bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Governmentality and the new spirit of exploitation: the politics of legitimacy and resistance to Canadian mining in Guatemala and Honduras
Authors: Schnoor Steven
Published: May 2021

The activities of Canadian mining companies operating abroad are often carried out under the banner of bringing badly-needed development and democracy to impoverished regions of the globe. Many of these projects, however, can often lead to increased poverty, conflict and insecurity in communities near the mines. There have also been egregious violations of human rights and grave environmental damages documented at Canadian mines worldwide. As a result, numerous countries in the Americas and beyond have seen burgeoning grassroots resistance movements rejecting the presence of Canadian extractive projects on their territory — movements that are almost invariably rejected as illegitimate by industry and Canadian government representatives, and almost always repressed by host country governments.

Using critical discourse analysis and Foucault’s work on governmentality and biopower, this dissertation argues that discourses of democracy and development are increasingly being used to advance projects that are often fundamentally anti-democratic, destructive and exploitative, and that this represents a critical component of a nascent strategy by which neoliberal regimes of capital accumulation are advanced and legitimized today. Through discursive construction of Canadian mining regimes as purveyors of collective “development,” and strategic delegitimization of critics of Canadian mining activities as irrational, radical, dangerous threats to the betterment of society at large, support for the mine is galvanized and conflict surrounding the mine intensifies.

This argument is grounded in exploration of three case studies: two open-pit gold/silver mines owned/operated by Goldcorp — their Honduran San Martín mine and their Guatemalan Marlin mine — and the politics of land claims near a non-functioning Guatemalan nickel mine previously owned by Canada’s Skye Resources and HudBay Minerals. Further evidence for this argument is offered in two accompanying documentary films that I have produced, exploring these particular case studies. In demonstrating how foot soldiers are being enlisted into an army that defends the interests of Canadian mining companies and the neoliberal economic order that they proliferate and prosper from — despite the fact that local benefits may be negligible and the harms incurred can be severe — this dissertation seeks to shed light upon a broader dynamic of resistance/counter-resistance playing out globally in areas beyond resource extraction.
Neighbourhood [Re] Formation: Envisioning A Future For Don Mills
Authors: Rad Talayeh
Published: May 2021

Architecture is known to be the physical language of community. What define cities are streets, blocks, and buildings, and their interaction defines the neighbourhoods. Cities are poised for unlimited growth (Lefebvre, 2003) and the challenge is to propose a vision for the future growth of already dense neighbourhoods. The research aims to study the evolution of contemporary urbanism, ideas, and theories in order to explore the structure of the existing neighbourhoods and understand the dynamic behind the street patterns and urban blocks. Case studies are investigating the quality and configuration of physical urban form through recent history. The ideas are compared and contrasted to challenge modern and post-modern urban theories in order to propose a new vision for future urban growth. The design project takes into account the importance of urban morphology and typology and their impacts on the identity, diversity and affordability of the neighbourhood.
The lived experience of living liver donors : a phenomenological study
Authors: Greenwood Sarah Ellis Ross
Published: May 2021

Thousands of Ontarians die annually waiting for a deceased donor liver transplant. Merging realities of chronic donor shortage and success of living kidney donation stimulated interest in living liver lobe donation. Remaining unexplained are the persistently low rates of live liver donation despite media campaigns. The purpose of this qualitative study was, from a phenomenological approach, to explore and understand the meaning of the lived experience of living liver donors. Four participants in this study felt personal enhancement through donation while acknowledging present gaps in living donor awareness. Arising from this current study, two themes emerged. These themes are: (1) The embodied experience of being a living liver donor and (2) Ethical responsibility to one another and to the world. Recommendations included establishment of platforms and symposia for donors to speak about donation experiences. Living liver donors have much to offer in reimaging current donation awareness campaigns.
Creating conversation: how Bell Let's Talk produces engaging mental health content on Twitter
Authors: Rubin Bethany
Published: May 2021

This pilot study explores how Bell Let’s Talk, a mental health initiative to foster positive conversation about mental health in Canada, uses Twitter to disseminate mental health messages with the intention of increasing awareness and reducing stigma. A content analysis was conducted of 89 tweets posted by the official Bell Let’s Talk Twitter account, @Bell_LetsTalk between December 1, 2016 and January 31, 2017 to establish the overall engagement of content, examine which content receives the highest engagement and establish which message function creates most conversation. The results suggest Bell Let’s Talk produces medium engagement content. The majority of tweets feature a non-celebrity influencer (n=37) or non-influencer (n=37). However, celebrity content had the highest level of engagement (mdn=1102). Of the communication features used, links were the most frequently utilized (n=52). Public-centric topics (n=45) were the most common type of tweet, yet organizational-centric action tweets received the highest level of engagement (mdn=1382). The results of this pilot study suggest Bell Let’s Talk produces content of medium. They also indicate there is potential for further research to build upon and improve health professionals’ knowledge regarding successful content about mental health on Twitter.
Space Vector Modulation for Three-Level Neutral Point Clamped Inverter
Authors: Feng Weixing
Published: May 2021

