title: Intra-lake and inter-lake variation in copper tolerance in Daphnia from clean and metal-contaminated lakes

contributor:
Pyle, Greg
Lee, Peter
Matheson, Carney

subject:
Effect of contamination on Daphnia
Adaptation in Daphnia
Daphnia culturing
Daphnia isolates
Toxicity testing

abstract:
The freshwater invertebrate Daphnia can persist in historically metal-contaminated lakes
due to its ability to adapt to metal contamination. Since different Daphnia isolates have been
shown to have varying degrees of tolerance to metals, metal toxicity testing in Daphnia is a
useful model for studying intra-population variation. However, many ecological studies of
Daphnia use single isolates to represent the population, with an assumption of minimal diversity.
Copper LC50 tests were performed among Daphnia isolates from clean and metalcontaminated
lakes in order to analyze variation in metal tolerance. Daphnia from metalcontaminated
lakes were found to be significantly more tolerant to copper than clean lake
isolates (p = 3.5 x 10-4), and had a slightly lower degree of variation of LC50 (COV = 19.9%)
compared to that of clean lakes (COV = 21%). However, pairwise LC50 comparisons found
more significantly different comparisons in metal-contaminated lakes (40.7%) than clean lakes
(25.9%). Of the within-lake pairwise LC50 comparisons, 33.3% varied significantly, compared
to 65.9% for among-lake comparisons. Overall variances within lakes were not significantly
different than among lakes (p = 0.147), demonstrating high intra-lake variability in metal
tolerance despite significant overall differences in average values. The Lactate dehydrogenase
gene (Ldh) and NADH dehydrogenase 5 gene (ND5) were used to distinguish Daphnia
pulicaria, Daphnia pulex and hybrid species and analyze genetic diversity in metal tolerance.
Analysis of Ldh genotypes revealed that Daphnia with S and F alleles were significantly more
tolerant than Daphnia with two F alleles (p = 1.8 x 10-4). Phylogenetic reconstructions based on
ND5 gene sequences showed that Daphnia isolates from metal contaminated lakes clustered
together showing a reduction in genetic diversity, while clean lake isolates clustered among four different haplotypes (three pulex and one pulicaria).
These results suggest that metal contamination reduces genetic diversity among Daphnia
isolates within lakes by selecting for metal-tolerant phenotypes, which correlates with the Ldh SF
genotype. This reduction in diversity can negatively impact Daphnia’s ability to adapt to future
environmental stress, and the high variability within the populations from clean lakes suggests
multiple isolates should always be used when collecting representative Daphnia isolates for
studies.


title: Influence of local and landscape scale factors on the presence, relative abundance and characteristics of brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) in beaver ponds

contributor:
Mackereth, Robert
Rempel, Rob
Lee, Peter
Leung, Kam

subject:
Brook trout habitat
Beavers Habitat Ontario, Northwestern
Brook trout (Ontario, Northwestern)

abstract: Study area : Mackenzie River watershed, northeast of Thunder Bay, Northwestern Ontario (drains into Lake Superior)

abstract:
Beaver ponds are a characteristic component of northern Ontario stream
ecosystem s and display a great deal of variation through their natural cycle of
establishment and abandonment. Ponds also provide habitat for brook trout (Salvelinus
fontinalis) within small-stream systems. However, the habitat characteristics of ponds
used by brook trout, and the characteristics of brook trout in the ponds is poorly
understood. I evaluated the local and landscape scale habitat characteristics of beaver
ponds that are associated with the presence, relative abundance and physical
characteristics of brook trout. Brook trout were captured in 40% o f 50 beaver ponds
sampled. Angling proved to be the most reliable method to sample brook trout in ponds,
however, catchability appeared to be strongly influenced by temperature. Catch per unit
effort (CUE) was significantly higher in ponds with water temperatures within the
approximate preferred thermal range of brook trout (11 ° C to 18 ° C) (ANOVA , F 2.48 =
5.259, p = 0.026). Peak CUE occurred between approximately 14 °C to 18 °C . Beaver
ponds with brook trout present were generally characterized by greater upstream
catchment area (UCA), lower water temperature, higher dissolved oxygen, higher
conductivity, higher alkalinity, and greater depth. Brook trout were never captured in
ponds with an upstream catchment area (UCA ) less than 2.9 sq. km. In a logistic
regression model, UCA correctly predicted brook trout presence and absence in beaver
ponds (82.4%). In beaver ponds with a mean water temperature greater than 11 ° C,
predicted group membership using UCA was greater (92.9%). Model parsimony and
predictive ability increased when beaver ponds with an overall mean water temperature
greater than 11 °C were used in the analysis. Brook trout captured in beaver ponds were,
on average, 105 mm and 72 g larger than those in adjacent streams (Pi,i32i = 1658.2, P <
.001). Brook trout average size in ponds was larger in smaller UCAs, whereas, brook
trout in streams were larger in larger UCAs. My research illustrates that beaver ponds
provide complimentary and/or supplementary habitat for brook trout living in stream
systems. It is clear that pond characteristics at both a landscape and local scale are
associated with brook trout presence or absence, likely through the ability of brook trout
to colonize the pond and the suitability and stability of habitat within the pond. Further
research is required to better understand the linkage between local and landscape scale
characteristics influencing brook trout habitat and abundance in small headwater streams
and insure the protection of these linkages from disturbance.


title: Multi-analytical residue analysis of the trihedral adze: a case study for the introduction of new methodologies in boreal forest archaeology

contributor:
Matheson, Carney
Hamilton, Scott
Boyd, Matthew

subject: Trihedral adze

subject: Deglagication

subject: Hydrological and environmental history of Northwestern Ontario

subject: Paleohydrology

subject: Archaeological biomarker concept

abstract:
This thesis aims to evaluate the use of multi-analytical residue analysis in archaeological investigations in the Boreal Forest through the examination of a specific artifact class – the trihedral and related adze tool types recovered from the Thunder Bay District and surrounding regions. The trihedral adze has not yet been confidently attributed to any specific cultural period in the pre-history of the Thunder Bay region. It is hoped that a detailed analysis of this artifact type may provide insight into tool use, and allow it to be attributed to a specific culture. This work also addresses the feasibility of the analytical approach.
Methods employed include microscopy, biochemical and analytical chemical techniques with the research being approached using the Archaeological Biomarker Concept and the Artifact as Site Concept. Combining these approaches involves examining the artifact independent of the site using the methods noted above to determine the chemical nature of any residues, thereby allowing for an identification of residue source.
The methods employed were successful in identifying tool use. The findings of this research indicate the adzes were employed in the processing of conifer trees, at least some of which were treated with a controlled use of fire. This practice is consistent with the production of dugout canoes. At least one secondary tool use as a butchering tool was noted on one artifact. In addition to determining tool use these findings allow for the determination of site activities at archaeological sites which have not yet been excavated.


title: Synthesis and cytotoxic activity of diosgenyl saponin analogues

subject:
Cancer research
Saponins
Cell-mediated cytotoxicity

abstract:
Saponins are naturally occurring glycosides that are widely distributed in the plant kingdom and lower marine organisms. Saponins consist of a carbohydrate chain attached to either a steroid or triterpene aglycone. Diosgenyl saponins are among the most abundant steroidal saponins and have attracted much attention for a host of varying biological activities. In recent years, diosgenyl saponins have demonstrated anticancer activity in a variety of cancer cell lines. The antitumour effect of diosgenyl saponins is shown to be through apoptosis.
Structural complexity and limited accessibility have led to a poor understanding of the
mechanism of diosgenyl saponin anticancer activity. The position of attachment of
moieties on the aglycone and the variety of the side chains are all factors that contribute
to the complexity of a structure activity relationship study.


title: Verbal and imaginal therapeutic models in the treatment of music performance anxiety

subject:
Anxiety
Test anxiety
Music Performance


title: Locus of control and expectation of control in EMG biofeedback

subject:
Electromyography
Biological control systems
Locus of control

abstract:
This study examined the importance of cognitions in the feelings
of self-control on task performance and on certain subjective
states, via electromyographic (EMG) biofeedback training. Subjects
in a "misled” EMG feedback group were led to believe that they had
successfully reduced their EMG levels (induced cognition of
self control); in actuality, the subjects in the misled group
were yoked to subjects receiving feedback contingent oii their
ovv'n EMG levels; thus, the feedback received by the misled
group ’vvas that of their contingent EMG feedback counterparts.
The effects of this treatment v/ere explored in relation to
feelings of self control via Rotter's I-E scale, EMG task
performance during two training trials, state-trait anxiety
levels via the 3tate-Tra.it Anxiety Inventory (STAI), and other
subjective states via some self-report questionnaires. These
data were compared to those of the EMG group receiving feedback
contingent on their own EMG levels and to a control group which
was also yoked to the contingent feedback group, but who were
informed that this was the case.


title: Pollen pool heterogeneity in natural stands of upland and lowland black spruce (Picea marinana (Mill.) B.S.P.)

subject:
Pollen pool heterogeneity
Upland & lowland black spruce
Forest genetics
Isozyme
Genetic structure
Ecological correlates

abstract:
One of the basic assumptions of the mixed-mating model is that
the pollen pool of a population is homogeneous. However mounting
evidence would suggest that a homogeneous pollen pool is not the
norm in populations of forest tree species. Such a phenomenon may
have major implications upon the mating systems and genetic
structure of forest tree species. The present study was conducted
in order to develop a better understanding of the nature and
implications of pollen pool heterogeneity in natural populations of
black spruce. Four natural stands of black spruce within 100
kilometers of Thunder Bay, Ontario were studied using isozyme
markers from eight polymorphic loci. The stands studied represent
the two basic ecological conditions under which black spruce is
found, i.e. upland and lowland stands. Both log-likelihood G tests
and multiple group discriminant analysis indicated the presence of
heterogeneous pollen pools for all four sites. However, as
indicated by the canonical for the first discriminant function
of each site, the separation power of data from three of the four
sites was quite small (R2 of 0.063 to 0.127) . Only for Raith 2 was
the seperation power strong (R2 of 0.379). Overall the
heterogeneity tended to be random in nature. Due to the apparent
random nature of the heterogeneity it was not possible to associate
the examined site characteristics with the relative degree of
pollen pool heterogeneity observed in the four sites. Possible
agents which may have produced a heterogeneous pollen pool are
considered as are potential implications of this phenomenon on the
genetics of black spruce.


