified by making great efforts to account for all possible identification issues.
	Chapter 3 studies the children’s bullying behavior in a dynamic scenario by answering the question of when is the best time to stop bullying. Results from the semi-parametric propensity score matching suggest that early bullying detection and intervention contributes to a positive suppression effect on it.
	In the last chapter, we provide empirical evidence on who are in French immersion programs and who are more likely to drop out of French immersion.
Results from the two-stage least-squares estimation indicate that children with higher reading ability are more likely to enter French immersion programs. Both simple logistic estimation and duration analysis


title: Towards Personalized Interactomes

abstract: This thesis presents a preliminary study to evaluate the ability of our sequence-based protein-protein interaction prediction tool (PIPE) to detect changes in the interactome caused by non-synonymous Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs). Sequence-based PPI prediction is not sensitive to SNP-induced interactome changes, however sequence-based PPI interaction site prediction can be used to extract information regarding interactome changes. PIPE on its own does not perform well on detecting the effects of SNPs. However, this lack of sensitivity is not limited to PIPE, but likely affects all sequence-based methods. Using the interaction site prediction feature of PIPE, PIPE-Sites, a number of interactions are identified for which there is reason to believe that they may, in fact, be affected by SNPs. To examine the effect of co-occuring SNPs, genotypes are extracted from the 1000 Genomes initiative. It appears that PIPE-Sites is able to identify subsets of interactions likely affected by particular genotypes.


title: Healing Heritage: New Approaches to Commemorating Canada’s Indian Residential School System

abstract:
In anticipation of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, this thesis examines Canada’s federal place-based heritage infrastructure and critiques the policy and practice of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC) relative to its engagements with the history of Indian residential schools (IRS) and difficult heritage in general. Interpreting IRS Survivor-led commemoration and heritage practices as healing and decolonizing, and drawing on art-as-resistance and social activism-oriented models of commemoration and counter-commemoration, I examine
alternative approaches to collective remembering and forgetting within the context of genocide, atrocity, and historic trauma. I argue for a needed shift from dominant heritage paradigms that bind heritage with conservation, to emergent approaches that recognize heritage as a healing practice. In conclusion, I present a series of recommendations to move toward bridging the gap between state practices of heritage, and the needs of Survivors and other IRS stakeholders.


title: Error Correction of Quantum Channels

abstract:
As manifested in Shor’s groundbreaking seminal work, quantum mechanics promise the possibility of having substantially more effective computation devices. This is in fact the result of quantum parallelism: the coherent interference pattern between the multitude of superpositions.
But the fragility of a quantum state, which on one hand is used to take advan- tage of the power of entanglement, also can result in undesired interference between the state of the quantum system, carrying or storing the information, with the envi- ronment. The problem of maintaining quantum coherence remains one of
the most important obstacles in the attempt of exploiting the new possibilities opened up by applications of quantum mechanics in classical computations.
The seminal independent work of Shor and Steane gave birth to the current active theory of quantum error correction, which is the subject of this thesis.


title: Design and Evaluation of a Learning Assistant System with Optical Head-Mounted Display (OHMD)

abstract: The rapid increase in the use of wearable technologies, especially Optical Head-Mounted Display (OHMD) devices, suggests potentials for education and requires more scientific studies investigating such potentials. In particular, the issue of information access and delivery in classrooms can be of interest where multiple screens and objects of attention exist and can cause distraction, lack of focus and reduced efficiency. This study explores the usability of a single OHMD device, as an alternative to individual and big projected screens in a classroom situation.


title: UML Model to Fault Tree Model Transformation for Dependability Analysis

abstract:
This thesis proposes a model transformation to automatically generate Fault Tree models from UML models annotated with dependability annotations. Fault tree analysis is a top down deductive failure analysis model using both qualitative and quantitative analysis of undesired events of a system. It is used in safety and reliability engineering.
The main purpose of this work is to use a specialized model transformation language to transform UML Sequence Diagrams, along with UseCase Diagrams and Composite Structure Diagrams (extended with MARTE/DAM stereotypes) into Fault Tree Models. The trans-
formation language used in this study is ATL (ATL Transformation Language). The transformation covers both hardware software, as well as their allocation within the system.


title: Stochastic Optimization for Emerging Wireless Networking Paradigms with Imperfect Network State Information

abstract:
In wireless networks, network state information (NSI) usually consists of channel state information (CSI) and queuing state information (QSI). NSI, especially CSI, has been widely used in designs and conﬁgurations of wireless networks. However, most of the existing works assume that NSI is perfectly available at the decision making entities in the network. In general such assumption is not practical because of various limitations to acquire perfect NSI. Especially, in the context of the emerging wireless networks considered in this dissertation, it is crucial to consider imperfect NSI because
it is challenging to measure and to convey perfect NSI in these systems. Due to the inaccuracy of NSI, it is challenging to make optimal decisions.
In this dissertation, we address those issues under the framework of stochastic optimizations. We ﬁrst consider coordinated multi-point cellular networks with delayed CSI. The base station clustering and rate allocation problem in uplink is formulated as a networked Markov decision process, for which we derive the optimal policy with low computation cost. We further study how to provide better support for mobile cloud computing services in a
cloud radio access network (C-RAN) in the second wireless networking paradigm. We formulate the problem by maximizing the system throughput while constraining the user response latency within speciﬁed values. The third wireless networking problem discussed is the resource sharing problem for software-deﬁne device-to-device communications in virtual wireless networks given imperfect NSI. The problem is formulated as a discrete stochastic optimization problem addressed by the proposed discrete stochastic approximation algorithms. The last type of wireless networks considered is unmanned aerial
vehicle (UAV) ad hoc networks, where CSI measurements suﬀer from the high mobility of nodes and the challenging tactical environment. Discrete stochastic approximation based algorithms are also developed to combat the challenging operation environment of UAV ad hoc networks.
With the tools from stochastic optimizations, we can reduce the eﬀect of imperfect NSI in those wireless networks. Extensive computer simulations are presented to show that our proposed schemes can outperform the existing schemes.