For most medium voltage high power applications, Neutral Point Clamped (NPC) three-level inverter is a preferred choice due to its advantages such as low cost, light weight and compact size. Space vector modulation is widely used in real-time digital control for power converters. It is especially suitable for use in NPC multilevel inverters due to its good harmonic profile, flexibility and easy digital implementation. This thesis focuses on the space vector modulation for high power three-level NPC inverter, where the switching frequency of the semiconductor devices is nominally below 1 OOOHz to reduce the power loss of the switching devices. The conventional space vector modulation (SVM) scheme for the three-level NPC inverter produces even order harmonics in the output voltages, which are not desirable for most industrial applications. In this thesis, the mechanism of even order harmonic generation is analysed. A new space vector modulation scheme, which can eliminate all the even order harmonics, is proposed. The performance of the new design is investigated and simulation results are provided for the verification purpose. The harmonic and THD profiles are compared with those of the conventional SVM scheme. The elimination of even order harmonics is achieved at the expense of a slight increase in the switching frequency. The proposed space vector modulation scheme can be applied to other types of converters for the even order harmonic elimination. An algorithm is developed to mitigate the neutral point potential deviation, which is a common problem in the NPC inverters. The simulation results show that this algorithm is suitable for both conventional and the proposed space vector modulation schemes.
Subspace predictive control: stability and performance enhancement
Authors: Sedghizadeh Saba
Published: May 2021

In the absence of prior knowledge of a system, control design relies heavily on the system identifi-
cation procedure. In real applications, there is an increasing demand to combine the usually time
consuming system identification and modeling step with the control design procedure. Motivated
by this demand, data-driven control approaches attempt to use the input-output data to design the
controller directly. Subspace Predictive Control (SPC) is one popular example of these algorithms
that combines Model Predictive Control (MPC) and Subspace Identification Methods (SIM). SPC
instability and performance deterioration in closed-loop implementations are majorly caused by
either poor tuning of SPC horizons or changes in the dynamics of the system. Stability and performance
analysis of the SPC are the focus of this dissertation. We first provide the necessary
and sufficient condition for SPC closed-loop stability. The results introduce SPC stability graphs
that can provide the feasible prediction horizon range. Consequently, these stability constraints
are included in SPC cost function optimization to provide a new method for determining the SPC
horizons. The novel SPC horizon selection enhances the closed-loop performance effectively. Note
that time-delay estimation and order selection in system modeling have been a challenging step in
applications and industry. Here, we propose a new approach denoted by RE-based TDE that simultaneously
and fficiently estimates the time-delay for the SIM framework. In addition, we use the
recently developed MSEE approach for estimating the system order. Moreover, we propose an arti-
ficial intelligence approach denoted by Particle Swarm Optimization Based Fuzzy Gain-Scheduled
SPC (PSO-based FGS-SPC). The method overcomes the issue of on-line adaptation of SPC gains
for systems with variable dynamics in the presence of the noisy data. The approach eliminates
existing tuning problem of controller gain ranges in FGS and updates the SPC gains with no need
to apply any external persistently excitation signals. As a result, PSO-based FGS-SPC provides a
time efficient control strategy with fast and robust tracking performance compared to conventional
and state of the art methods.
Health and beauty portrayals in youth-targeted print magazine advertising : where does the disabled body fit?
Authors: Siu Sabrina
Published: May 2021

Using a visual semiotic analysis and qualitative interview of physically disabled individuals, this study evaluates the definitions and representations of beauty in the "Western" context in relation to, and contrasting portrayals of, physical disability in mainstream magazine advertising. The study finds a lack of representation of disability in advertising, with persistent implications that being physically different is associated with unattractiveness and, therefore, social undesirability. Directions for future research in advertisement portrayals, media reception, and the development of educational programs are presented.
Interstitial place
Authors: Melnichuk Timothy
Published: May 2021

The fabric of many post WW2 campuses in North America, can be described as a collection of independent buildings rather than as infrastructure that shapes and connects a network of public spaces with character, sense of place and social amenity. The same can be said for our late modernist cities. A re-examination and design of these interstitial leftover spaces can provide much needed public domain for students and faculty while also improving the ambiance and connectivity of adjacent buildings. Through analyzing and intervening within an existing underutilized circulation plaza within Ryerson’s urban Toronto campus, this thesis project asserts the importance of public space by creating new connections and relationships between building, landscape, and people using strategies of landscape urbanism and infrastructural urbanism. The synthesis of architecture, infrastructure and landscape has the potential to create public realm by intensifying and uniting new and existing flows within existing urban and social networks.
"A Temporary Symbol of a Canadian Dream in the Making": Resource Extraction and Gender-Based Violence Against Indigenous Women
Authors: Clare Vanita
Published: May 2021