title: The lived experiences of ‘home' for women waiting to relocate into a long-term care home

contributor:
Wiersma, Elaine
Martin, Lynn
Schiff, Rebecca
McAiney, Carrie

abstract:
'Home' is typically described as a haven for safety, comfort, privacy, and familiarity. For older women who
are unsure of their future or who may have a different relationship with their place of residence, 'home' is
an experience that may be difficult to define. The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding
of older women's lived experiences of 'home' when they are on a waitlist to relocate into a long-term care
home. Using a hermeneutic phenomenology approach, three women were interviewed about their
experience of 'home' and how being on a waitlist affected the experience. For each woman, the experience
of 'home' was rooted in their individual life stories and their perspectives on waiting to relocate to a longterm care home were varied. Despite the differences, several common themes emerged from the interviews:
1) home is described as a feeling; 2) home is experienced through spatial embodiment; 3) the role others
play in the meaning of 'home'; 4) home is expressed through memories and past experiences; and 5) the
experience of 'home' through aging, life stages, and life events. The results of this study have implications
for practice for staff of home care organizations and long-term care homes who work directly with older
women who are on a waitlist to move into a long-term care home or who have recently relocated into a
long-term care home. This understanding of older women's experience of 'home' through relocation could
help staff make the transition an easier process.


title: Culvert installment and removals, how they affect surrounding habitat and how we can improve our methods of maintenance

subject: Watersheds and roadways

subject: Wildlife protection

subject: Culvert management

subject: Sustaining habitat quality around culverts

subject: Beaver management

subject: Long-term flood management

abstract: Culvert maintenance has been a problem for watersheds and roadways. The purpose for culvert installation is to increase the water carrying capacity away from road structures and buildings within the environment. Small mammals rely on culverts as habitat corridors for reproduction, food availability, and to escape predation. There are various management strategies developed for culverts so that they do not impact the surrounding habitat in a negative way, these include beaver deceivers, intake guards, and other management barriers. There are also several factors that influence types of management strategies for wildlife protection when it comes to culvert management. This study brings together results conducted from three plots in northwestern Ontario, where vegetation comeback and animal use were analyzed from culvert extractions along deactivated roads. This study also analyzes the process of extracting and installation of a concrete box culvert within a highly populated area. The study site in southern Ontario is used for recreation and tourism, it experiences frequent flooding from spring runoff and beaver damming. Management strategies have been suggested towards flood control and beaver damage within the watershed.


title: Synthetic approaches to five-membered heterocycles containing both ring and side-chain phosphorus atoms

contributor:
Holah, D. G.
Hughes, A. N.

subject:
Phosphenes
Complex compounds
Organic compounds Synthesis

abstract:
A brief review of the importance and variety of symmetrical
and unsymmetrical bisphosphines is given and the possible theoretical
and synthetic value of bisphosphines in which one of the phosphorus
atoms is included in a phosphole ring is outlined. This is followed
by a brief account of the electronic structure of phospholes in
the context of the possible aromaticity of such systems and the present
conflicting position is discussed. The catalytic activity of phosphole
complexes is also briefly reviewed in the context of possible extension
to catalytically active systems based upon phosphino-substituted
phospholes. Synthetic approaches to bisphosphines in general, and
the [superscript 31] P and [superscript 13] C NMR spectral properties of these and some of their metal complexes are discussed in some detail.
In the new work reported in this thesis, a number of
synthetically useful and structurally interesting five-membered
heterocyclic bisphosphines containing both ring and side-chain P atoms
have been synthesized. Their [superscript 31] P, [superscript '] H and [superscript 13] C spectral properties, particularly unusual [superscript 31] P shifts and long-range P - C couplings, have been thoroughly investigated and their structures have been unambiguously
established. It has been found that many of the reactions used
in these various syntheses are stereospecific or stereoselective.
A new and possibly general route to 4-oxo-2-phospholene oxides or sulfides from the corresponding 4-methy1ene compounds is described.
This highly unusual reaction involves free-radical catalysed
oxidative cleavage of the 4-methylene group by molecular oxygen and
the reaction was found to proceed very smoothly when AIBN is used
as the radical initiator for the oxidation. A possible mechanism
for this oxidation is proposed.


title: Community context of retiree migration intentions

subject: Migration, Internal Ontario, Northwestern

subject: Retirement Ontario, Northwestern

abstract:
Current research into retiree migration has
focused on identifying geographical patterns of migration
and on analysing the personal characteristics of retirees.
Very few studies have investigated the community context
of retiree migration. This research explores associations
between community characteristics and retiree migration
intentions through a study centered on small towns located
in Northwestern Ontario. It makes a contribution to
existing retiree migration literature through the development
and application of a theoretical perspective on
community retiree migration, based on Rose's concept of
an aging subculture and Breton's concept of institutional
completeness. Findings indicate that there is a strong
association between community characteristics and retiree
migration intentions. Retirees appear to intend staying
in those communities which have a complex set of community
characteristics. Conversely, retirees appear to intend
leaving communities which are less developed.


title: Optimization of hospital emergency department

contributor:
Choudhury, Salimur
Savage, David
Yang, Yimin
Yassine, Abdulsalam

subject: Emergency department optimization

subject: Integer liner programming

subject: Improving emergency department efficiency

abstract:
This thesis is centered around the topic of emergency department(ED) optimization. Working in conjunction with the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre
a simulation model was developed to determine an optimal physician schedule for the
high acuity portion of the ED. The simulation uses patients generated based on the
data provided. The simulation accounts for resource usage and coordinating physician patient interaction. As a secondary component to the thesis the minimum cut
problem is investigated, as it has potential in aiding physicians in the ED. During this
investigation a local search algorithm is proposed and the effects of parallelization are
investigated.


title: Plantation establishment following chemical site preparation with triclopyr and plantation release with triclopyr-glyphosate herbicide mixtures

subject: Site preparation (Forestry) Ontario Kakabeka Falls Region

subject: Plants, Effect of glyphosate on Ontario Kakabeka Falls Region

abstract:
Two field studies were conducted to evaluate the use of Release™ (triclopyr ester) for
chemical site preparation and its use in mixture with glyphosate for jack pine (Pinus banksiana
Lamb.) plantation release.


title: Archetypes of the collective unconscious in three novels by John Steinbeck

subject:
Carl Jung
John Steinbeck

abstract: The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the influence of work of Carl Gustav Jung on the fiction of John Steinbeck and to illustrate the value and appropriateness of Jung's psychology as a critical tool in explicating Steinbeck's fiction.


title: Effect of harvesting methods on the phytosociology of a boreal mixedwood forest community

contributor:
Farmer, Robert E.
Mallik, Azim
Duinker, Peter

subject: Forest regeneration (effect of logging on)

subject: Forest dynamics (effect of logging on)

subject: Boreal mixedwood

subject: Clearcutting

subject: Forest succession

subject: Harvest methods

subject: Natural regeneration

subject: Phytosociology

abstract:
A naturally regenerating boreal mixedwood site was remeasured 37 years after
four harvest treatments; clearcutting (CC), deferred 'softwoods only' cutting (DC),
'softwoods only' cutting (SC), and hardwoods poisoned, followed by deferred 'softwoods
only' cutting (HP). The objectives were to determine whether ; 1) harvest treatments
produced significantly different phytosociological communities: 2) harvest treatments
altered the normal trend of hardwoods dominating early succession, and allowed Picea
spp. to gain a competitive advantage; and 3) phytosociological trends and corresponding
possible environmental influences could be identified. Median polish and/or ANOVA were
used to compare; species density, dominance (basal area), frequency, cover, age, and
height for the tree stratum; species density, frequency and cover for the shrub stratum;
and species frequency and cover for the herb stratum. Median polish, species' diversity,
resemblance measures, and canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) were employed to
determine whether harvest treatments affected the overall phytosociological community.
Ratios of softwood to hardwood (S;H), spruce to fir (Spr;F), and spruce to hardwood
(Spr;H) were calculated for the tree stratum. Comparisons of pre-harvest data to
current data were made. Correspondence analysis (CA), CCA and cluster analysis were
used to search for the main phytosociological trends and to determine whether these were
related to soil moisture and depth.
Some treatment differences were evident for individual species. However,
species did not form groups that occurred exclusively or abundantly in only certain
harvest treatments. The four harvest treatments did not produce significantly different
phytosociological communities. This may be due to several factors; 1) the Initial
Floristics character of boreal forests: 2) chance factors in natural regeneration, and 3)
the confounding of treatment effects by complex environmental gradients. In terms of
improving spruce and softwood status, the results were not conclusive as to the
advantage over clearcutting of cutting only softwoods, and of poisoning hardwoods in
advance of cutting. Picea glauca (Moench) A. Voss, Populus tremuloides Michx., Populus
balsamifera L. and the Spr;H ratios, supported the expected trend of softwoods being
more prominent in HP than CC, and the reverse for hardwoods. However, Abies balsamea
(L.) Mill, Betula papyrifera Marsh., Picea mariana (Mill.) B.S.P. and the S;H ratios did
not support this trend. The Spr.F was generally higher in HP than CC. Conifers were
mostly of advance-growth origin in DC and HP, but of post-harvest origin in CC,
matching expectations that CC caused more damage to advance growth than did partial
cutting (conifer age in SC did not support this). The strongest phytosociological trend
identified was the change in canopy composition from hardwood to mixedwood to softwood
types. Understorey species distribution was related to either environmental gradients
created by canopy composition, or to some underlying gradients that determined both
canopy and understorey compositions. Soil depth and/or moisture did not appear to be
the determining factors. It is suspected that the boreal mixedwood community of the
RC17 site is best described as a continuum of species' presences and abundances,
determined by a complex set of interdependent environmental factors, which would need
to be clearly defined and accurately measured to determine conclusively whether harvest
treatments differentially affected the community.