title: Geographies of Power, Subjectivity and Belonging: Campesino Land Claims in Inzá, Cauca, Colombia

abstract:
This project investigates how collective rights to land are rooted in blood and soil, and with what repercussions. In 1991, Colombia adopted policies of multiculturalism to codify rights for collective political subjects. Struggling against acute dispossession, social movements are using multiculturalism's openings in a bid to claim land. I argue that multiculturalism in Colombia spatializes and ethnicizes rights possibilities, particularly rights to land. The state privileges land claims by ethnicized political identity groups able to demonstrate an autochthonous presence in specific,
delimited territories. Drawing primarily on semi-structured interviews with leaders of the Campesino Association of Inzá, Tierradentro (ACIT), I explore how the state simultaneously forecloses land claims by much of the subaltern population, while re-legitimizing its authority through a seemingly progressive agenda of rights protection. I also consider how recognition based on autochthony risks naturalizing divisions between similarly marginalized groups, and complements the oppressions and exclusions fostered by neoliberal globalization.


title: On the Separation of Personal and Professional:  Sex, Work, Law, The Girlfriend Experience, and The Interpersonal Relationships of Independent Escorts

abstract:
I explore the ways in which independent escorts who offer the Girlfriend Experience (GFE) create and maintain boundaries between their personal and professional lives. These boundaries are important for both escorts and their personal partners. Occasionally, some of these boundaries are crossed with certain clients. I also explore how the interpersonal relationships of sex workers affect the spaces in which they work. Most of my participants have been in relationships wherein their partner did not support their work as independent escorts. Often, these workers would transition into
agency-based massage to mitigate the intimacy between themselves and their clients, which is perceived as less threatening to their partners. Due to the criminalization and stigmatization of sex work, sex workers who work in these spaces experience barriers to being intimate with clients. Furthermore, they experience adverse working conditions. It is for these reasons that the sex workers I interviewed preferred working independently.


title: The Sensitivity Enhancement of Fiber-Based Bragg Sensors with Resonant Nano-Scale Coatings

abstract:
Fibre Bragg grating sensors have emerged as a simple, inexpensive, accurate, sensitive and reliable platform, a viable alternative to the traditional bulkier optical sensor platforms.
In this work we present an extensive theoretical analysis of the tilted fibre Bragg grating sensor (TFBG) with a particular focus on its polarization-dependent properties.
We have developed a highly efficient computer model capable of providing the full characterization of the TFBG device in less then $3$~minutes for a given state of incident light polarization. As a result, the polarization-dependent
spectral response, the field distribution at the sensor surface as well as the fine structure of particular resonances have become accessible for theoretical analysis.
As a part of this computer model we have developed a blazingly fast full-vector complex mode solver, capable of handling cylindrical waveguides of an arbitrary complex refractive index profile.
Along with the theoretical study we have investigated optical properties of the TFBG sensor with application to polarisation-resolved sensing.
We proposed a new method of the TFBG data analysis based on tracking the grating
transmission spectra along its principle axes, which were extracted from the Jones matrix.
In this thesis we also propose a new method of enhancing the TFBG sensor refractometric sensitivity limits, based on resonant coupling between the TFBG structure resonances and the local resonances of nanoparticles deposited on the sensor surface. The $3.5$-fold increase in the TFBG sensor sensitivity was observed experimentally.


title: Physical Volcanology and geochemistry of Upsal Hogback Volcano, Fallon, Nevada, USA

abstract:
Upsal Hogback volcano is a tuff cone built up from phreatomagmatic eruptions that is
located near the city of Fallon, Nevada. It is composed of indurated basaltic ash and
lapilli tuff with abundant basaltic bombs. The edifice consists of the north complex (1
vent), and the south complex (3 vents). The edifice has also been severely eroded by
glacial Lake Lahontan, obscuring the original morphology of the volcano, making it look
similar to a tuff ring and not a tuff cone. Geochemical analysis of bomb samples from
Upsal Hogback show that the north and south complexes are geochemically
distinct but
still have a similar aesthenospheric mantle source. The magma supplying the volcano
originated from a spinel peridotite or low percent garnet mantle source. Neighboring
volcanic centers, Soda Lakes and Rattlesnake Hill, also have similar mantle sources and
also are volcanic types on the phreatomagmatic spectrum.


title: The Evaluation of Neurodevelopmental and Behavioural Correlates of Acute Postnatal Exposure to di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate in Rats

abstract:
Phthalates are synthetically derived chemicals used as plasticizers in a variety of common household products. They are not chemically bound to plastic polymers and over time  easily migrate  out  of  these  products  and  into  the  environment.  Experimental investigations  evaluating  the  biological  impact  of  phthalate  exposure  on  developing
organisms  are  critical  given  that  that  estimates  of  phthalate  exposure  are  considerably higher in infants and children compared to adults. Extensive growth and re-organization of neurocircuitry  occurs  during  development  leaving
the  brain  highly  susceptible  to environmental insults. The primary goals of this dissertation were to evaluate the effects of early developmental phthalate exposure on brain structure and function, and to explore what changes  in  neurobiology  were  associated  with changes  in performance using behavioural measures of cognitive function. Widespread disruptions in hippocampal and dopaminergic neurocircuitry were reported in DEHP-treated male rats while only minimal changes in neurobiology were observed in DEHP-treated female rats. The cognitive effects of  postnatal  DEHP  exposure  were
 marginal  and  were  only  evident  in  female  rats. The biological  contributors  underlying DEHP-induced  changes  in  neurodevelopment  and behaviour are not fully understood, but it is likely that the effects of DEHP are mediated
by different mechanisms in male and female rats. Decreased BDNF expression may be a potential  candidate  for  the  near-selective  detrimental  effect  of  DEHP  exposure  on neurodevelopment  in  male  rats.  The  up-regulation  of  hippocampal  lipids  may  serve  a neuroprotective  role  in  DEHP-treated  female  rats. Comprehensive  investigations  which
simultaneously assess the  neurodevelopmental  and  behavioural  correlates  of  DEHP exposure  are  needed and  will  provide  an  opportunity to  thoroughly  evaluate  the  toxic potential of DEHP.