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the gendered implications of Canada’s resource extraction industry. To further explore this dynamic, this paper will look at how Indigenous women and girls are impacted by primarily three labour practices adopted by the resource sector: establishing “man camps”, creating demanding work environments, and providing excess levels of income. These labour conditions imposed by resource companies have created a culture within the sector known as “rigger culture” that is marked by sexist, aggressive rhetoric and a partying attitude that encourages the consumption of drugs and alcohol. This rigger culture has successfully reinforced historical patterns of colonial relations, and disproportionately exposes Indigenous women to various forms of gender-based violence. Men within the resource sector are engaging in harmful behaviour that exacerbates existing political, social, and economic disadvantages. The paper then concludes with policy recommendations aimed at addressing the root cause of violence against women in the industry and neighbouring resource regions.
A Multiple Working Mode Approach to Hammering With A Modular Reconfigurable Robot
Authors: Romanyuk Vladyslav
Published: May 2021

Robot joints could be damaged by impulsive forces due to impact when the robot performs hammering operations. This thesis presents the development of a strategy that allows a modular reconfigurable robot to safely perform nail hammering. To do this, a multiple working mode approach is applied to switch the selected joint(s) to passive mode with friction compensation to allow free rotation during impact. Analytic impulse models are used to predict joint impulses which can be computed offline or online and serve as criteria for mode switching. Joint impulses are constrained in case the hammer collides with such an object of infinite effective mass. Advantages of the proposed approach may include savings on space, weight, costs, and complexity for a limited range of nail/board environments. An experimental study validates analytic models of hammering and effectiveness of multiple working mode approach.
‘Such a white thing to do’: A discourse analysis of CAMH’s Coping with COVID-19 Campaign
Authors: Sullivan McKaila
Published: May 2021

This major research paper is a modified critical discourse analysis of lived experience testimonials from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)’s Coping with COVID-19 campaign. Social work practitioners and researchers must consider the inherent violence in the complex manifestations of sanism and racism (re)produced through discourse and their inextricable confluence with institutions, colonial legacies and realities which operate at this juncture in support of white supremacy. The identified discourses reproduce the ideal neoliberal subject and operate as technologies which maintain the colonial project and white supremacy. If we stake any claim to anti-racist praxis at this juncture, it is necessary to radically disclose our complicity within this colonial project, acknowledge our confluent realities and interrogate any claim to anti-racism. If we fail to interrogate these discourses constructing madness, we not only permit the violent trajectory of sanism but operationalize the deeply entrenched (re)production of violent white supremacy.

key words: critical discourse analysis, sanism, racism, white supremacy, psychocentrism
The corporate blog as a tool for strategic communication
Authors: Cassidy Jason
Published: May 2021

This major research paper investigates the corporate blog as a tool for strategic communication. Using Erving Goffman’s Self‐Presentation Theory, it draws parallels between the use of a blog and the strategic presentation of self as outlined in The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life and the communication tactics used by Rogers Communication and Radian6. It ultimately concludes that each company communicates key messaging differently based on their presumed objectives for the medium.
The design of a memory controller for DDR SDRAM
Authors: Thorpe Gary Anthony
Published: May 2021

Memory system performance is an important factor in determining overall system performance. The design of key components of the memory system, such as the memory controller, becomes more important as memory performance becomes a limiting factor in high performance computing. This work focuses on the design of a unit which sends control signals to Double Data Rate Synchronous Dram (DDR SDRAM). The design is based on established concepts such as access reordering. A novel, adaptive page policy based on a machine learning algorithm has been developed in this work and evaluated with traditional page policies. the work illustrates some of the design trade-offs in a memory controller and the performance of the designs when using real application address traces.The results show that access reordering improves the performance of DDR SDRAM compared to in-order scheduling (up to 50% improvement) and that scheduling multiple requests can result in latency hiding. The dynamic page policy approximates the best static page policy in most cases.
Study on airflow and vibraton in a cutting/collection/discharge lawn care system
Authors: Davidge Evan D.
Published: May 2021

Airflows in the cutting/collection/discharge system of a professional lawn care system were studied numerically and experimentally in this thesis. Various three-dimensional and two-dimensional computational fluid dynamics models were developed in order to investigate the complex airflow created by a pair of counter-rotating blades. The three-dimensional models were used to study the actual flows; the two-dimensional models were developed to investigate the optimal shapes of the rotating blades using the mass flow rate per unit power consumption as the objective function. Experiments were carried out mainly to validate the computer models developed in this study for airflow velocity and power usage for an actual cutting system.
Vibrations of a cutting blade were studied using the finite element method and experiments. It was found that the blades will experience resonance under normal operating conditions.
Pose estimation for robotic percussive riveting.
Authors: Lin Yu
Published: May 2021