title: Visuo-perceptual task performance across the menstrual cycle in women with and without premenstrual symptoms: potential influences of estradiol and estradiol sensitivity on retinogeniculostriate, extrastriate, and elementary retinal-based smooth pursuit pathways

contributor:
Wesner, Michael
Oinonen, Kirsten A.

subject: Premenstrual symptoms (PMS)

subject: Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD)............

subject: Menstrual cycle

subject: Estrogen & mood

subject: Estradiol

subject: Visual functioning

abstract:
The present study examined whether women with premenstrual symptoms (PMS) exhibit a different pattern of performance on psychophysical tasks across the menstrual cycle in comparison to control women. Research has shown that a related and more extreme
presentation of this phenomenon, Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD) may be experienced as the result of a heightened sensitivity to normal phasic changes in sex steroid concentrations. In addition, research suggests that performance on certain measures of visuo-perceptual ability is associated with changing levels of estradiol. Thus, women who are more sensitive to changing hormonal levels (e.g., women with PMS)
may exhibit different performance on such tasks when compared to controls; and as a function of the menstrual cycle. Control women (N= 18) and women with PMS symptoms (N= 16) performed a series of four psychophysical tasks during laboratory sessions at both the late-follicular (LF) and late-luteal (LL) phases of the menstrual cycle.


title: Particle swarm optimization based adaptive neuro-fuzzy interference system for MPPT control of a three phase grid connected photovoltaic system

subject:
Renewable energy
Solar energy conversion system
MPPT controllers
Solar photovoltaic panel modelling
Fuzzy logic
Artificial intelligence

abstract:
There is a significant demand for renewable energy systems to ensure sustainable and environmentally friendly living. Shifting from the use of fossil fuels to renewable energy sources will decrease both the reliance on these fossil fuels and associated pollution. By decreasing greenhouse gas emissions from energy generation, human induced global warming and environment destruction will slow. According to Environment and Climate Change Canada, Canada has committed, along with other leading countries in greenhouse gas emissions, to maintain the total global temperature increase below 2°C. Solar photovoltaic (PV) energy systems are of particular interest due to the availability and portability of such systems. According to Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), Canada’s reliance on solar energy as a renewable energy source is rapidly growing. NRCan claims that Canada’s total quantity of installed solar energy reached 1834 MW in 2014.
Therefore, the main objective of this thesis is to design an intelligent controller-based efficient solar energy conversion system in order to meet the growing demand for clean energy. Solar energy systems consist of a PV cell array (solar panel) that uses the sunlight to generate direct current (DC) power. To maximize efficiency of the energy conversion, a novel maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm is developed to deliver maximum power from the PV panel to the load. The conversion system must be designed to transfer maximum power regardless of the intensity of the sunlight and size of the load. Due to this requirement, the buck boost converter with an intelligent controller generating its control signal is the ideal solution. The converter is able to both step up and step down the input hence transferring maximum possible power at all times. Intelligent algorithms do not need exact mathematical models of the system and can handle any nonlinearity of the system. As an intelligent controller, a neuro-fuzzy controller (NFC), specifically an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS), will be developed to generate the control signal for the DC-DC converter while coping with variable weather conditions. A hybrid training algorithm is developed that implements particle swarm optimization to train nonlinear system parameters and the least squares estimator to train the linear parameters. The power at the output of the DC-DC converter can be either stored directly in batteries or converted to alternating current (AC) power. For simulation purposes of this thesis, the DC power available at the output of the converter is fed into a three phase, two level voltage source inverter that is controlled using proportional-integral controllers to control the d and q axis output voltages. Three phase output with constant amplitude and constant frequency is required to connect the system to the grid. The AC inverter output is filtered with an L filter and is interfaced with the grid to achieve effective grid connection.
Simulations of the proposed energy conversion system and the proposed ANFIS training algorithm are completed in MATLAB/Simulink. The simulation results prove the effectiveness of the designed ANFIS and proposed training algorithm as the ANFIS-based MPPT controller is able to extract maximum power from the solar panel for varying irradiance conditions. The simulations further prove that grid connection is possible while obtaining three phase output voltage and current with low total harmonic distortion. The real-time implementation of the system is performed using the dSPACE DS1104 development board for communication to and from Simulink running on a PC. The proposed ANFIS-based MPPT controller and the proposed training algorithm are verified in real-time for a wide range of irradiance condition and changes in load. As determined by real-time implementation, however, the grid connection poses a significant challenge due to unknown factors in the Centennial building at Lakehead University as well as a lack of funds preventing the purchase of vital equipment. As such, stand-alone mode of operation is attempted in which the output of the buck boost converter is connected to a resistive load. The real time results prove the efficacy of the proposed ANFIS-based control and training algorithms.


title: Effects of two training methods on flexibility

subject: Physical education and training

abstract:
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of two different flexibility training methods, 3S (Scientific Stretching for Sport) and SS (Slow Active Stretching). Warmup effects, differential joint responses, and the standardization of training procedures were controlled. Ss were 12
school girl basketball players, aged 12 to 1A. The research design consisted of four replications of a 3x3 Graeco-Latin square. Ss were assessed for flexibility at the beginning of a six week flexibility training program, at the conclusion of training and then after two two-week retention periods.  Data were analyzed with ANOVA and Orthogonal Comparisons.  Significance was determined at 0.05 level. Results showed:
1) flexibility training methods (3S and SS) improved flexibility,
2) the shoulder joint acquired more flexibility
than either the knee or ankle joint,
3) neither flexibility training method was superior to the other,
4) within two weeks of training cessation, both 3S and SS effects were lost
to a significant degree when compared to control effects.
5) after two weeks of training cessation, there was no difference between changes of the control and two training groups, and
6) there was no difference in loss of flexibility between the shoulder, the knee and ankle joints.


title: Race, Englishness and the media: depictions of urban rioting in England, 1980-81

contributor:
Jasen, Patricia
Harpelle, Ronald

subject: Riots England History 20th century

abstract: "Race, Englishness and the Media is an examination of racialised depictions of the urban  riots which broke out in England's major cities in the early 1980s. The analysis focuses on two  major English newspapers, the Times and the Guardian, whose reporting of the disturbances both  informed and drew from white, middle-class, English ideals. The media coverage of these  racially charged riots demonstrates a continued connection in English society to a set of white,  middle-class ideals which permeated all aspects of English society and kept immigrant groups on  the outside of mainstream English culture through generations.  The riots which erupted in English urban centres like Brixton, London, St. Paul's, Bristol  and Toxteth, Liverpool, were the result of decades of social and economic isolation of minority  communities. Social isolation of ethnic minority communties led to the creation of  countercultures which were often at odds with more traditional English mentalities, social  structures and institutions. Economic isolation contributed heavily to increases in criminality  among minority populations and inevitably clashes with the police. English society continued to  keep ethnic minority communities on the fringes of society, particularly notable in media  reporting where clashes between West Indian and South Asian communities were depicted as  alien, even when most of their populations were born and raised in England. An analysis of the  media reporting of the riots of 1980-81, clearly shows a reliance on and reproduction of white,  middle-class ideals in the English media which would continue to keep minority groups on the  fringes of society in the name of selling newspapers."-- from abstract.


title: UWB localization for autonomous indoor position control of VTOL UAVs

subject:
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)
Quadrotor UAV
Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL)
Control design

abstract:
As the popularity of quadrotor Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) grows, the need for reliable position estimation and control grows as well. Furthermore, with the size of these quadrotors decreasing and indoor use becoming possible, the need for indoor position estimation methods where Global Position System (GPS) measurements are unavailabe, is a growing topic to which many solutions have been suggested. Herein a method fusing Ultra-Wideband (UWB) range measurements and Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) measurements is implemented to produce reliable position and velocity estimates.
The position and velocity estimates from this system are then used as inputs to a position controller for the VTOL UAV system. Due to the underactuated nature of the system the position cannot be directly controlled, as such an intermediary control signal is defined. This intermediary control is used to determine the desired orientation and thrust of the UAV, which can then be controlled to achieve the desired position control. As the true orientation of the UAV is not directly measurable an observer using the available IMU measurements is utilized to estimate the orientation of the UAV.
Simulation and implementation results for the position estimation system, as well as the position control system are given.


title: A Century of change : documenting ecological landscape patterns in Northwestern Yunnan

contributor:
Wilson, William
Randall, Todd
Kemp, David

subject:
Vegetation mapping
China
Yunnan Sheng
Ecological Mapping
Ecology
Land Use
Landscape Ecology

abstract: This thesis provides a biogeographical analysis of the ecological landscape changes that have occurred in northwestern Yunnan over the past century. The practical purpose of this dissertation is to evaluate the major changes in landscape ecology and suggest causes behind the long-term patterns of ecological landscape change.


title: Behavioral conditioning of a primary humoral immune response in selectively bred lines of rats

subject:
Rats.
Immune response
Conditioning response

abstract:
Behaviorally conditioned immunosuppression o-f a primary humoral immune
response was investigated in both the sexes of five selectively bred lines
of rats. In the experimental group, an illness-induced taste aversion was
produced by pairing sucrose (CS) and cyclophosphamide (US), an
immunosuppressant that induces gastrointestinal distress. A nonconditioned
group received water as the CS and cyclophosphamide (CY) as the US while a
placebo group received sucrose as the CS and isotonic saline as the US.
Three days following the CS-US pairing, the animals received an injection of
sheep erythrocytes (SRBC). A hemagglutinating antibody titer was used to
assess the humoral antibody response (CR) six days later. Overall, there was
evidence of behaviorally conditioned immunosuppression. Taste aversion was
present 24 hours following conditioning in the MR/Har/Lu (p<.01), MNR/Har/Lu
(p<.05), SHS (p<.01) and RLA/Lu (p<.01) lines with persistant extinction in
MNR/Har/Lu animals and the appearance of taste aversion in the RHA/Lu
(p<.05) animals 48 hours following conditioning. Results are discussed on
behavioral and biochemical levels with a conclusion emphasising the
importance of research in behavioral immunology and calling for greater
attention to the field.