title: Spatial Ecology of Fish in Toronto Harbour in Response to Aquatic Habitat Enhancement

abstract:
Every year billions of dollars are being spent on rehabilitation activities in hopes of improving the state of degraded ecosystems. In this thesis, I considered the practical aspects of acoustic telemetry for studying habitat enhancement and investigated the effectiveness of habitat enhancement initiatives in Toronto Harbour by comparing fish habitat use of six species in two enhanced slips to two non-enhanced slips. During spring, Northern pike were found to spend more time in the enhanced slips compared to the non-enhanced slips. All other species did not spend significantly different
amounts of times across the slips. When Largemouth bass and Northern pike were experimentally displaced in the enhanced slips, they left within 29 hours suggesting that the enhanced habitats did not provide substantial direct benefits to adult fish in this study. Overall, telemetry studies with good experimental designs are considered valid tools for management.


title: Mapping ACL to JavaMOP: A Feasibility Study

abstract:
Model-based testing (MBT) is a quality assurance technique where a test suite is
generated from an abstract model. There are a number of different approaches to
accomplish model-based testing. While state-based techniques dominate, they have
a number of inherent issues. These issues have led to the pursuit of alternatives such
as scenario-based approaches.
ACL/VF is one such scenario-based approach. Developed by Dr. Corriveau
and his students, the ACL/VF system provides both a language to specify an
implementation-independent testable model of a specification and the tool to validate
an
implementation against this model. However, the current implementation of
ACL/VF has a number of issues that prevent it from being a usable solution. In particular,
the current version of ACL/VF is extremely .NET3.5 specific. Unfortunately,
upgrading it to a more recent version of .NET essentially amounts to a complete
rewrite. Given the widespread use of Java, a most immediate research question is
to determine whether or not it is feasible to reimplement ACL/VF on that platform.
Our claim is that this reimplementation can be accomplished through a mapping from
ACL specifications to JavaMOP
monitor specifications. The following thesis provides
two case studies supporting this claim as well as an element-by-element proposed
mapping.


title: Experimental Study Of Profile Losses in Three Transonic Turbine Cascades

creator: Sooriyakumaran, Christopher Alexander Russell

abstract:
This thesis documents the experimental study of the aerodynamic performance of transonic
turbine cascades, with particular emphasis on the profile losses generated at design incidence.
The midspan flow was measured for three transonic turbines from two Siemens industrial gas
turbine engines and were compared with the predictions from the
Kacker & Okapuu (1982) loss system. Loss predictions for a fourth turbine were also made.
The loss predictions did not accurately capture trends observed in the
data. Losses for the turbines were underpredicted, particularly those with negative
inlet metal
angles.  An alternative correction for Reynolds number effects due
to Aungier (2006) was shown to slightly improve the loss predictions for a rough cascade.
The measured losses also showed a tendency to level off in a plateau at low supersonic Mach
numbers. This is not predicted by the Kacker & Okapuu loss system.


title: Simulation of Ductile Fracture in Pipeline Steels Under Varying Constraint Conditions

abstract:
This study has two major objectives: (1) to study the effect of non-singular T-stress (or constraint) variations on crack tip opening angle (CTOA) of pipeline steels using modified boundary layer (MBL), and (2) to simulate ductile crack propagation in pipeline steels using drop weight tear test (DWTT) and comparing these FE simulations with experimental results.
The calibration of various CZM was done using different traction-separation laws. Mainly, three models named SSY, MBL, and DWTT were used for three sets of materials: TH steel, C2 steel and C4 steel. The crack tip opening angles were
obtained from all the FE simulations (ABAQUS-Finite element program).


title: Your Effort to Remain What You Are is What Limits You: Transhumanism in the Films of Mamoru Oshii

abstract:
The purpose of this graduate thesis is to analyze the animated films of director Mamoru Oshii in order to examine the director’s use of the concept of transhumanism (the belief that the human race can evolve beyond its current physical and mental limitations, especially by means of science and technology) and how it informs both the subject matter of his films, as well as the director’s own signature directorial style and themes. The goal is to demonstrate that all of his films are informed in some way by an analysis of the transhuman, though the difference between them is that some analyze
the subject from a cynical angle, others tackle the subject directly in a more optimistic and speculative fashion, while others still use it as an allegory for the director’s own political and social views.


title: Useless Architecture

abstract:
Useless Architecture is driven by three principal goals: the first is to re-examine the primacy of utility as a measure of value; the second is to explore the role of useless space within the fabric of the city, and the third is to consider what meaning and application the notion of uselessness has for architecture.  The thesis is divided into four sections. It begins with a focus on utility as a concept. The second portion includes a creative consideration of useless space in the city and dysfunctional tools of mapping. This is followed by an exploration of utility through a consideration of
artistic projects, monuments and ruins. In the final section, the research is manifested as an architectural proposal for a stair to nowhere, added to the Chaudière Ring Dam on the Ottawa River in the heart of Canada’s national capital region.


title: Chasing the Caux Guiding Principles: Assessing their Legacy on Monitoring and Evaluation of Media Assistance

abstract:
Post conflict societies offer an opportunity to reform and democratize media, as part of peace building and democratization. Since the 1990s, nongovernmental and intergovernmental organizations have provided assistance to local media in societies emerging from conflicts.
This thesis explores the concept of monitoring and evaluation of media assistance in conflict and post conflict settings. Only when properly assessing the assistance can we understand if and how it has an impact on peace building and democratization.
The thesis’ case study is the Caux Conference, which assembled key
actors and resulted in eight principles, the Caux Guiding Principles, providing advice on how to improve the sector. I interviewed six of the thirty participants to find out if the conference had an impact and if the principles are being applied. The research suggests that the Caux Conference did not have a substantive direct impact, but that some of the principles are applied.