Recently, a robotic percussive riveting system has been developed at Ryerson University for an automation of percussive riveting process of aero-structural fastening assembly. The system consists of a robot holding a percussive riveting gun equipped with a rivet feeder, a gantry holding a working panel of aero-structure, and a position visual sensor. Prior to riveting, the robot is required to first position and then insert a rivet precisely into a hole on the panel without engaging the panel to prevent potential damage. The underlying challenges to precise insertion are various sources of system uncertainties, mainly including alignment errors among coordinate systems of the robot, panel and sensor, and relatively poor absolute positioning accuracy of the robot due to mechanical deflection, assembly clearance, and machining tolerance. For this reason, the research of relative pose estimation between the robot and panel has been carried out pertaining to these challenges.

Essentially, pose estimation is proposed for robotic percussive riveting, which estimates the relative pose between two rigid bodies based on noisy visual measurements of point features on rigid bodies. Three categories can be classified, namely, static, dynamic, and robust pose estimation. Firstly, static pose estimation is the parameter estimation of static relative pose transformations among a number of frames, which solves the issue of alignment errors. Direct solutions of static relative pose estimation are derived based on least-square methods. Secondly, to tackle the issue of poor absolute positioning accuracy of the robot, dynamic relative pose estimation is proposed addressing a state estimation of relative poses during motion. Iterative extended Kalman filter method is adapted for the state estimation. Thirdly, for robustness against outliers of point measurements, robust pose estimation is proposed based on an outlier diagnosis using the technique of relaxation of rigid body constraints. Indeed, outlier diagnosis is a pre-processing of point measurements, in which outliers are detected and removed prior to the relative pose estimation. Further, a decorrelation method is proposed for measurement calibration using multivariate statistical analysis to find an optimal sensor-to-target configuration. As a result, each coordinate measurement is close to uncorrelated and it allows for a simple calibration.
Investigating The Coherent Normalization Method For A Bone Gadolinium X-ray Fluorescence Measurement System: A Monte Carlo Study
Authors: Keldani Zaid
Published: May 2021

Elevated gadolinium levels in patients with healthy renal function exposed to gadolinium based contrast agents (GBCA) have been confirmed by studies in the literature. Though the potential long-term effects of the retained gadolinium are still unknown, symptoms such as bone and joint pain have been reported in some subjects. As detecting the presence of gadolinium in vivo is required to diagnose toxicity related medical conditions, a 109Cd based X-ray fluorescence (XRF) bone gadolinium measurement system has been previously developed. The current method is dependent on geometrical factors and other interpatient factors, such as the size and shape of the bone and the tissue thickness overlying the measurement site, which reduces the robustness of the measurement system and causes the need for correction factors.

It was previously shown that the successful use of the coherent normalization procedure can eliminate the need for such corrections and is conditional on four criteria that must be met. When detecting gadolinium two of the four criteria are not satisfied which makes further investigation of the method required. This work investigates the feasibility of the coherent normalization method to correct for the effect of varying overlying tissue thickness of an adult population through Monte Carlo simulations.

The coherent normalization method was studied as a function of overlying tissue thickness (OTT) to represent varying body types. The average coherent ratio (Gd K X-ray counts/Coherent counts) was found to be 0.717 ± 0.025 and the normalization resulted in a line with a slope of -0.0053± 0.0040 which is insignificant at the 95% confidence level (p = 0.43) suggesting the validity of the method. Additionally, this thesis provides a theoretical explanation of the feasibility of the method regardless of not fulfilling all four criteria, through introducing the Secondary Fluence Fluorescence Factor (SFFF) and separating fluence components, primary and secondary, contributing to the fluorescence of gadolinium.
Environmental Evaluation of Land-Applied Pulp Mill and Municipal Biosolids
Authors: Spearin Ashley M
Published: May 2021

In terms of disposal options, a form of waste that has received much attention in recent years is sludge, the by-product of wastewater treatment from both industrial and municipal sources. Negative issues associated with traditional sludge disposal practices (e.g. landfilling or incineration) have resulted in an increased interest to find disposal alternatives such as applying the sludge, or biosolids, to land as a soil amendment for purposes such as agriculture, horticulture, and silviculture. The objective of this study was to assess the environmental impact of pulp mill and municipal biosolids land-application using a suite of ecologically-relevant biota. Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that the practice of pulp mill and municipal biosolids land-application may indeed be a viable and environmentally-sound alternative to other traditional disposal methods. This study did not detect any obvious impact on biota from pulp mill and municipal biosolids land-application and run-off into receiving-water when compared to reference bioassays.
Numerical Analysis of Film Cooling from Micro-Hole
Authors: Balasubrammaniyan Silambarasan
Published: May 2021

