bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Essays on the interaction between multilateral tariff bindings and the formation of preferential trade agreements
Authors: Moise Nken
Published: May 2021

This dissertation studies the effect of continual reduction in the tariff bindings and its implications on the static and dynamic formation of preferential trade agreements (PTAs). Underlying trade model is a three country \competing exporters" model. First, utilizing a static game of endogenous trade agreement formation between three countries, we examine the effects of continual reduction in tariff bindings on the role of PTA formation in attaining global free trade. We show that, in the free trade agreement (FTA) formation game, when countries are completely symmetric, free trade always obtains as the coalition-proof Nash equilibrium (CPNE) of the FTA game. Under the customs union (CU) game, CU members exercise an exclusion incentive and free trade fails to be a CPNE. When countries are asymmetric with respect to their comparative advantage, the country with a weaker comparative advantage has an incentive to free ride on trade liberalization of the two others and continual reduction in tariff bindings facilitates FTA formation in attaining global free trade.
Next, we employ a three country dynamic model of PTA formation where countries form PTAs over time and investigate the impact of multilateral tariff binding liberalization on the equilibrium extent of FTA and CU formation in isolation. When forming FTAs under relatively high tariff bindings, a myopic free riding incentive of FTA non-members constrains FTA formation. Thus, tariff binding liberalization can facilitate FTA expansion to global free trade. However, when forward looking countries do not value this myopic free riding incentive, tariff binding liberalization can impede FTA expansion to global free trade. In our CU game, CU formation proceeds to global free trade only for relatively high tariff bindings.
Finally, we examine the PTA game where countries endogenously choose between CU and FTA formation. Under such a game, we show that the equilibrium emergence of CUs can prevent global free trade that would otherwise occur through FTAs. In contrast, the equilibrium emergence of FTAs can facilitate global free trade that would otherwise not occur through CUs.
Building Leafs Nation: rhetorical devices in the online imagined community of the Toronto Maple Leafs
Authors: Iantorno Nicole
Published: May 2021

Established almost 100 years ago, the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team is known for their large, dedicated fan base called Leafs Nation. I am a devoted member of this nation and, as such, the team’s communication practices speak both to me, and about me. This major research paper (MRP) is an analysis of e-mails sent to a subscriber-only list in the context of marketing. Researching the e-mail communication from the Toronto Maple Leafs to their fan base lends itself to an understanding of the communication that occurs in a professional setting. Not only do the Toronto Maple Leafs communicate directly with their proactive fan base but I argue that the way in which they do this instills a sense of community within Leafs Nation through the use of themes, metaphors and rhetorical tropes. Communicating effectively with a fan base is an essential component in running a sports organization. Texts in the form of words and images do not only assist in getting an organization’s message to the supporters, but their connotative meanings can also contribute to the senses of community and belonging. This paper will examine how the Toronto Maple Leafs employ rhetorical devices in the e-mail newsletters sent out to Leafs Nation, as well as analyzing the rhetorical connotations in these devices. Also, I will be examining the way in which the use of rhetorical devices contributes to the creation of an online ‘imagined community,’ a concept first introduced by Benedict Anderson in 1936 in the context of nations and nationalism. Anderson stated that an imagined community does not conform to traditional ideals of a community and is constructed by those that see themselves as being a part of this community, and I see the Leafs Nation as conforming to the ideals detailed by Anderson. As such, I will be completing a qualitative textual analysis of 43 e-mails that have gone out to the subscriber-only fan list since 2012. By examining these e-mails I will attempt to identify the presence of the rhetorical devices of pathopoeia, scesis onomaton and principle of scarcity and the overall frequency with which they appear. Based on the data that emerges from my research, I will then attempt to draw correlations between the findings and attempt to link the presence of rhetorical devices as a contributing factor to the creation of Leafs Nation as an online imagined community through a qualitative textual analysis.
High Notes In Hard Times: The Impact Of Ensemble Participation On The Well-Being Of 2SLGBTQ+ Musicians
Authors: Clayton Miranda Vivian
Published: May 2021

This study examines the impact of participation in music ensembles such as band and choir on the well-being of two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other nonheterosexual and cisgender (2SLGBTQ+) identified musicians. 2SLGBTQ+ musicians with ensemble experience were asked to fill out a questionnaire on their experiences and perceived impacts of their participation. Conclusions were drawn from this data using constructivist grounded theory informed by queer anti-capitalism after responses were coded and grouped into themes for thematic analysis. This study propositions music ensemble as an informal queer space as well as differing effects as result of participation over different 2SLGBTQ+ demographics. This study concludes that music ensemble functions as a means to provide relief from capitalism as it is a place where queerness can be normalized instead of commodified.
Branding Canada: Trudeau’s contribution to nation branding
Authors: Fitzsimons Larissa
Published: May 2021

This Major Research Paper (MRP) investigates how nation branding is accomplished through political brand ambassadors, particularly Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Within this research, I also examine the intersection of political speech genres and branding speech genres, and how they have created the emergence of the nation branding speech genre. My research questions are as follows: 1. Does the intersection between the political and branding speech genres lead to the emergence of an independent nation branding speech genre? 2. Using the nation branding speech genre, do personal brands translate onto country brands? More specifically, is Trudeau’s personal brand influencing Canada’s brand?
Anaerobic Cellulolytic Microbial Communities from Various Sources of Inocula Under Various Culture Conditions
Authors: Peterson Eric C.
Published: May 2021

To date studies focusing on microbial cellulose hydrolysis have focused on pure cultures such as Clostridium themocellum, or isolated environmental cellulolytic strains. Microbial communities fed with crystalline cellulose were cultivated in continuous culture, and optimal growth conditions and culture approaches have been investigated

Inocula from different environments were tested to determine microbial cellulose hydrolysis and growth, as well as the effect of temperature and media composition. Differences in microbial hydrolysis existed not only between sources of inocula, but within inocula themselves. It was found that microbial consortia cultured from direct environmental inocula had more robust microbial activity than enriched inocula.