title: Regulating Ontario’s Prohibition-Era Standard Hotels: How the “Needs” and “Demands” of Ontario’s Localities Impacted the Board of License Commissioners and the Liquor Control Board of Ontario’s Decision-Making Process, 1916-1934

abstract:
This thesis examines the regulatory process associated with Standard Hotels operating throughout Ontario during the provincially enforced ban on the consumption of alcohol, 1916-1934. Due to its position as a publicly available and accessible institution, the Standard Hotel was a highly contested site. The thesis identifies three factors that influenced the State’s granting of a “Standard Hotel License and Light Beer Permit.” These include: the distribution and frequency of establishments throughout the province; the ability for individuals to influence the License and Permit process; and the
features and areas of a Standard Hotel that were of greatest concern to the authorities, the operators and members of the general public. The thesis argues that the regulation of Ontario’s prohibition-era Standard Hotels was a highly contentious topic that was subject to the varying “needs” and “demands” of the community.


title: A Comparison of Conceptual Rainfall-Runoff Modelling Structures and Approaches for Hydrologic Prediction in Ungauged Peatland Basins of the James Bay Lowlands

abstract:
James Bay Lowland peatlands are environments with unique hydrologic characteristics that challenge some basic assumptions embedded within many hydrology models, including topographically-driven lateral flows and hydrologic connectivity of all terrestrial landscape elements within the stream network. With increasing resource development in northern lowland regions of Canada, more rigorous and honest appraisal of modelling capabilities and deficiencies is warranted. This study was initiated with the following two objectives: (1) to compare the performance of two popular conceptual
rainfall-runoff models, TOPMODEL and HBV, for rainfall-runoff simulation in a James Bay Lowland peatland complex in the James Bay Lowlands, and (2) to compare regionalization methods to maximize the predictive value of available landscape information to improve model calibration using HBV. HBV was found to outperform TOPMODEL, which was altogether unsuitable for this environment. Regionalization analyses and results favoured empirical methods such as artificial neural networks to improve predictive capabilities of the HBV model.


title: Swarm Optimization Using Agents Modeled as Distributions

abstract: Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is a popular meta-heuristic for black-box optimization. Many variations and extensions of PSO have been developed since its creation in 1995, and the algorithm remains a popular topic of research. In this work we explore a new, abstracted, perspective of the PSO system and present the novel Particle Field Optimization (PFO) algorithm which harnesses this new perspective to achieve a behaviour distinct from traditional PSO systems.


title: 2D Dynamic Stall Simulations with Time-Varying Freestream Representative of Helicopter Flight

abstract:
Dynamic stall of helicopter rotor blades occurs on the retreating blade in forward flight, where the angle of attack and freestream speed change quickly causing increased aerodynamic loads, causing blade vibration that limits helicopter forward speed. Difficulties in modelling variable freestreams lead current dynamic stall models to neglect this parameter. This thesis examined the influence of an unsteady freestream on the mechanism of dynamic stall, using a 2D URANS CFD simulation. The inlet velocity boundary condition was changed as a function of time. The angle of attack was 15 ± 10
degrees and the Mach number was 0.18 – 0.78. The variable freestream caused shock-induced flow separation at low angles of attack, delaying stall and enhancing the influence of the trailing-edge vortex. An increase in aerodynamic loads was observed. The results suggest that the variable nature of the freestream is an important factor in modelling dynamic stall.


title: Non-invasive Assessment and Compensation of Soft-tissue Artefacts in Hip Joint Kinematics

abstract: Determination of the hip joint centre by functional methods suffers inaccuracy due to the soft tissue artefact; this is the relative motion between the markers and the underlying bone due to the muscle and skin deformation. To solve this issue, we present a non-invasive method to assess and reduce the effect of the soft tissue artefact using optical motion capture data and tissue thickness from ultrasound measurements during flexion, extension, and abduction of the hip joint. The marker displacements are dependent on the movement type, being relatively larger in abduction movement. The quantification of soft tissue artefacts is used as a basis for a correction procedure for hip joint centre and minimizing the soft tissue artefact effects. Results show that our method for soft tissue artefact assessment and minimization reduces the error in the functional hip joint centre approximately from 13-23mm to 7-14 mm.


title: Examining the Construct of Proficiency in a University's American Sign Language (ASL) Program: A Mixed-Methods Study

abstract:
American Sign Language (ASL) has become increasingly popular as a second language option at universities and colleges in North America. While a growing number of hearing, adult learners are enrolling in ASL classes, this has not been paralleled (yet) by an equal development in ASL research. There has been insufficient investigation into what constitutes ASL proficiency development and how proficiency can be validly and reliably assessed for this group of learners. This mixed-methods study explores the ASL program at a Canadian university. It investigates the construct of proficiency from
three angles: instructors' understanding and definitions of ASL proficiency; how student proficiency is determined through current assessment practices and; student responses to assessment practices. Results of this study suggest that in this context ASL proficiency is not clearly defined. Without a clear construct definition, what current ASL assessments are actually measuring is unknown, and consequently may not be providing valid results.


title: A Learning Behaviour Based Controller for Maintaining Balance in Robotic Locomotion

abstract:
A new approach to robotic balance control under disturbance, called the Behavior Based Locomotion Controller (BBLC), is presented. This architecture implements a Behavior Based Control (BBC) architecture to generate new balancing strategies to compensate for unknown disturbances in the environment. This is achieved by dividing bipedal locomotion into several task-space motions, defining multiple balancing behaviors for each task-space motion and using a reinforcement learning algorithm to determine which behavior combinations result in new balancing strategies. The controller is implemented
on ABL-BI, a 13 degree of freedom bipedal robot. Three disturbances cases are examined: a push disturbance, a step under one foot and a slope. For each case, the BBLC is able to generate a new balancing strategy that increases the robustness of the system to the disturbance. Additionally, an evaluation of the selected balancing behaviors is completed using a stability analysis of the linear inverted pendulum.