The performance of aircraft gas turbine engines mainly depends on performance of the turbine which expands the combusted air into the atmosphere. The turbine is a critical part which gets affected by the hot gas from combustor exhaust. So in order to enhance the performance of gas turbine engines, a proposed cooling type called film cooling is used for more than six decades. The current work is also an attempt to enhance the performance of the gas turbine engine by enhancing the film cooling performance. The film cooling performance was numerically calculated on a flat plate with micro-hole and compared the cooling performance from the macro-hole. The analysis was carried out for different blowing ratios and found that the coolant from micro-hole performs better in the vicinity region and also spreads well in the lateral direction. The vortex structure is also captured from the proposed turbulence model and discussed. The behaviour of micro flow inside the coolant pipe was also analyzed. The comparison between multiple micro-hole jets and discrete jets was also made and discussed.
The regulation of the cell surface proteome by amp-activated protein kinase
Authors: Ross Eden
Published: May 2021

The cell-surface proteome controls numerous cellular functions and is dynamically controlled by endocytosis and recycling under different cellular conditions. Energy stress is a state in which a cell must engage adaptive responses to ensure survival, including remodelling of the cell-surface proteome. AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is an important metabolic regulator in the cell. Recent studies suggest AMPK activation may alter the endocytosis of a few specific proteins. How increased AMPK activity globally regulates the cell surface proteome is not known. I have developed a method to isolate the cell surface proteome from cultured cells. Coupling this method to quantitative mass spectrometry has allowed systematic identification of changes in the cell-surface proteome upon metabolic regulation. I found that activation of AMPK results in robust changes in the cell surface proteome, including cell adhesion and migration proteins. I confirmed that AMPK activation elicits a decrease in the cell surface abundance of the adhesion and migration protein β1-integrin, and that this is correlated with altered function of the endocytosis protein Dab2. Thus, my research furthers our understanding of how AMPK regulates the cell surface proteome and the specific mechanism by which AMPK regulates cellular adhesion and migration.
Fluid Dynamic Actuators For Satellite Attitude Control
Authors: Etemadi Sobhan
Published: May 2021

In this thesis, the application of fluid based actuators for satellite attitude control and thermal management is investigated. The actuator named Pumped Fluid Loop Actuator (PFLA) is examined to satisfy the need for integrated attitude and thermal management systems while considering strict mass and power budgets. A nonlinear voltage-driven control law is formulated and the feasibility of the PFLA for satellite attitude maneuvers is addressed. A high-fidelity PFLA model is developed. The power consumption of the PFLA is examined in the presence of sensor noise. Simulation results demonstrate its feasibility for attitude tracking capabilities of up to ± 0.01° with slew rates of up to 10 °/s.

Next, the limitations of existing fluid dynamic actuators are overcome through the design of a novel Patent Pending Pumped Fluid Spherical Actuator (PFSA). The PFSA extends the capabilities of fluid dynamic actuators and allows for satellite attitude control about any arbitrary axis through spherical design, and introduces a fault-tolerant functionality that allows it to be used as a sensor in the event of rate-gyro failure of the attitude determination subsystem. The dynamic model of the PFSA is obtained through computational fluid-dynamics and finite-element analysis using the grid-independent solution. The passive stabilization capabilities of the PFSA are investigated. Simulation results show an order of three-fold reduction in settling time in comparison to existing fluid dynamic actuators.

Lastly, a design modification is proposed for PFLA in order to examine its thermal management capabilities. A comprehensive investigation is carried out to perform thermal transport from onboard electronics through conduction and convection. Simulation results demonstrate the advantages of thermal transport while considering fluid rotation inside the PFLA as opposed to stationary fluid.
Stability concepts in bargaining games
Authors: Kundu Somnath
Published: May 2021

In this thesis we discuss some novel concepts of stability in bargaining games, over a network setting. So far, the studies on bargaining games were done as profit sharing problems, whose underlying combinatorial optimization problems are of packing type. In our work, we study bargaining games from a cost sharing perspective, where the underlying combinatorial optimization problems are covering type problems. Unlike previous studies, where bargaining processes are restricted to only two players, we study bargaining games over a more generic hypergraph setting, which allows any bargaining process to be formed among any number of players. In previous studies of bargaining games, the objects that are being negotiated are assumed to be uniform and only the outcomes of the negotiations are allowed to be different. However, in our study, we accommodate possibilities of non-uniform weights of the objects that are being negotiated, which is closer to any real life scenario. Finally we extend our study to incorporate socially aware players by introducing a relaxed and innovative definition of stability.
Architecture and Canada : the character of context
Authors: Fung Jason Wayne
Published: May 2021