title: Mixtures of Metals and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons Lead to Complex Toxic Outcomes in the Freshwater Amphipod, Hyalella azteca

contributor:
Pyle, Greg
Prepas, Ellie
Norwood, W.
McLaren, Brian

subject:
Hyalella azteca
Aquatic toxicology
Metals
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)

abstract:
The study of ecotoxicology inevitably must address the fact that toxicants always occur in mixture.
Unfortunately, our present state of knowledge in terms of predicting the effects of contaminant
mixtures and understanding the mechanisms by which a mixture can produce non-additive (e.g., antagonistic or synergistic) toxicity is insufficient to advise regulatory authorities on appropriate water quality objectives for the protection of aquatic life. Metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are two ubiquitous contaminants that are often associated with similar effluent sources, such as bitumen and municipal waste. The adverse toxicological effects that metals and PAHs produce have given these contaminants the status of “priority pollutants” in many countries, including the USA and Canada. Thus, understanding their toxicological effects when in mixture should also be a priority. However, to date, there have been only 11 studies that have investigated the potential for metals and PAHs to produce non-additive toxicity. Of these 11 studies, reports of more-than-additive lethality have been equally common as strictly-additive lethality, raising concern
over the largely ignored ecological risk these contaminants types produce when in mixture.
The research outlined in this dissertation expands our understanding by providing the first
comprehensive review of mechanistic aspects of metal-PAH mixture toxicity that likely amount to
more-than-additive co-toxicity. This dissertation outlines experimental work investigating the
additivity of binary mixtures of Cu, Cd, Ni, and V, with either phenanthrene (PHE) or phenanthrenequinone (PHQ), two common PAHs. For cases where more-than-additive mortality was found, additional experimentation was carried out to explore interactive toxic mechanisms in attempt to explain why certain mixtures of metals and PAHs produce more-than-additive lethality. Finally, the effects of Cu, PHE, and Cu-PHE mixtures were studied in terms of their effects on behaviour, a sublethal endpoint that mediates ecological effects which can also be used to predict toxic mechanisms. All experimental work outlined in this dissertation involved the aquatic crustacean amphipod, Hyalella azteca, which was selected due
to its tractability in a laboratory setting, its ecological importance as a food source for fish, amphibians, and waterfowl, and its widespread distribution throughout North and Central America.


title: Communicable disease prevention and control program structure in Eastern Nova Scotia

subject: Public health Nova Scotia

subject: Communicable diseases Prevention Nova Scotia

subject: Communicable Disease Control Nova Scotia

abstract:
Public health nursing services and programs are intended to improve the health of the
population. These services must be evaluated to achieve this goal. Healthcare system changes in
2004 lead to two separate reviews of the Communicable Disease Prevention and Control (CDPC)
program in eastern Nova Scotia. The recommendations from both reviews resulted in the
development of a temporary CDPC program structure. The purpose of this paper is to provide an
outline of the key findings and recommendations from both reviews and the resulting CDPC
structure in eastern Nova Scotia. The literature review will outline a brief history of public health
nursing, the current role of public health nurses, the generalist and focused public health nursing
service models, and implications for future public health nursing roles. This paper will lay the
foundation for future and more in-depth evaluations of the current CDPC program in eastern
Nova Scotia.


title: Effects of flavopiridol on Cdk2 activity in cultured cell lines

subject:
Adenosine triphosphate Research
Flavopiridol Research
Apoptosis Research

abstract: Flavopiradol reduced cyclin-dependent kinase activity by competititve inhibition with ATP by binding to the ATP-binding pocket of these cell cycle regulators ... it was thought that flavopiradol would be an excllent inhibitor of cell proliferation and effective tumor suppressor ... Although apoptosis was not observed after a 24hr incubation period, the antiapoptotic protein Bcl-2 was downregulated.  Our findings illustrate an alternate mechanism of cdk2 inhibition in vitro, through p21 WAF1/CIP1 upregulation, showing that drugs that were shown to have specific activities when assayed using purified systems may have multiple in vivo activities  and these activities differ depending on the cells used. These different effects may contribute to the variable results seen in clinical trials.


title: Mineralization and tectonic setting of the Norton Lake Region, Uchi subprovince

subject:
Geochemistry
Petrology
Morphotectonics
Geological mapping
Northwestern Ontario

abstract:
The Norton Lake region is located approximately 50 km northeast of Fort Hope
within the northernmost unnamed assemblage of the Miminiska-Fort Hope greenstone
belt of the Uchi Subprovince, northwestern Ontario. An investigation of the region was
initiated to attempt to correlate this region of the Superior Province with tectonic
assemblages located to the southwest within other greenstone belts of the Uchi
Subprovince, and to understand the mineralization of the Norton Lake Cu-Ni-Co-PGE
deposit.


title: Evaluating an On-Reserve Methadone Maintenance Therapy Program for First Nations Peoples

contributor:
Mushquash, Christopher
Stroink, Mirella
Klein, Rupert

subject:
Cree Nations Treatment Haven
Methadone maintenance
Addiction treatment

abstract:
The use of alcohol and drugs is a significant issue faced by First Nations communities in Canada,
which is accentuated by high rates of mortality and morbidity resulting from opioid use.  The frequency of opioid-related emergency room visits and the higher prevalence of illicit prescription drug use disorders in First Nations populations suggest challenges. Methadone maintenance therapy programs are consistently found to be the most effective treatment for opioid dependence; however, due to financial, geographic, and cultural factors, Aboriginal individuals are less likely to initiate methadone maintenance therapy.
Cree Nations Treatment Haven is the first on-reserve methadone maintenance therapy program in Canada and the present study aimed to evaluate this program from clients’ perspectives.
Results indicated that individuals in treatment with higher rated improvement showed greater engagement, life quality, psychological functioning, physical health, relationships with family and friends, and a more
positive opinion of services and less motivation for treatment, psychological distress, problems
with alcohol, criminality, employment and life difficulties, and overall risk. Individuals with a more positive opinion of services reported higher engagement and lower motivation. Finally, individuals in treatment reported a decrease in drug use, high-risk, and criminal behaviours, and improvements in housing, employment status, and family support, since admission to the program.  Future evaluation
would be beneficial to solidify the present findings and clarify the importance of culture in treatment effectiveness.


title: Impression management and self-deception in problem gambling

subject: Gambling (Psychological aspects)

subject: Compulsive gambling (Psychological aspects)

subject: Compulsive gamblers (Psychology)

subject: Social impact of problem gambling

subject: Differentiating problem gamblers

subject: Gambling motivation

abstract:
Studies have shown that self-reports of attitudes and behaviour can be biased because of
socially desirable responding (Lajunen, Corry, Summala, & Hartley, 1997; Paulhus &
Reid, 1991). Recent investigations have supported two distinct types of socially desirable
response styles; impression management and self-deception. The present study evaluated
the relationship between gambling behaviours and both forms of socially desirable
response styles among social gamblers (n = 33), problem gamblers (n = 20), and non-gamblers
{n = 22). Three measures were administered: the South Oaks Gambling Screen
(Lesieur & Blume, 1987), the Self-Evaluation Survey of Gambling Behaviour (Beaudoin
& Cox, 1999) and the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (Paulhus, 1984). A
small but significant negative correlation was found between impression management and
problem gambling behaviours. Significant negative correlations were found between
impression management and numerous specific indices of problem gambling behaviour.
Contrary to predictions, no evidence was found to support the hypothesis that self-deception
was a factor in problem gambling behaviour. Socially desirable responses
tended to be more frequent in the non-gamblers (impression management) and social
gamblers (self-deception). Additional analysis revealed sex differences in response
patterns.


title: State and the reproduction of capital : urban renewal in Thunder Bay, 1965-1973

subject:
Urban renewal Ontario Thunder Bay
Capitalism.

abstract:
The purpose of this inquiry is to examine the relationship of
the state to the reproduction of capital. The thesis will consider
the question of the relationship of the state to capital at the
theoretical and empirical level, in a case study of urban renewal
in Thunder Bay.
At the theoretical level v;e will consider; (a) the relationship
of the state and capital accumulation; (b) collective consumption;
(c) the general necessity of state intervention into the production
of the built environment; (d) the state and crises in capital accumulation
and (e) urban protest movements. At the empirical level we will discuss:
(a) a particular state agency responsible for regulation of the built
environment - the Ontario Municipal Board and (b) The Local State.
Finally, we will bring these theoretical and empirical analyses together
in considering the case of urban renewal in Thunder Bay.
The thesis concludes with a discussion of the necessity of an
integrated theory of the state which is a combination of both instrumentalism
and structuralism. The concept of structurally induced instrumentality
is offered as a possible resolution of the structuralist versus
instrumentalism dilemma.


title: Perceived stress, psychological functioning and sleep in night eating syndrome

subject:
Depression
Evening hyperphagia
Morning anorexia
Night eating syndrome (NES)
Sleep disturbance

abstract: Night eating syndrome (NES) is defined primarily by evening hyperphagia, and may be accompanied by morning anorexia, sleep disturbance, and depressed mood that worsens in the evening. It is viewed as a circadian disorder that affects the timing of eating but not the timing of the sleep-wake cycle. NES has been linked to stress, depression, and anxiety, but the role that stress plays in the relation between NES and psychological functioning is not known. Most of the previous NES investigations have sampled from clinically obese populations making it difficult to generalize their results to nonclinical populations. The present study looked at stress as a moderator and as a mediator in the relation between NES and depression, state anxiety, sleep quality, and daytime sleepiness in a nonclinical sample of participants. Results showed that NES severity was positively related to depression, state anxiety, poor sleep quality, daytime sleepiness and perceived stress. No significant findings were obtained with perceived stress as a moderator. However, perceived stress fully mediated the relation between NES severity and depression, state anxiety, and daytime sleepiness. It also partially mediated the relation between NES severity and sleep quality. The findings suggest that compromised psychological functioning and sleep problems in individuals with NES arise from perceived stress.