title: ‘Actually-existing’ Neoliberalism in Nairobi, Kenya: Examining Informal Traders’ Negotiations Over Access to the Entrepreneurial City

abstract:
This thesis explores the outcomes of entrepreneurial urban governance in Nairobi, Kenya, through the ethnographic purview of informal traders negotiating access to space.  While I demonstrate that the urban renewal process in Nairobi reflects the ongoing shift to entrepreneurialism and subsequent securitization occurring in many cities around the globe, I examine how features of the local context – in particular, the presence of powerful informal authorities and informal political structures – have complicated the implementation of its national development plan, Vision 2030.  I argue that the
outcomes of neoliberal urban renewal are at odds with the stated aims of creating a more secure and democratic city. I proffer that these dynamics are both produced by and reproductive of differentiated forms of citizenship that have been enforced in Nairobi since the colonial era, and have long contributed to urban stratification and, by extension, urban insecurity.


title: Aesthetics of Terror: Reflections on Post-911 Literature and Visual Culture

abstract:
This dissertation investigates cultural responses to visual representations of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. I examine the aesthetics, contexts, and politics of post-9/11 visual culture across a range of media with a primary focus on photography and fiction. Recent scholarly articles and book length surveys on post-9/11 culture overwhelmingly charge popular literary and visual texts with participating in the reproduction of hegemonic norms and supporting a regressive climate of anti-feminism, hyper-masculinity, and reactionary politics. I contend that many scholars actually
foreclose alternative interpretations and the production of new knowledge regarding post-9/11 literature and visual culture in the pursuit to reveal dominant ideologies at work. This project unfolds in three main sections, each of which develops “reparative readings” of visual and literary texts in an attempt to redeem valuable political, ethical, and affective aspects of post-9/11 visual culture. The first section outlines post-9/11 victory culture and American exceptionalism through corporate media suppression of Richard Drew’s photograph, “The Falling Man.” I examine how dominant national
narratives repress Drew’s photograph in an analysis of New York nostalgia and the cultural resurgence of tightrope walker Philippe Petit. Following Judith Butler’s more recent work, I argue that images of falling bodies might be redeemed, citing Jonathan Safran Foer’s employment of images in his fiction as an example, through an ethics of vulnerability. The second section examines William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition as a narrative that runs contrary to academic perceptions that figure post-9/11 fiction as narcissistically preoccupied with national trauma. Drawing from Jodi Dean, I argue that
Gibson’s portrayal of “the footage,” a series of viral online images, reflects a harsh critique of online technologies and formulates terrorism as symptomatic of American imperialism and globalization. The final section examines the Bush Administration’s use of Joel Meyerowitz’s Ground Zero photographs as part of an international foreign policy tour to gain support for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Drawing from Jill Bennett’s extension of Deleuze’s philosophy of the event, I work beyond critiques that only posit these photographs as propaganda, exploring the uncanny and ethical dimensions
of Meyerowitz’s work, which has since been published as Aftermath.


title: Near-Field Explosion Effects on Reinforced Concrete Columns: An Experimental Investigation

abstract:
Explosion effects on structures have been an area of research over the last decades. This is mainly due to the fact that structures all over the world are increasingly exposed to the threat of all forms of explosion related failures.
Although significant amount of work is continuing on the effects of explosions on structures, experimental work involving live explosive testing is limited. Particularly, experimental work within the close-in range with scaled distance (z) less than 1.0 m/kg1/3 is scant.
An experimental program involving live explosive was designed to investigate the effects
of near-field explosions on reinforced concrete columns with different transverse reinforcement detailing and at different scaled distances (z = 0.22 m/kg1/3, z = 0.54 m/kg1/3, and z = 0.86 m/kg1/3).
Analysis of the experimental results showed that, Seismic columns performed better relative to Conventional columns. This is because of confinement effect that made the seismic columns more ductile.


title: Innovative Techniques for Analyzing Cyclist Behaviour and Predicting Cyclist Safety

abstract:
Cycling is an important mode of travel which offers powerful solutions to chronic traffic problems of congestion and emissions. Therefore, it is imperative for the road designers to have reliable information on the cyclist behaviour and characteristics to design safe and efficient cyclist facilities. The behaviour of the cyclist can be measured in different ways, including, cyclist crossing speed, cyclist violations, and cyclists- vehicle interactions.
The essential focus in this thesis was on cyclists, especially their speed measurement and analyzing cyclist-vehicle interactions. In this
thesis, a reliable video analysis technique to measure cyclist speed at signalized intersection was developed. This technique enables the automated observation of large volume of naturalistic cyclist movements in an accurate and resource-efficient manner.
As for cyclist safety, relying solely on collision records to analyze cyclist safety is challenged by inherent limitations in collision data. These limitations can be quantitative and/or qualitative. Traffic conflict techniques have been used as a proactive and integrated approach to collision-based road safety analysis. However,
traditional traffic conflict studies are mostly field-based studies and due to the subjectivity of field observers, errors were common when manually counting and deciding/judging whether a given traffic event is a conflict. In this thesis, interactions between motor vehicle and cyclists at signalized intersections were characterized using an objective conflict indicator; Post-Encroachment Time (PET).
The thesis also produced a sizeable database of 806 hours of video data for cyclist movements. A total of 19,058 cyclists and 48,632 vehicles were observed within a total period of 57 days. The
following contributions were achieved in this thesis: [i] video tracking system was improved from an open-source feature-based vehicle tracking system in order to track cyclist and vehicles and produce a trajectory database, [ii] different analysis methods were developed to measure cyclist crossing speed, [iii] automated measurement of cyclist crossing speed, [iv] investigation of the effect of different potential factors affecting cyclist crossing speed, [v] development and validation of an automated method to measure PET between cyclists and motor vehicles using video analysis techniques,
[vi] different statistical techniques were investigated to utilize PET observations to measure a cyclist safety.