This Master of Architecture thesis postulates that national values representing Canada can be expressed through architecture. The thesis focuses on the Canada Pavilion, built in 1958, at the Venice Biennale. An early example of an effort to represent a national identity, it is a result, in part, of the Royal Commission on the National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences - informally acknowledged as The Massey Report - directed by Vincent Massey in 1951. Through the investigation of national pavilions and Canadian embassies after The Massey Report's publication and continuing with award winning contemporary architecture, this thesis identifies common themes across a range of projects. Using these common themes, which suggest an architectural consensus in a national identity, this thesis proposes a new architectural intervention to the Canada Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.
An Architecture of Inclusion: A New Approach to Housing For People With Developmental Disabilities
Authors: Delean Demitri M. L.
Published: May 2021

Currently in Ontario, there are roughly 14,000 adults with developmental disabilities that need a permanent housing solution. Some families within Toronto, due to the lack of governmental support and housing programs available to them, have started to recognize the need for their child to develop that sense of independence, and have started combining their financial efforts to purchase communal homes in which their children can start living as independent adults. Despite the ingenuity and foresight required for such an endeavor, with Toronto’s current housing market and the cost of hiring full-time care professionals, this idea quickly becomes an unrealistic model for most families however, this action suggests a very real and pressing issue in which architecture can begin to play a significant role in establishing that sense of inclusion and independence for these people within our communities.
Implementation of meta search engine with different rank aggregation algorithms
Authors: Arshad Sharjeel
Published: May 2021

The development of a Meta Search engine has been described and the ranking of the queries has been accomplished by implementing four rank aggregation algorithms.

Meta Search Engine is used to combine different lists for the same query by different search engines into a single list so as to return the most relevant results with a wider coverage in the quickest possible time.

The performance improvement is achieved by testing four rank aggregation algorithms namely:

1) Linear 2) Exponential 3) Borda Fuse 4) Condorcet Fuse.

The efficiency of each algorithm in terms of accuracy and time has been compared.
Using electrical resistance tomography (ERT) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to study the mixing of yield-pseudoplastic fluids in the SMX static mixer
Authors: Jegatheeswaran Sinthuran
Published: May 2021

In this study, both electrical resistance tomography (ERT) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) were employed to study the performance of the SMX static mixer in the mixing of a secondary fluid in a yield-pseudo plastic primary fluid. Using ERT, the effects of the primary fluid rheology, the primary fluid flow rate, and the secondary fluid type (Newtonian and non-Newtonian) were investigated. A CFD model was then developed for the fluid mixing in the SMX static mixer and was validated using the experimental pressure drop and the ERT mixing index measurements. Using the validated CFD flow model, the effects of the primary/secondary flow ratio and the secondary fluid viscosity on the mixing performance of the SMX static mixer were analyzed. The results from this study revealed that the SMX static mixer was effective for the mixing of highly viscous fluids especially at a lower primary/secondary flow ratio.
Transformation as a type: seeking a flexible housing type for the 21st century
Authors: Zaheer Aamna
Published: May 2021

Rapid social and technological change have largely influenced the way in which individuals and families inhabit their dwellings, leading to new functional and formal lifestyle demands within the domestic realm.

“The current information society is more closely linked
to time than space. Its networks produce systems that
are discontinuous in space but continuous in time…the
most consistent systems are those capable of distributing
their activities homogeneously in time, thus avoiding the
generation of another parallel space…specifically for one
concrete use.” (Guallart, 2004, p.25)

In a time where change and transformation are omnipresent and highly influential, how can we design habitats that respond directly to the changing social order, by transforming into the appropriate space which supports the changing occupants, activities, and functions of a home?

This thesis proposes a flexible housing typology, which has the ability to transform and adapt to socio-cultural and technological changes over time.
Video virality and persuasive power: It’s Time and marriage equality
Authors: Kirk Derek
Published: May 2021

This master’s research project will analyze the rhetorical persuasive appeals found in a YouTube video released by Australian community advocacy group Get Up!, in support of marriage equality in Australia. The video, entitled It’s Time, was released in November 2011 and has since been viewed nearly 8 million times. This paper will identify what persuasive appeals are present in the video that may have contributed to its virality. This paper will also analyze the public YouTube comments to identify what persuasive appeals are evident in comments to either support or oppose the video’s cause, and comments will serve as a measure of the video’s success in driving support for marriage equality. Ultimately this paper aims to understand what makes a successful viral cause-related video, and if the video in question was successful in encouraging active participation in the cause amongst those who commented on the video. Active participation of users will be determined through the primary measure of the video’s success – comments.
Functional Comparison Of Immunoglobulin G Versus Oxidized Low-Density Lipoprotien Phagocytic Receptors In Human U937 Macrophages
Authors: Vance David T.
Published: May 2021