title: Impact of culture and social inequality on risk communication : a case study of the Roseau River Anishinabe First Nation, Southern Manitoba

contributor:
Dunk, Thomas
Rasid, Harun
Wakewich, Pam

subject: Risk communication Roseau River Region (Minn. and Man.)

subject: Floods (Roseau River, Manitoba)

subject: Roseau River Anishinabe First Nation

abstract:
This thesis examines the sociocultural factors that influenced risk perception and
risk communication among the residents of Roseau River Anishinabe First Nation in
Southern Manitoba during the flood of 1997. I discuss the limitations of the technical
assessment of risk and the need to understand the cultural contexts in which risks are
framed and debated. I discuss how risk communication occurs within specific cultural
contexts and how the people of Roseau River chose risks other than flooding as their
focus for concern.
This research is based on both primary and secondary data collection. Primary
data sources include: I) a household survey of flood risk communication in the Roseau
River Anishinabe First Nation Community; 2) personal interviews with several residents
and key informants in the community of Roseau River; and, 3) ethnographic field notes
from three visits to the community. Secondary data sources include social science
literature on the social construction of risk and risk communication studies, and scholarly
and popular descriptions and analysis of the flood and its consequences.
Similar to other studies, this research confirms that risk is socially constructed and
furthers our understanding of how persistent disagreements about risk have their origin in
different belief and value systems. The residents of Roseau River had a different
dialogue of risk than other communities. This dialogue involved a rhetoric of rectitude
and a call for justice. I argue that risk is best understood when the social context of
framing is considered, rather than simply focusing on the physical or technological
agents. For the people of Roseau River the flood of 1997 was more about injustice and
government policy than it was about floodwaters and property damage. My data supports the argument that culture plays an important role in framing of risk, I discuss that for the
people of Roseau River, floodplain management is ultimately the product of a public
policy, the Indian Act, whose main thrust has always been, and continues to be, the
assimilation of Aboriginal people. I argue that it is not risk from flooding but risk of
dependence that distresses the people of Roseau River.
Based on statements made by community members and the results of the
household survey, I argue that the members of Roseau River must be consulted in the
development of future floodplain management policy. For these people, risk
communication is not about disaster warnings; it is about having a seat at the table during
policy formation. Policymakers must open effective two-way communication between
themselves and the people of Roseau River. Effective communication must incorporate
the Roseau River language of risk and not be biased towards a more technical language
of risk. This community must be supported in its efforts to rebuild and to heal.
Rediscovery of culture and renegotiation of self-determination efforts must be
encouraged from within the community and from Canada.
Further research needs to be undertaken regarding the social construction of risk
in First Nation communities. Whether it is natural hazards like flooding in Roseau River
or technological hazards like pollution or resource depletion. Aboriginal people
continually struggle for protection from the imminent dangers they face. There is a need
to examine the various contexts in which Aboriginal people negotiate risk. This may
provide us with solutions for minimizing risk and improving risk communication for Aboriginal peoples.


title: Non-destructive testing to monitor the strength increase of electrokinetically treated soil

contributor:
Mohamedelhassan, Eltayeb
Sadhu, Ayan

subject:
Electrokinetics
Geotechnical engineering
Bender elements
Signal analysis techniques
Shear wave velocity

abstract:
Electrokinetics in geotechnical engineering is used to increase the shear strength of soft soils and the load carrying capacity of piles embedded in these soils. This is achieved by decreasing the water content of the soil by electrokinetics, and often by inducing cementation. Practical issues such as determining the treatment effectiveness along with determining the appropriate treatment duration have limited its use in the field.
In this study, a steel pile foundation model was inserted in clayey soil that was treated with electrokinetics with bender elements embedded in the soil to monitor the shear wave velocity in the soil during the treatment. Changes in the shear-wave velocity were used as an indicator of changes in the structure and shear strength of the soil throughout treatment.
After the shear wave velocity ceased to increase, the gain in the strength of the soil by the treatment was considered to plateau and the treatment was terminated. Two weeks after treatment, the pile models were loaded. Shear vane tests were carried out to accurately define the zones of soil stiffened and the extent of the changes. To better comprehend the mechanisms which contributed to soil stiffening, by x-ray diffraction, x-ray energy dispersive spectrometry, Atterberg limits and pH tests were performed.
It was found in this study that by using bender elements to monitor the changes in the shear-wave velocity, the treatment time and total power consumed were reduced by more than 40 percent and 34 percent, respectively while achieving a similar reduction in water content and increase in shear strength to a test with seven days of treatment. The load carrying capacity after the treatment increased by 300 percent compared to the control.


title: Developing a collaborative MOOC learning environment utilizing video sharing with discussion summarization as added-value

subject: Massive online open courses (MOOC)

subject: Learning management systems (LMSs)

subject: Natural language processing (NLP)

subject: Term frequency - Inverse document frequency (TF-IDF)

subject: Stemming algorithm

subject: Vector space model (VSM)

subject: Cosine similarity

subject: Recall-oriented understudy for gisting evaluation (ROUGE)

abstract: With the fast-growing Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) community and the increase in the number of Learning Management Systems (LMSs) available online, the amount of shared information is massive. Current LMS - in particular MOOC providers - offer many advanced content delivery techniques: interactive video, active retrieval practices, and quizzes to enhance the pedagogical process. The main knowledge creation assets within MOOCs are encapsulated in other tools such as discussion forums, blogs, and wikis. Although these tools exist as separate entities within the platform, they still follow traditional techniques. We believe these tools need to be fully integrated to the main content and encourage spontaneous collaboration. From my experience with some MOOCs, the amount of collaboration and information-sharing is still overwhelming due to the massive number of participants and the limited range of collaborative tools. However, most of the shared information could be redundant or irrelevant. This information must be processed in order to provide the most concise knowledge. Therefore, we need to summarize this information from the discussions, blogs, and wikis and include the most relevant data in the course content. This thesis addresses this shortcoming by suggesting a new system with two primary components to accomplish this task. In the first component, we link the discussion tools to the main course content. Then, in the second component, we apply Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques to present a summary of all shared content. We use techniques such as Term Frequency - Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF), stemming algorithm, Vector Space Model (VSM), and Cosine Similarity to rank the sentences. We then tune the TF-IDF values and boost the sentence ranks using the main content by delegating the first component’s features. The next step involves choosing the most relevant sentence to build our summary. Finally, we evaluate our result using Recall-Oriented Understudy for Gisting Evaluation (ROUGE) system, which compares our automated summary to human extracted summaries. These results demonstrate that we can achieve high improvement summar y compared to the baseline and other similar techniques.


title: Ecophysiological responses of white birch seedlings to soil temperature and phosphorus supply under current and doubled carbon dioxide concentration

contributor:
Dang, Qing-Lai
Wang, Jian
Shahi, Chander

subject:
Paper birch
Seedlings
Ecophysiology
Effect of atmospheric carbon dioxide on
Effect of temperature on
Phosphorus
Environmental aspects
Soil temperature

abstract: To investigate the responses of some physiological and morphological traits to different soil temperature and phosphorus supply under current and doubled carbon dioxide concentration ([CO2]), white birch (Betula papyrifera Mash) seedlings were exposed to three soil temperatures (Tsoil) (7, 17 and 27C) and three levels of phosphorus (P) (241, 493 and 951 mg/L) under current and doubled carbon dioxide concentration.


title: Jack pine fitness under current and future climate

subject:
Jack pine
Reforestation
Climate change
Climate change and growth (forestry)
Seed source (reforestation)
Canada’s boreal forest ecosystems

abstract: Climate change has the potential to drastically alter the functioning of Canada’s forests and the species that live there. The importance of understanding patterns of adaptive variation in relation to climate is imperative to predict how populations will react to climate change. Site transfer functions were used to identify optimal seed sources for northern, central and southern planting locations under current climate while population response functions were used to identify optimal climate conditions for individual provenances e used to determine which climatic factors most strongly affect Optimal climate values were compared to current and predicted future climate conditions to predict potential changes to volume growth under climate change. Minimum winter temperatures were the strongest predictors of volume growth when multiple seed sources were compared for a given test locality (transfer functions) while average summer precipitation was the strongest predictor of volume growth for individual provenances planted at multiple test locations (response functions). Understanding how jack pine performance is related to climatic factors is important when predicting future outcomes for the species under changing climatic conditions. Research such as this can be further used to build more accurate prediction models of how the growth of jack pine will be affected in the future.


title: Sub-1 V, 4 nA CMOS voltage references with digitally-trimmable temperature coefficient

subject:
MOSFET transistors standard model
Voltage reference
Voltage reference design

abstract:
Voltage references are fundamental to mixed signal converters which are widely used in elec-
tronics. Hence there are signicant advantages in having the voltage reference operate with
less power while minimizing area consumption and maintaining performance. Past designs have
suered from issues related to process variations which adversely aect the temperature coe-
cient of the circuit output. To compensate for these process variations, a means to modify the
temperature coecient are proposed and experimentally veried with two circuit architectures.
Five test chip samples implement these architectures in a 0.35 m CMOS process. Design
methodologies for both architectures are presented. Design techniques include the use of a
high-swing cascode to improve Line Sensitivity while minimizing additional power consumption,
accounting for a well-matched layout, and the eect of leakage currents on the performance of
the circuit.
Layout schematics, performance gures, test methodologies and results are presented. Each
circuit dissipates less than 4 nW and operates down to 0.9 V or better with Line Sensitivity and
Power Supply Rejection Ratio of less than 0.15 %/V and -58 dB respectively, while consuming
an area of 0.053 mm2 or less. The experimental average and median temperature coecient was
less than 26 ppm/C and 22 ppm/C respectively in the 􀀀20 C to 80 C range, with the best
performance being less than 8.1 ppm/C. Areas of improvement and potential areas of future
research are then identied to facilitate advancement of this work.