title: Modeling Variability in Design Patterns using ACL

abstract:
Design patterns were created to promote reusability of solutions to problems found in software design. Unfortunately, the absence of a systematic approach to the categorization and organization of design patterns has hindered overall reusability by allowing several catalogues to overlap. In this thesis, I propose two approaches that use Another Contract Language (ACL) for the specification of such patterns. My goal is to demonstrate that it is feasible to capture the variability inherent in design patterns while producing a testable model. My two modeling strategies are compared with two
published, non-ACL approaches in a case study on the well-known Observer pattern. This case study illustrates the benefits of my proposed strategies in dealing with pattern variability and scenario capturing.


title: Jazz À La Creole: The Music of the French Creoles of Louisiana and Their Contribution to the Development of Early Jazz at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

abstract:
As a result of its unique colonial history, Louisiana was characterized by a three-tiered society in which the Creoles formed a middle-class that distinguished itself by its attachment to the French culture and language, and to the Catholic Church. Using creolization as a model to describe the process of cultural interchange leading to the creation of new cultural products, this thesis documents the contribution of the Creoles to the development of early jazz.
Already in the nineteenth century, Creole musicians played and/or sang classical, military and dance music as well as popular songs
and cantiques that incorporated African, European and Caribbean elements. When jazz emerged (1890-1917), they continued to play a significant role as teachers, bandleaders, instrumentalists, singers, and composers. Their most original contribution were the Creole songs, regularly performed during the formative years of jazz but recorded only during the early jazz revival of the 1940s and 1950s.


title: The Role of Ghrelin in Reward-Based Feeding

abstract:
The incidence of obesity has nearly doubled in the last 30 years, and this rise in incidence is directly linked to increased consumption of energy-dense foods. The majority of people attempting to lose weight report relapse to high fat foods while dieting. The orexigenic hormone ghrelin can bind to dopaminergic cells in the ventral tegmental area (VTA), a key structure in the brain’s reward system, and increase the incentive value of such foods. Ghrelin increases the motivation to work for food rewards, enhances the preference for contexts associated with them, and augments the locomotor and
physiological responses associated with them. The experiments described in the present thesis aimed to establish the role of ghrelin in 2 additional reward-based feeding behaviours thought to contribute to the current obesity epidemic. The first behaviour is the consumption of palatable desserts after meals that adequately satisfy an individual’s energetic demands. The second behaviour is the tendency to relapse to food seeking after a period of abstinence. In order to accomplish this, we compared ghrelin receptor knock out (KO) rats to rats possessing an identical genetic background, with an
intact ghrelin receptor gene (wildtype rats – WT) in tasks designed to model these behaviours. In addition, we examined outbred rats receiving chronic infusions of either ghrelin or a ghrelin receptor antagonist in the VTA. Overall, the data presented in this thesis confirmed the role of ghrelin signalling in dessert consumption; KO rats ate less cookie dough when sated than WT rats. KO and WT rats performed similarly in operant conditioning and conditioned place preference models of relapse, also known as the operant and CPP reinstatement tests. In contrast, pharmacological action at the
ghrelin receptor in outbred rats could enhance and attenuate the expression of reinstatement of food seeking that is induced by food reward cues following administration of ghrelin and a ghrelin receptor antagonist, respectively. It is therefore likely that ghrelin is involved in the tendency to relapse to unhealthy eating habits in dieting individuals, and that this effect is due, in part, to its action in the reward system, particularly within the VTA.


title: Arcellaceans (Testate Lobose Amoeba) as Proxies for Arsenic and Heavy Metal Contamination in the Baker Creek Watershed Region, Northwest Territories, Canada

abstract:
Arcellaceans (testate lobose amoebae) were examined for 61 sediment surface samples from lakes in the vicinity of the Giant Mine near Yellowknife, Northwest Territories to; (1) quantify the impact of the mine on the Baker Creek Watershed region, (2) determine the utility of arcellaceans as indicators of arsenic and heavy metal contamination and gauge the success of remediation efforts. Several statistical methods, including cluster analysis, Deterended Correspondence Analysis (DCA), and Redundancy Analysis (RDA), were used to quantify the impact of mining activity on the arcellacean
assemblages. Cluster analysis revealed five arcellacean assemblages associated with a range of environmental conditions (e.g. polluted, transitional and remediated). Partial RDA results confirm that arsenic has the greatest influence on the arcellacean distribution, explaining 10.7% of the total variance. Stress-indicating species (e.g. Centropyxids) correlate with high arsenic concentrations, while species characteristic of more healthy lake conditions (e.g. Difflugids) dominate sites with significantly lower arsenic concentrations.


title: Numerical Sequence Recognition: Is Familiarity or Ordinality the Primary Factor in Performance?

abstract:
Lyons and Beilock (2009) suggested that the degree of ordinal association in 3-digit numerical sequences is a primary factor in the speed and accuracy with which people recognize numerical sequences. Using two experiments I examined an alternative hypothesis, specifically that having automatic access to a larger set of memorized (i.e., familiar) sequences is the determining factor in performance. Participants were shown four types of ordered stimuli, with corresponding unordered sequences. In general, highly-skilled participants responded faster than their less-skilled counterparts. All
participants were slower to reject unordered sequences that shared numbers with highly familiar sequences (e.g., 3 1 2) than with relatively unfamiliar unordered sequences (e.g., 7 1 2): this pattern is referred to as an interference effect. Participants were faster to identify familiar ascending than descending sequences, despite being equally ordered. These results support familiarity, and not ordinality, as the determining factor in sequence recognition.