Phagocytic macrophages bind to solid oxidized low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL) deposited on the arterial intima, differentiate into foam cells and cause atherosclerosis - the largest cause of mortality in Canada. The mechanism of oxLDL internalization was examined in vitro using differentiated U937 cells exposed to latex microbeads coated with oxLDL or Immunoglobulin G (IgG). Bead internalization was quantified using immunofluorescent staining and laser confocal assays. IgG-mediated engulfment was more rapid than oxLDL-mediated engulfment indicating a qualitatively different internalization pathway. The filamentous actin inhibitors Cytochalasin D (10uM) and Latrunculin B (5uM) completely inhibited phagocytosis of both oxLDL-coated and IgG-coated beads. The Src and Spleen tyrosine kinase inhibitor 3,4-methylenedioxy-beta-nitrostyrene (20 uM), the phospholipase C inhibitor U73122 (5 uM), and the Janus kinase inhibitor AG 490 (25 uM) displayed significant inhibitory effects on the phagocytosis of both IgG and oxLDL microbeads. The specific isoforms of oxLDL and IgG receptor associated enzymes were determined by nano LC-ESI-MS/MS with an LTQ ion trap.
Cluster-discovery of Twitter messages for event detection and trending
Authors: Kaleel Shakira Banu
Published: May 2021

Social media data carries abundant hidden occurrences of real-time events in the world which raises the demand for efficient event detection and trending system. The Locality Sensitive Hashing (LSH) technique is capable of processing the large-scale big datasets. In this thesis, a novel framework is proposed for detecting and trending events from tweet clusters presence in Twitter1 dataset that are discovered using LSH. The experimental results obtained from this research work showed that the LSH technique took only 12.99% of the running time compared to that required for K-means to find all of the tweet clusters. Key challenges include: 1) construction of dictionary using incremental TF-IDF in high-dimensional data in order to create tweet feature vector 2) leveraging LSH to find truly interesting events 3) trending the behavior of event based on time, geo-locations and cluster size and 4) speed-up the cluster-discovery process while retaining the cluster quality.
Financial frictions and durable goods in DSGE models with sticky prices
Authors: Emenogu Ugochi
Published: May 2021

The focus of this dissertation is to study the role of financial frictions in DSGE models with durable goods and sticky prices, and how key economic variables respond in such an environment to monetary policy shocks. The first chapter studies the empirical evidence regarding the response of durable and non-durable goods to monetary policy shocks. Using quarterly data from Canada and the United States, and a vector autoregressive (VAR) model, we trace out empirically the effects of monetary policy innovations on key macroeconomic variables. We find that in response to an increase in the interest rate, durable consumption, non-durable consumption, output, and household debt decrease, and the nominal interest rate rises.
In the second chapter, we show that in the presence of agency costs and equity based borrowing, the two sector sticky price model with collateral frictions resolve the co-movement problem in a way which is consistent with the empirical evidence, even when durable prices are nearly exible. In the third chapter, we examine the effect of financial frictions on the consumption of durables and non-durables in a two-sector DSGE model with sticky prices and heterogeneous agents. The financial frictions are a combination of loan-to-value (LTV) and payment-to-income (PTI) constraints faced by borrowers.
In this setting a monetary contraction reduces the maximum amount that consumer that consumers can borrow in order to purchase durable goods. As a result, the model predicts that
the consumption of durables falls, along with non-durables even when durable prices are fully flexible. Thus, the model matches better the predictions of the model with the data, relative to the existing literature. The fourth chapter of the dissertation studies the effectiveness of macro-prudential policy measures in curbing house price inflation amid rising outward foreign direct investment from abroad. To assess the usefulness of these macro-prudential policy tools, we use database of housing prices, GDP, bank crises, policy rates, Chinese outward investment and macro-prudential policy measures covering advanced countries at quarterly frequency from 2003 to 2016. The results suggest that Macro prudential policy measures help in reducing house prices and OFDI has a significant and positive correlation with house prices movements.
Estimating power consumption in City of Toronto: a case study
Authors: Shees Saeed Syed Muhammad
Published: May 2021