title: Bitonic function in multiple schedules

subject: Operant conditioning


title: Stage structure must inform recovery in fish populations: a case for lake sturgeon in the Namakan River, Ontario

contributor:
McLaren, Brian
Pyle, Gregory
Haxton, Tim
Chipps, Steven

subject:
Lake sturgeon
Overharvest and habitat degradation
Habitat use by juvenile lake sturgeon

abstract:
Lake sturgeon are a large bodied, slow maturing, intermittently reproducing
acipenserid native to central North America. The species is a conservation concern
range-wide because of population declines during the 19th and 20th centuries related to
overharvest and habitat degradation. It is generally accepted that harvest limitations
alone are not enough to recover the species, but a stock-recruitment model accounting
for the effect of the species’ complex, partially migratory life history has been elusive so
far.
In this dissertation I explore the age distribution of a population of adult lake
sturgeon in a Canadian Shield river system for evidence of a density-dependent
population bottleneck in the population’s early life history by fitting an ARIMA
autoregressive time series model. I find that there is an autoregressive relationship,
whereby the presence of lake sturgeon from one to four years old is associated with
lower recruitment of lake sturgeon into this juvenile stage. A slight improvement in
recruitment is associated with five-year-old fish in the system. I infer that density
negatively affects lake sturgeon in a short early-juvenile period. I describe
characteristics of nursery areas that might partially account for this effect.
I then adapt a Lefkovich Matrix stock-recruitment model with density
dependence expressed as a Ricker-modeled carrying capacity on year classes 0 to 5. The
model is run with stochastic larval survival and vital rates specific to five life history
stages of the lake sturgeon. In the model, simulated changes to juvenile carrying
capacity drove recoveries and declines in the overall population within 25 years.


title: Exercise and body image disturbance

subject: Body image Effect of exercise on.

abstract:
The relationship between body image disturbance and exercise
behaviour was examined. One hundred and fifty five women from
Introductory Psychology completed an exercise inventory, four measures
of body image disturbance, and had their height and weight measured.
The women were divided into three groups based on whether they 1)
participated in aerobic activity only, 2) weight trained in addition to doing
aerobic activity, or 3) did not exercise at all. Aerobic exercise alone was
not associated with less body Image disturbance. In contrast, women
who weight trained in addition to doing aerobic exercise showed
significantly lower scores on the Body Dissatisfaction scale of the Eating
Disorder Inventory > 2. Reasons for exercising were also compared
across groups. Weight training seemed to be associated with a
reduction in negative motivations for exercise such as weight loss and
physical appearance. The potential implications of the findings for the
eating disordered population are discussed.


title: Physical habitat associations of fish species in the Kivalliq region of Nunavut, Canada

contributor:
Kanavillil, Nandakumar
Rennie, Michael
Doka, Susan
Shuter, Brian
Minns, Ken

subject:
Aquatic ecosystem
Canadian arctic freshwater ecosystems
Fish and fish habitat
Lake trout
Freshwater fish habitat associations

abstract:
The Canadian arctic and subarctic (areas north of 60° latitude) support distinct
aquatic environments governed by the unique geomorphology and climate of the region.
Historically, fish and fish habitat impacted by development activities in this region have
been assessed using literature derived from southern populations. Using these
assumptions from southern populations on environmental impact assessments for
northern regions may not accurately capture differences in physical fish habitat
associations. To better characterize northern habitat associations for use in northern
environmental assessments, this study sought to achieve three objectives. First, to
determine patterns in the depth of occupancy of a model species, Lake Trout, using two
databases in Canada, comparing northern and southern regions. Second, to provide an
assessment of freshwater fish habitat associations in 11 species specific to the Kivalliq
region of Nunavut. Finally, where feasible, to develop Habitat Suitability Indices (HSI)
with northern-specific data based on these associations. To achieve these goals, a novel
method of estimating depth-of-occurrence was developed and applied to an analysis of
standardized fish capture data from both arctic and Ontario (southern) lakes. Habitat
association data sourced from populations north of 60° was then used to develop
evidence-based arctic-specific HSI values for comparison to the existing Habitat
Ecosystem Assessment Toolkit (HEAT) model. Depth-of-occurrence analysis indicated
significant differences in the abundance of Lake Trout between northern and southern
regions, but not significant differences in habitat associations with depth. However, the
results of HSI analysis integrating information from several peer-reviewed studies
indicated significant differences in depth patterns across latitude for both Lake Trout and Burbot; both species had stronger associations with depth in Ontario (southern) lakes
across three life stages (adult/juvenile, young-of-the-year and egg/spawning) relative to
the arctic, suggesting that depth may indeed more strongly shape habitat associations in
southern vs. northern populations. No other species had sufficient data to facilitate
quantitative analysis, however, qualitative descriptions of northern habitat associations
were summarized where feasible. Conclusions from this study demonstrate potential
differences in fish habitat associations between northern and southern regions but a larger
sample size of lakes will be required north of 60° latitude to make a determination.
Region-specific habitat association models are recommended, along with increased
observations and study of fish-habitat associations in the north, as this study highlights
many data gaps that exist for several species in establishing HSI models specific to arctic
freshwater fishes in the arctic.


title: A world-maker's will: the post-apocalypse and human power in Cormac McCarthy's The Road

subject: McCarthy, Cormac.  The road.

abstract: This thesis discusses human empowerment in Cormac McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic novel, The Road. While much of present-day scholarship on The Road views the novel as nihilistically highlighting the hopelessness of existence after a cataclysmic event, this thesis provides a counter-reading that argues for the existence and sustainability of human empowerment in the post-apocalyptic space imagined in the novel. I focus on the non-physical and non-relational power that can be found within the self, and particularly within the human mind, arguing that the father and son protagonists find routes to power only by means of a detachment from the reality of the ruined world that they face and a turning inward to their individual ideals, philosophies and imaginations.  This thesis situates The Road in the context of the concept of the apocalypse, and its popular contemporary form, the post-apocalypse genre. It then draws on the philosophy of Plato, Descartes, Hobbes, Hume, and Kant, among others, to demonstrate how the protagonists develop their own philosophy as a means of creating and maintaining their empowerment in the fact of societal and environmental collapse. This thesis relies on intensive close-readings of the novel and engages directly with the extensive scholarship on The Road that is already published. The result is an optimistic reading of The Road as an exemplar for empowerment in the post- apocalypse, that is charted through a reliance on the self, and the mind. Ultimately, it provides an optimistic reading of The Road as an exemplar of empowerment through a reliance upon the self and the mind.


title: Ontario elementary school teachers perceptions' of the daily physical activity policy

subject: Physical education and training Ontario Public opinion

subject: Elementary school teachers Ontario Attitudes

abstract:
The purpose of this study is to explore Ontario elementary school teachers’
perceptions of the Daily Physical Activity (DPA) policy. The DPA policy was developed
to help combat the increasing levels of inactivity and obesity with Ontario
schoolchildren. Since the policy’s introduction in 2005, little or no evaluation has been
conducted to demonstrate the success or failure of the policy. Furthermore, gaps exist
in the evaluation of the policy, particularly in regards to the views of the teachers who
are the individuals responsible for implementing the policy in elementary schools. The
interview guide (Appendix A) will invite participants to comment on various aspects of
the policy including the participants’ personal views, observed responses of teachers,
parents, and students, challenges, successes and recommendations of future
directions. Through this research, a clearer view of the perspectives of teachers of the
policy in terms of its successes and challenges is anticipated and a list of suggestions
or future directions will be determined.


title: Parallel algorithms for the iterative solution of large sparse linear systems

subject:
Algorithms
Numerical analysis

abstract:
In this thesis we are concerned with iterative parallel
algorithms for solving finite difference equations arising
from boundary value problems. We propose various new
methods based on approximate inverses. The Jacobi iterative
method for the solution of linear equations is highly
parallel. Its slow convergence rate, however, has initiated
the study of a variety of acceleration techniques. We
introduce the “Diagonal-Block” and the "Least Squares"
techniques for calculating approximate inverses which lead
naturally to generalized Jacobi methods that are well suited
to parallel processing. In addition, the calculations
required to establish the iterative process can be done in
parallel. A convergence theorem for a one-dimensional model problem is given. Gauss-Seidel versions of these methods
are also considered. These versions converge faster but
often at the cost of decreased parallelism.
Preconditioning has been successfully used in
conjunction with the conjugate gradient method. Many such
techniques use an approximation M to the matrix A of the
linear system under consideration and solve a system of the
form M z = d at each iteration. If, however, an
approximate inverse M[superscript -1] is used, the solution z = M[superscript -1] d only involves a matrix-vector multiplication v/hich is well
suited to parallel computation. We examine the Diagonal-Block and Least-Squares techniques for preconditioning the conjugate gradient method.
Numerical results are presented. The proposed Jacobi
like and Gauss-Seidel like methods are compared with
parallel Gauss-Seidel methods in a class of parallel
algorithms proposed by Evans and Barlow (1982). The
preconditioned conjugate gradient methods are compared with
the plain conjugate gradient method. In all cases the speed
of convergence increased substantially, but often at the
expense of increased computational work. In some cases it
was necessary to assume the number of processors to be on
the order of N ( the number of unknowns ) in order to gain
an advantage from parallel processing.


title: Mitigating the effects of the white satin moth (Leucoma salicis) in Thunder Bay’s urban forest

subject:
White satin moth (Leucoma salicis)
Urban forestry
Defoliation
Satin moth infestation management
Invasive species management

abstract:
The white satin moth, Leucoma salicis (L.), has been detected as a pest of urban
trees in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Surveys were conducted in urban environments
following the discovery of this introduced species to determine the extent of damage to
urban trees and distribution within Thunder Bay. Further information was compiled to
identify ways to locally mitigate the effects of the satin moth. Early management
strategies, such as high-pressure water washing, Tanglefoot, and Btk should be utilized
as short-term management approaches, and biological control agents, such as parasitoid
wasps, should be implemented as a long-term management strategy to mitigate severe
infestations.