title: Impact Assessment of Electric Vehicle Charging on Power Distribution Systems

abstract:
This thesis investigates the impact of electric vehicle (EV) charging on distribution power systems through the following two tasks. The first task is to build the model of EVs connecting to the grid. Based on this model, the impact of EV charging on the distributed system at the neighborhood level is analyzed on both summer and winter peak days. These impacts are evaluated by taking into account the limitations of the rated transformer capacity and secondary drop lead current. In addition, as a practical concern for the power grid, the transformer ageing cycle is also investigated when EVs
are penetrated into the grid. The other task is to investigate the impact of EV penetration across the entire distribution system. The EV charging impact on a feeder of the distribution system of Hydro Ottawa is assessed by considering the feeder unbalance and energy loss.


title: A Quaternion-Based Motion Tracking and Gesture Recognition System Using Wireless Inertial Sensors

abstract: This work examines the development of a unified motion tracking and gesture recognition system that functions through worn inertial sensors. The system is comprised of a total of ten sensors and uses their quaternion output to map the player's motions to an onscreen character. To demonstrate the system's capabilities, a simple virtual reality game was created. A hierarchical skeletal model was implemented that allows players to navigate the virtual world without the need of a hand-held controller. In addition to motion tracking, the system was tested for its potential for gesture recognition. Despite the widespread use of Hidden Markov Models, our modified Markov Chain algorithm obtained higher average recognition accuracies at 95% and faster computation times. Combining motion tracking and dynamic gesture recognition into a single unified system is unique in the literature and comes at a time when virtual reality and wearable computing are emerging in the marketplace.


title: The Influence of Vegetation and Climate on Wildfires in Jasper, Alberta, Over the Last ~3,500 Years

abstract: This study employed a multi-proxy approach to gain insights into past fire dynamics within the watershed of Little Trefoil Lake in Jasper, Alberta, Canada. Charcoal analysis and dendrochronology were used to characterize the historical fire regime and place past trends within the context of the present day landscape. A ~3,500-year record of fire events was established by analyzing macroscopic charcoal remains, and pollen analysis was used to determine changes in the dominant vegetation type. Charcoal and pollen analyses indicated that climate has been the strongest control on the fire regime around Little Trefoil Lake over the last ~3,500 years. The contemporary fire record, as reconstructed using tree-ring data, showed that the watershed has experienced a mixed-severity fire regime. Active fire management strategies adapted to this type of fire regime should be pursued to ensure the resilience of forests as we continue forward in a period of rapid climate change.


title: Hearing in Butterflies: Neurophysiological Characterization of the Auditory Afferents in Morpho Peleides (Nymphalidae)

abstract:
Many butterflies have well developed tympanal ears on their wings but little is known about what they are capable of hearing in their natural environments. The tympanal ear of many butterflies, including Morpho peleides, comprises an outer membrane and a conspicuous inner dome (tholus), both of which are innervated by two separate auditory nerve branches (NII and NIII) and their respective sensory organs. Using extracellular neurophysiological recordings, I explored how this morphology contributes to mechanical sound frequency and amplitude discrimination. I also show that the auditory nerves
of M. peleides responded to playbacks of the broadband cyclic sounds produced passively during flight of blue jays (Cyanocitta cristata), as well as to the low frequency vocalizations of one of its main avian predators, the rufous-tailed jacamar (Galbula ruficauda), providing further evidence that butterflies and possibly other diurnal insects could be using their sense of hearing to detect and avoid avian predators.


title: Statistical Inference in the Presence of Missing Data

abstract:
In this thesis, we study statistical inference in the presence of missing data. In Chapters 2-4, we obtain asymptotically valid imputed estimators for the population mean, distribution function and correlation coefficient, and propose adjustments to Shao and Sitter (1996) bootstrap confidence intervals under imputation for missing data. We show that the adjusted bootstrap estimators should be used with bootstrap data obtained by imitating the process of imputing the original data set.
    In Chapter 5, we establish a goodness-of-fit test that can be applied to the case of longitudinal data
with missing at random (MAR) observations, by combining the concepts of weighted generalized estimating equations (Robins et al., 1995) and score test statistic for goodness-of-fit (Hosmer and Lemeshow, 1980; Horton et al., 1999). We show that the proposed goodness-of-fit method that incorporates the missingness process should be used when dealing with intermittent missingness.
    In Chapter 6, we study a conditional model for a mixture of correlated, discrete and continuous, outcomes and apply the likelihood method to MAR data. We conduct a simulation study to compare the performance of
estimators resulting from the joint model with estimators based on separate models for binary and continuous outcomes. We show that when all data are observed, adopting the mixed model does not lead to notable improvements; on the contrary, under a scenario with binary MAR data, the joint model performs significantly better.


title: Optimal Component Selection in High Dimensions

abstract:
It is now the modern trend and reality in various fields of life and science that the data sets to be analyzed are high dimensional, and the number of observations is much smaller than their dimension. As the classical statistical methods are not designed to deal with big or high-dimensional data, the problem of developing new methods of high-dimensional statistical analysis is very important. In this thesis, we study the problem of component or variable selection in a normal mixture model based on a single high-dimensional observation. The goal is to examine the possibilities and limitations
of optimal component selection in a two-point normal mixture model and, whenever possible, to construct optimal selection procedures. In addition to that, the problem of estimating an unknown parameter that determines the sparsity pattern of the data is addressed.


title: Far-field and Near-field Optical Properties Of Strongly Interacting Silver Nanocrystals

abstract:
Noble metal nanocrystals are known for their remarkable optical properties that are caused by the result of their ability to support a localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR). These optical properties can be observed in the far-field, through their optical extinction or in the near-field by a highly enhanced electric-field localised to the surface of the particles. The goal of this work was to study properties of supported silver nanocrystal ensembles as they interact with their substrate, neighbouring nanocubes and the resulting mutual interactions. Demonstrated is the ability to finely
tune plasmonic properties of silver nanocube monolayers by controlling the interparticle spacing and the properties of the underlying substrate. Control over these properties is applied to the optimisation of substrates used for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). Control over the plasmonic properties is achieved by directing the assembly of silver nanocube (AgNC) ensembles. The primary means to do so is by using the Langmuir-Blodgett technique to control nanoparticle surface density. These monolayers are placed on a number of substrates such as glass, silicon thin films, and titanium
oxide thin films. Demonstrated in this work is the ability to shift plasmonic modes using interparticle interactions or particle-substrate interactions. The local electric field enhancement in these monolayers is investigated thoroughly by SERS, and demonstrated is the dependence of the enhancement on particle cluster size, charge transfer processes, and the location of the target molecule in the monolayer. By gaining insight into how these interactions affect the local electric field at the surface of the nanoparticles, lessons gained through this work could be applied towards the
optimization of surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy.