Ontario’s energy system provides reliable and clean energy to the province. The demand of electricity is rising throughout the world, thus Ontario’s goal is to maintain the demand and generation of electricity. In this report we have discussed the electricity demand of Ontario and divided the sectors into categorical data of electricity and studied peak hour demands of Toronto.
First, we have briefly discussed the introduction, which includes the history, geographical location and socio-economic importance of Toronto. Then in the literature review we have highlighted Ontario’s generation of electricity, which is produced by various renewable energy sources and have further discussed their drawbacks. The survey is focused on the demand of electricity in Toronto by calculating the requirement and then distributing the data into 24 hours, from which we have studied peak hours demand in various categories such as residential buildings, offices, shops etc. The purpose of this survey is to monitor the electricity demand in order to reduce power outages and blackouts due to technical issues.
The economical benefits of conducting an ASHRAE Level II energy audit
Authors: Tong Lisa Catherine
Published: May 2021

Conducting an ASHRAE Level II Energy and Water audit provides building owners opportunities to save energy and water in their buildings. The ASHRAE Level II Energy Audit will fulfill the requirements for BOMA BESt Energy Assessment and IESO’s saveONenergy Electricity Survey and Analysis. The IESO saveONenergy allows building owners to receive monetary incentives to improve their energy efficiency.

Energy audits are an effective method to increase energy efficiency for commercial buildings. However, there are multiple levels of energy audits set by ASHRAE (Level I, II, and III) which varies the level of detail and economic benefit.

The role of this research is to explore the benefits of a Level II energy audit and the economic benefit of a office tower located in Toronto. This building had an ASHRAE Level I audit two years ago and a case study will be performed to evaluate the level of detail and economic benefit of a Level II Energy and Water audit.

The tower was evaluated according to ASHRAE Level II guidelines and the results obtained were an Energy Star score for the building, benchmarking against BOMA BESt buildings, energy conservation measures (ECMs), financial savings, payback periods and CO2 savings. They were separated into low/no cost measures, capital measure, other measures and impractical measures. If the building managers were to target all of the recommended ECMs, a total of $300,000 in utility costs per year would be saved. This is equivalent to 1,700,000 ekWh saved per year and a 6% reduction of their current energy use. Further more, the total energy use intensity (EUI) would improve from 26.2 ekWh/ft2 to 24.7 ekWh/ft2.
.
This case study has allowed a comparison for the two different types of energy audit. Compared to a Level I energy audit, there is a lot more detail which can provide a better potential savings as there are more engineering calculations involved for mechanical equipment, reviewing of drawings, observation of mechanical equipment, and interviews with the building operators.
Synthetic aperture imaging in acoustic microscopy
Authors: Ameri Golafsoun
Published: May 2021

Acoustic microscopy (AM) provides micro-meter resolution using a highly focused single-element transducer. A drawback in AM is a relatively small depth of field, resulting in poor resolution outside the focus. Synthetic aperature focusing technique (SAFT) can be used to improve the image resolution throughout the field of view. SAFT mathematically synthesizes the effect of an array transducer and produces dynamic focusing and depth-independent resolution. SAFT in time domain with and without apodization, TD-SAFT and ATD-SAFT, respectively, and in frequency domain (FD-SAFT) were implemented and tested using simulated and experimental radio-frequency data from an acoustic microscope at 400 MHz. Lateral resolution of all the SAFT reconstructed images were better than those of the conventional B-mode images. While TD-SAFT and FD-SAFT permformed better than ATD-SAFT in improving the lateral resolution, ATD-SAFT provided lower side lobes. In conclusion, SAFT improves resolution in AM outside the focal region.
Mixing time in yield stress fluids
Authors: Ihejirika Ihuaku
Published: May 2021

Yield stress fluids are commonly encountered in the pharmaceutical, wastewater and bioprocess industries. On agitation of these fluids with an impeller, a zone of significant motion (cavern) is formed surrounded by stagnant regions. These inhomogeneous conditions are undesirable from a product quality standpoint. Therefore, to evolve a mixing system design that would eliminate these problems, experimental measurements of mixing time were obtained and combined with power consumption to provide a measure of mixing system efficiency. The effect of different parameters such as fluid rheology, impeller rotational speed, impeller type and impeller clearance on the mixing times was also investigated. In addition, using CFD, numerical mixing times were calculated and a comparison of the numerical and experimental mixing times were conducted to investigate the capability of the CFD tool to correctly predict the homogenization process in mixing tanks.

In general, it was observed that the power characteristics of the different agitators were well reproduced by the computational package. In addition, CFD was able to correctly predict the effect of impeller rotational speed and fluid yield stress on the mixing times. However, the effect of impeller clearance on the mixing time was not correctly predicted by the CFD package when compared with experimental results obtained in this work as well as those obtained by other researchers. A comparison of the impellers used in this study (Pitched Blade Turbine (PBT), marine propeller and Lightnin A320) using the mixing time correlations available in the literature to fit the experimental data revealed that the PBT was superior to the other impellers in mixing yield stress fluids. In addition, the validated CFD model was used to measure the dimensions of the cavern formed around the impeller and it showed good agreement with the Elson's cavern model.