title: Listening to the voices that matter most : establishing personhood in people residing in long-term care with a diagnosed dementia

contributor:
Stone, Sharon Dale
Puddephatt, Antony
Kelley, Mary Lou

subject:
Self-perception in old age
Dementia
Psychological aspects
Alzheimer's disease
Older people
Long-term care

abstract: This study sought to hear the voices of people residing in a long-term care facility (LTC), thereby recognizing the inherent worth in all people despite the constraints of dementia. Data were collected through the generation of field notes and through unstructured interviews conducted with four older adults diagnosed with a dementia, and living in a LTC facility in Northwestern Ontario. Discussion focuses on findings from these qualitative interviews.


title: Species richness, species incidence and turnover of amphibians in Northwestern Ontario : assessing the role of habitat characteristics

contributor:
Hecnar, Stephen
Mackereth, Rob
Morris, Doug

subject: Amphibians habitat (Ontario, Northwestern)

subject: Amphibians habitat (Thunder Bay)

subject: Amphibian population decline

abstract:
There has been recent global concern over the decline of some amphibian
populations. The loss of amphibian species is of concern because they play a crucial role in
ecosystem structure and are indicators of ecosystem health. Amphibians within the boreal forest,
especially in Northern Ontario, have not been studied as extensively as in other parts of the
world. The lack of knowledge concerning amphibians within the boreal forest is troubling
because the boreal forest contains half of the world’s wetlands and is facing increasing pressure
from human activities such as forest harvesting. Therefore by investigating the patterns and
distribution of amphibian species richness, species incidence and turnover and the effect habitat
has on each of these, we can infer the status of a species, determine how communities and
species’ populations are structured and have a better understanding of how to manage and protect
them. My goals were to investigate the patterns of amphibian species richness, turnover, and
incidence over a 4-year period and compare these communities between northern and southern
Ontario; to assess the role local habitat and landscape characteristics have on amphibian species
richness and turnover; and to develop single-species habitat models for amphibian species of
Northwestern Ontario.
I surveyed pond sites around the Thunder Bay region of Northwestern Ontario from
1999 to 2002. Multiple day and night surveys were used to generate species lists at all study
sites. I mapped out each pond along with the surrounding habitat characteristics and estimated
local habitat variables. Landscape variables were collected using a GIS (Geographical
Information System). I found that ten amphibian species made up the pond communities in
Northwestern Ontario. There was higher immigration than extinction among the pond sites and species incidence differed over time. Species incidence was significantly different between
northern and southern Ontario. These differences were related to where northern and southern
Ontario were located within each species’ geographic range. Those species with high incidence
were located near to the core of their range while those with a low incidence were near the
periphery. Species richness was positively associated with distance to the closest stream, pH,
area of agriculture and percentage of shrubs surrounding a pond site, and was negatively
associated with conductivity. Turnover was positively associated with the proportion of substrate
around the edge of a pond and negatively associated with bank slope. Thus richer amphibian
communities occur at pond sites with high pH, a mosaic of complementary habitat surrounding
the breeding site, gentle sloping banks and open areas which may promote juvenile recruitment.
Species’ habitat models depended on each species’ natural history, and its distribution. As a
result, each species was associated with different habitat variables.
From this study, we can see that there are many factors to consider when trying to
conserve an amphibian community or population. When conserving a single species, we need to
take into account each habitat component on both a local and regional scale and consider each
species habitat requirements. From a community perspective, we can select a mosaic of habitats
that are complementary to all species. Another very important point to keep in mind is where
species are within their geographic range. Depending on the where a species is located within its
range can determine whether is it common or rare. Because species habitat requirements appear
to vary so greatly among species, I recommend including individual species habitat models in
amphibian conservation strategies and not limiting our efforts to habitat restoration/creation.


title: Adult age differences in a visual search, luminance contrast discrimination task

subject: Visual perception (Testing)

subject: Signal Detection Theory

subject: Age-related differences in visual attention

abstract:
This thesis examined the ability of younger and older adults to use peripherally presented word
cues in a luminance contrast discrimination task. Observers were ten older adults (aged 55 to
69) and ten younger adults (aged 23-29). All observers were screened using the Wechsler Test of
Adult Reading and the Digit Symbol subscale of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAISIII).
Stimuli were presented on a 13 X 16° high-resolution monochrome monitor with an
average background luminance of 70 cd/m2. Target (distractor) stimuli were l°-diameter
luminance-incremented (decremented) discs. The spatial location o f the targets were cued using
luminance decremented ‘YES’ or ‘NO ’ words presented in 9 x 9 array prior to the presentation
of a 9 X 9 array containing one target and eight distractors that were positionally congruent to the
cued array. The discriminability (d') between target and distractors was varied and the contrast
increment threshold needed to just detect the target was calculated. Contrast increment
thresholds and mean correct yes response times were analyzed using a mixed two (Age Group) x
two (Sex) X three (Cue Validity) x two (Relevant Set Size) mixed ANOVAs. Pre-testing did
detect sensorimotor deficits in the older observers, but there were no significant main effects of
Age Group or Sex with respect to contrast increment thresholds or response time. Neither group
was able to take advantage of the word cues to allocate visual attention. In fact the sensitivity
and response times of all observers improved as cues became less informative. This suggests that
the ability to discriminate luminance contrasts is relatively preserved in older adults and that the
inhibitory effect o f the cues appeared to effect both age groups in a similar manner.


title: Educational selection in Northwestern Ontario

subject: Students Ontario, Northwestern Social conditions

subject: College (Choce of)


title: Synthesis and studies of a molecular hydrogen complex of iron(II) containing bis(diphenylphosphino)methane (dppm) / by Yuan Gao.

subject:
Coordination compounds
Iron compounds
Ligands


title: Effects of species mixtures on fine root production in a young boreal forest

subject: Fine root production (forestry)

subject: Boreal forest

subject: Biodiversity effects on ecosystem functionality

subject: Forest ecosystem

abstract:
1. Fine roots (< 2 mm) play a key role in terrestrial ecosystem processes. Species diversity
loss has been recognized as one of the primary global change drivers that can have
profound negative effects on ecosystem functionality and services to humanity. However,
our understanding of the effects of plant diversity on fine root production remains
limited.
2. We investigated the effects of species diversity on fine root production in a boreal forest
that had grown naturally for eight years, following stand-replacing fire, by comparing the
generation of fine-roots in single-species stands (Populus tremuloides Michx. (Populus)
and Pinus banksiana Lamb. (Pinus)], and their mixtures (Populus+Pinus).
3. We hypothesized that: (i) fine root production is higher in mixed stands, (ii) across a
given growing season, the effects of diversity on fine root production would be the
greatest in August in a boreal forest, and (iii) fine root production in a mixed stand is
strongly influenced by the dominant species.
4. We found no evidence of positive diversity effects on fine root production in a young
natural boreal forest. Moreover, fine root production was not altered during sampling
dates between May to October; however, the effects of tree species diversity on fine root
production was positive in August. Rather, fine root production differed significantly
with the composition of overstory tree species, with Populus stands having the highest
root production.
5. Our results suggested that mixtures of two shade-tolerant tree species at an early stage of
development did not benefit fine root production, except during the mid-growth season.
Further, our results supported the mass ratio hypothesis for species compositional effects
on the belowground processes that we investigated.


title: Pulse fishing of a walleye population : response, recovery and management implications

contributor:
Momot, Walter T.
Colby, Peter

subject:
Walleye fishing Ontario Henderson Lake
Fish populations Ontario Henderson Lake
Walleye (Fish) Ontario Henderson Lake

abstract:
The response of the Henderson Lake boreal fish community to a large scale exploitation of
walleye was studied. The pulse fishery removed approximately 89 percent (3226) of adult
walleye (1980-82) from Henderson lake during a period when recruitment was negligible.
Following the exploitation, the ninespine stickleback, a major forage item, rapidly declined and
by 1984 had apparently disappeared. By 1986 northern pike and yellow perch populations were
increasing, two large yearclasses of young o f the year walleye (in 1985-86) were also produced.
I expected that such an excessive harvest would have collapsed the walleye population. This
would allow northern pike and yellow perch to increase in size and number with northern pike
eventually becoming the sole top predator. Unsuccessful attempts to estimate adult walleye
abundance in 1986, 1988 and 1991 seemingly supported the hypothesis that the population
would not recover.
However, 1994 and 1995 population estimates showed that the walleye population had
recovered to about 25 percent (871 fish) of pre-harvest numbers. In addition, the ninespine
stickleback were once again caught in seine hauls. Northern pike numbers have declined from
pre-harvest levels. Multimesh gillnet estimates o f yellow perch catch per unit effort (CUE)
indicated a decrease in abundance from levels measured in 1991.
Good indices for measuring population response (harvest effects and recovery) were: average
length at age for younger walleye and northern pike, as well as changes in length distributions for
both populations. Condition factor and length-weight data were poor indices and were not
correlated to fish abundance. Schumacher-Eschmeyer estimates were not good indicators of
population abundance during the harvest phase of the study where as six foot trapnet CUE
followed actual adult walleye numbers throughout the study period.
A model predicting walleye abundance and time to recovery was employed. It included: 1984
population numbers, fecundity at age, pre-harvest estimates of mortality, weather data and age of
recruitment to the gear to predict current abundance and time to recovery. Population numbers
for walleye in years 1995 and 2003 were predicted at 1450 and 3280 fish, respectively. From
this model I estimated it would take at least 20 years to mitigate the effects of a 90% removal of
the adult stock. If pulse fishing is to be employed as a management technique, removal rates
would have to be much lower.


title: Effects of prenatal nicotine exposure on behaviorally conditioned immunosuppression in rats

subject: Nicotine Immunosuppression Rats.