title: Resource Management in Wireless Cellular Networks with  Heterogeneous Capacity Supply and Heterogeneous Traffic Demand  (HetHetNets)

abstract:
In this thesis we use the term HetHetNets to refer to cellular networks in which the traffic demand is also heterogeneous due to reasons such as user spatial clustering and diversified user traffic types, in addition to the heterogeneity in the capacity supply.
The main objective of this thesis is to study the essential problem of matching the traffic demand ("load") with the capacity supply ("capacity") in resource-limited HetHetNets; this problem is expected to be a major concern in the fifth generation (5G) cellular networks.
This thesis proposes two approaches
to address this problem. One approach is to deploy small-cells to the centers of user clusters (put supply where needed), and another approach is to guide users to the cells that are lightly loaded (load balancing via spatial traffic shaping).


title: Complex Vibratory Signalling and Putative Receptor Mechanisms in the Masked Birch Caterpillar, Drepana Arcuata (Lepidoptera, Drepanidae)

abstract:
The masked birch caterpillar, Drepana arcuata, uses 3 distinct signals when defending its territory from conspecific intruders. The 3 signals are anal scrape, mandible drum and mandible scrape. This study's goals were twofold: first, to test hypotheses on the functional significance of these complex signals, and second, to identify putative vibration receptors in the proleg. Based on experimental trials of size asymmetry certain signal characteristics of the mandible drum and anal scrape were observed to vary between individuals of different mass suggesting the 3 signals could be a
result of content based selection and that size information is conferred during an interaction. Trials where the measuring distance was varied, only 2 characteristics of the anal scrape differed significantly between the four recording distances. A dissection study of the proleg discovered that both internal and external structures were innervated. Innervated setae and putative chordotonal organs may function as a multi-component receptor.


title: Slavery by a New Name:  Children, Childhood and Forced Labour in Colonial Ghana, 1855-1914

abstract:
The topic of child labour receives a great deal of attention from humanitarian and non-governmental organizations, but from a historical perspective, child labour has been under researched and under studied.  Looking specifically at colonial Ghana, this study analyzes the effects of anti-slavery legislation and the presence of the Basel Mission Society on the lives of African children.  It argues that as the institution of slavery went into decline in West Africa, the forced labour of children actually became more common.  In its analysis of children and forced labour, this thesis will make
clear that there is, in fact, a great deal of insight to be gained from including children in the narrative.  In doing so, assumptions about key themes such as the racialization of labour, the gender division of labour, and the capacity of children to negotiate and shape the terms of their labour can be complicated.


title: Indigenous Modernities and the Performance of the Music of Bolivian Mission Archives the Ensamble Moxos

abstract:
During the seventeenth century the Jesuits established the missions of Moxos in what today is Bolivia. In these missions Western Baroque music was used as an instrument of evangelization, and after the expulsion of the Jesuits from Latin America in 1767 the Indigenous people continued performing this music and preserving the scores. This music can be found today in the archives of Chiquitos and Moxos, the only mission archives in Latin America (Nawrot 2000). Since 1996 young people of Moxos perform this repertoire at the San Ignacio de Moxos Music School and its most important ensemble:
Ensamble Moxos. Through the analysis of the repertoire performed by the Ensamble Moxos, I will explore the way in which their performance practices, which resist being labelled as either “traditional” or “modern”, express how the Indigenous people of Moxos experience modernity and what it means to be Moxeño in the context of globalization.


title: The Effect of Fasting on LH Secretion in Female Rats with Mutations to the Ghrelin Receptor Gene

abstract:
We investigated how ghrelin can mediate the inhibitory effects of fasting on the reproductive axis using female rats with a point mutation to the gene encoding GHSR. For this purpose, we fasted FHH GHSR KO rats and their WT counterparts starting on the evening of metestrus and ending 42h later on the expected proestrus afternoon. Rats were then euthanized; blood was collected and analyzed to compare plasma LH and estrogen concentrations between these animals and controls. Fasting significantly decreased LH concentrations in all rats regardless of their genotype. Interestingly, GHSR KO rats
showed overall higher LH concentrations than WT rats regardless of their condition. Estrogen levels were not influenced by the genetic mutation and fasting. These findings suggest that ghrelin signalling is not required for a fasting-induced decrease in LH concentrations. However, ghrelin may modulate reproductive function as a negative feedback signal that reduces LH release regardless of energy state.


title: Role of Ghrelin in Modulating Motivational Components of Reproduction

abstract:
Reproductive fitness and physiology are tightly coupled with, and dependent upon, metabolic needs and energy balance. The main objective of the current thesis was to investigate the effects of ghrelin acting on the medial preoptic area (mPOA) and the ventral tegmental area (VTA) on the anticipatory and consummatory aspects of male sexual behaviour. Results from the first experiment suggest that ghrelin acts on the mPOA to inhibit sexual appetitive behaviours and shorten copulatory behaviours without influencing food consumption. In the second experiment, ghrelin receptor antagonism in the VTA
reduces anticipatory behaviour when compared to saline. The current research supports the idea that the availability of oxidizable fuels, and its subsequent neurochemical signals, may set the stage for the quantities and sensitivity of several neuropeptides and neurotransmitters acting on critical brain regions involved in reproductive appetitive behaviors.