abstract:
Pregnant rats were administered nicotine (0.6
mg/kg/day) during different stages of pregnancy.
Exposure occurred in either the first trimester (days
1-7), second trimester (days 8-14), third trimester
(days 15-21), throughout gestation, or not at all
(nonexposed controls). The effects of prenatal nicotine
exposure on reproductive, developmental and reflex
indices were studied. Prenatal nicotine exposure
resulted in the birth of smaller sized litters for
first trimester exposed dams, as compared to all other
groups, except third trimester exposed females. Third
trimester exposed females gave birth to smaller litters
than second trimester and control females. Total
weights of litters from third trimester females were
lower than second trimester and control females.
Furthermore, developmental age for eye opening was
found to be earlier for first trimester animals as
compared to third trimester or control rats. Also,
animals exposed throughout gestation showed eye opening
earlier than controls. Finally, first trimester exposed
animals acquired the righting reflex sooner than all
other groups except nonexposed control rats. Control
animals demonstrated this reflex earlier than second or
third trimester exposed rats.
Prenatal nicotine exposure, in this study, did not appear to influence the acquisition or extinction of
behaviorally conditioned immunosuppression in adult
rats. The implications of this, regarding nicotine
dose, the specific area of the immune system examined,
and the developmental age of the subjects, are
discussed.


title: Soil respiration following alternative site preparation treatments in a boreal mixedwood forest

subject: Site preparation (Forestry) Ontario Thunder Bay Region

subject: Black spruce Ontario Thunder Bay Region Seedlings

subject: Forest soils Ontario Thunder Bay Region

abstract:
The effects of experimental site preparation on CO2 evolution and on planted black spruce
{Picea mariana (Mill.) B.S.P.) seedling growth were studied one year after the site preparation
treatment, during the 1994 growing season (June-October) and again in May and June of 1995
on a boreal mixedwood site. Treatments included: uncut forest, cut forest without site
preparation, cut and mixed where organic matter to a depth of 20 cm was mixed with mineral
soil, and cut and screefed where the top organic layer was removed. Carbon dioxide evolution
was determined once a month in the field by infra-red gas analyzer (IRGA) and by the soda-lime
trap technique. Soil temperature and moisture contents were measured once a month during the
1994 growing season and for two months in 1995. Concentrations of organic matter, PO43-p
and  NH4+-N were also determined after treatment. Interactions of temperature, moisture and
organic matter on CO2 evolution were studied under controlled laboratory conditions.
Carbon dioxide evolution from the cut treatment plots was not significantly different from
that of the uncut plots. Carbon dioxide evolution from the cut and mixed plots was significantly
higher than from the cut and screefed plots. Evolution of CO2 varied seasonally. The IRGA
proved to be a better method for determining CO2 evolution than the soda-lime technique due
to its convenience and efficacy. Highly significant relationships among CO2 evolution, soil
organic content, soil P and moisture contents were found. It was concluded that site preparation
treatments had a significant effect on CO2 evolution by modifying the organic matter and
moisture contents of the soils. Height of planted black spruce seedlings, however, did not vary
significantly during the first two years after the treatments.


title: Development of multi-probe fluorescence-based assay for boNTA detection

contributor:
Floriano, Wely
Campbell, Michael
Mawhinney, Robert

subject:
Botulism
Botulinum toxin
Botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs)
BoNT detection methods

abstract:
Botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs) cause the lethal disease botulism through the inhibition of acetyl choline secretion by the cleavage of crucial SNARE proteins. Determination of critical residues in the protein sequence of BoNT serotype A was the primary step to identify novel fluorescence recognition agents for BoNTA. Computational and experimental studies were employed to identify paclitaxel as a new inhibitor (IC50 equal to 5.2 μM) for the proteolytic activity of BoNTA light chain (LC) using Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) assay. A fluorescent derivative of paclitaxel (PAC-BDP) exhibited binding to complex BoNTA. A Primary Amines Database comprised of 1,153 compounds suitable for fluorescent labeling was computationally screened to select 6-aminofluorescein (6-AFLU) and aspartame (APM) as recognition agent candidates. Fluorescent labeled APM (APM-BDP) was synthesised and the purity of the compound was confirmed using liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC/MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). 6-AFLU exhibited good binding affinity to BoNTA heavy chain (HC) with an EC50 of 546 ± 60nM, whereas APM-BDP displayed binding to BoNTA LC with an EC50 of 20.96 ± 10 nM, as determined by fluorescence polarization (FP) assay. APM was shown to compete with APM-BDP for the same binding site in BoNTA LC, but showed no binding to BoNTA HC in FP competition assay. Also, aminopterin (AMN) and 6-AFLU exhibited binding to the same site of BoNTA HC, whereas desmosine (DES) showed affinity to a different binding site in BoNTA HC. Additionally, PAC exhibited binding to BoNTA LC, however paclitaxel (PAC) did not compete with APM-BDP for the same binding region. PAC-BDP showed binding to both BoNTA LC and BoNTA HC and did not compete with APM-BDP for the same binding site in BoNTA LC. A library consisting of 1,624 commercially available radiolabeled ligands were screened computationally to select the ligands with binding affinity against BoNTA LC and HC. The binding of [3H] Aminopterin and [3H] desmosine was shown to be concentration-dependent with EC50of 703 ± 98 nM and 1.6 ± 0.3μM, respectively, against BoNTA HC using scintillation proximity assay (SPA). [3H]Solanesyl pyrophosphate (Solanesyl PP) exhibited high binding to both BoNTA LC and BoNTA HC. However its related compound, [3H]Solanesol, show no binding against BoNTA LC or BoNTA HC using SPA assay.
The development of a fast, simple, reliable assay for BoNTA detection is essential since mouse lethality assay (MLA), the only trustable assay, is a costly, time consuming and complicated assay. In addition, detection of BoNTA in the initial steps of contamination is critical for successful treatment. This study demonstrated that FP can be used as a platform for BoNTA detection and that PAC-BDP, APM-BDP and 6-AFLU can be used simultaneously since they bind to different binding regions of BoNTA. The identified recognition agents can potentially be used in a multi-probe FP assay against the whole BoNTA complex.


title: Effect of external motivators on intrinsic motivation

subject:
Motivation (Psychology)
Reinforcement (Psychology)


title: Variation of poplar sap flow and its response to meteorological factors

subject: Sap flow rate

subject: Poplar stem flow

subject: Seasonal variations of sap flow

subject: Environmental factors affecting sap flow

abstract:
The purpose of this paper was to analyze the changes of poplar sap flow, to explore
the meteorological factors affecting the changes of poplar sap flow and their response
laws, so as to provide a theoretical basis for the follow-up study on the improvement of
poplar living tree and the rising mechanism of its liquid medicine. The sap flow rate of
poplar was measured by Flow 32A-1K wrapped sap flow meter, and meteorological
factors were measured simultaneously by solar meter and temperature and humidity
meter. The results showed that there was a significant positive correlation between
poplar stem velocity and solar radiation intensity and air temperature, but a negative
correlation with air relative humidity. Therefore, the influence degree of different
meteorological factors on poplar sap flow rate is different.


title: Review and synthesis of sustainable community indicators used in monitoring forest community sustainability

subject:
Forest conservation Canada
Forest management Canada
Forestry and community Canada

abstract:
The objectives of this project are: (1) to review literature related to sustainable community
indicators that will include studies on: social indicators, sustainable forest management
indicators, and sustainable community indicators; (2) to develop a viable framework for
measuring sustainability of communities; and (3) to develop a list of sustainable
community categories and indicators.
To better understand the effectiveness of sustainable community indicators in
measuring forest community sustainability, the review of literature is divided into two
parts. The first part covers frameworks that are used by different scientists in the
development of sustainable community indicators. The second part covers three studies
undertaken in the Canadian Model Forest Program (CMFP) to assess forest community
sustainability. The first study is based on social indicators, the second study is based on
sustainable forest management indicators, and the third study is based on sustainable
community indicators. The main reason for selecting all three studies from the CMFP is
that only in the CMFP research is being carried out on community sustainability at the
local level by adopting different approaches (indicated above). The results ofthe studies in
the literature review are compared to the results of the study in this project to determine the
effectiveness of the indicators developed in this study. The indicators developed in this
study focus on sector (population, employment, education, poverty and forest operations)
sustainability as well as across the sector sustainability. Sector sustainability is achieved by
assessing the present status of the categories. Across the sector sustainability is assessed by
taking into account the impact of each sector on the environment, society and economy
(ESE). Based on the results of this study, it can be said that every sustainable community
indicator is a social indicator, but every social indicator is not a sustainable community
indicator. To achieve sustainable development, it is important to treat the ESE as an
integrated unit, and not isolated parts.


title: Hydraulic and dynamic assessment of triangular labyrinth weirs and wier-pool type fishways

subject:
Weirs (Environmental engineering)
Weir-pool fishways

abstract: The hydraulic performance of traditional labyrinth weirs has been extensively studied in the literature. The research outcomes indicated that labyrinth weirs have many hydraulic advantages to pass more flow with a constant water head which reduces the construction cost and improve flood prevention. In this study, a series of laboratory experiments was conducted to test a new weir design based on a classical triangular labyrinth weir. A square pool was added to the vertex of a triangular labyrinth weir in two different directions to form two new designs named as labyrinth weirs with upstream and downstream pools. Detailed velocity and turbulence measurements were conducted using an Acoustic Doppler Velocimetry (ADV) probe to investigate the flow dynamics and turbulence characteristics of the new design in both free and submerged flow conditions. The ability of using a series of the newly design weirs as a fish passage was tested by constructing a series of weirs with different weir spacing. The upstream flow velocities in three directions and the mean and the turbulent kinetic energies (TKE) were measured with the ADV probe. The mean velocity and the turbulent kinetic energy distribution indicated that the maximum range occurred in the corner of the main sidewall of the weir and the pool’s sidewalls. The maximum longitudinal and vertical velocities and TKE for the weir with the upstream pool occurred inside the pool, whereas the maximum lateral velocity located in the vicinity of the main sidewall of the weir. In addition, the lateral velocity in the labyrinth weir with the upstream pool changed to the elevation equal to 70% of the upstream water level.