Cultures grown at 60℃ showed higher biomass-specific cellulose hydrolysis, resulting in more efficient cellulose hydrolysis. This study provides evidence of differences in sources of inocula for the culture of cellulolytic consortia, and suggests culture approaches for the further study of possible applications of microbial consortia in bioprocessing technology.
Local Stability Analysis On Lotka-Volterra Predator-Prey Models Functional Responses With Constant prey Refuge
Authors: Li Chongming
Published: May 2021

The dynamical behaviours of the predators and prey can be described by studying the local stability of the planar systems. Type I functional response shows that the rate of consumption per predator is proportional to prey’s density while type II
functional response is related to the situation that predators would reach satiation as they consumed sufficient amount of prey. We seek out a method of using transformation to reduce the number of parameters of original models and then study the stability analysis of equilibrium points. Under suitable restrictions on the new parameters, we prove that the positive interior equilibrium is a stable node for the system of type I and type II functional responses. Moreover, in the case of type II functional response, the boundary equilibria can have more types of stability other than saddle points.
Experience And Emotional Face Processing In Infancy
Authors: Safar Kristina
Published: May 2021

Experience is suggested to shape the development of emotion processing abilities in infancy. The current dissertation investigated the influence of familiarity with particular face types and emotional faces on emotional face processing within the first year of life using a variety of metrics. The first study examined whether experience with a particular face type (own- vs. other-race faces) affected 6- and 9-month-old infants’ attentional looking preference to fearful facial expressions in a visual paired-comparison (VPC) task. Six-month-old infants showed an attentional preference for fearful over happy facial expressions when expressed by own-race faces, but not other race-faces, whereas 9-month-old infants showed an attentional preference for fearful expressions when expressed by both own-race and other-race faces, suggesting that experience influences how infants deploy their attention to different facial expressions. Using a longitudinal design, the second study examined whether exposure to emotional faces via picture book training at 3 months of age affected infants’ allocation of attention to fearful over happy facial expressions in both a VPC and ERP task at 5 months of age. In the VPC task, 3- and 5-month-olds without exposure to emotional faces demonstrated greater allocation of attention to fearful facial expressions. Differential exposure to emotional faces revealed a potential effect of training: 5-month-olds infants who experienced fearful faces showed an attenuated preference for fearful facial expressions compared to infants who experienced happy faces or no training. Three- and 5-month-old infants did not, however, show differential neural processing of happy and fearful facial expressions. The third study examined whether 5- and 7-month-old infants can match fearful and happy faces and voices in an intermodal preference task, and whether exposure to happy or fearful faces influences this ability. Neither 5- nor 7-month-old infants showed intermodal matching of happy or fearful facial expressions, regardless of exposure to emotional faces. Overall, results from this series of studies add to our understanding of how experience influences the development of emotional face processing in infancy.
Parallel Implementation of Non-slicing Floorplans with MPI and OpenMP
Authors: Owojaiye Oluvaseun
Published: May 2021

Advancement in technology has brought considerable improvement to processor design and now manufacturers design multiple processors on a single chip. Supercomputers today consists of cluster of interconnected nodes that collaborate together to solve complex and advanced computation problems. Message Passing Interface and Open Multiprocessing are the popularly used programming models to optimize sequential codes by parallelizing them on the different multiprocessor architecture that exist today. In this thesis, we parallelize the non-slicing floorplan algorithm based on Multilevel Floorplanning/placement of large scale modules using B*tree (MB*tree) with MPI and OpenMP on distributed and shared memory architectures respectively. In VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) design automation, floorplanning is an initial and vital task performed in the early design stage. Experimental results using MCNC benchmark circuits show that our parallel algorithm produced better results than the corresponding sequential algorithm; we were able to speed up the algorithm up to 4 times, hence reducing computation time and maintaining floorplan solution quality. On the other hand, we compared both parallel versions; and the OpenMP results gave slightly better than the corresponding MPI results.
Keep Your Citizens Close: Building A Policy Framework in Response to Canada’s Returning Foreign Fighters
Authors: McVeigh Mathew Shane
Published: May 2021

This Major Research Paper examines the irregular migration of Canadian citizens who engaged in terrorism abroad, specifically Syria and Iraq, and who are now returning home. The paper examines how they were radicalized into adopting an ideology that stands against the individuals’ home state and how they can be reintegrated once they have returned. The paper acknowledges that this is not the first instance of Canadian foreign fighters, but is the first time where they pose a threat to Canada. Since this threat must be addressed in some way, the paper examines different strategies to mitigate any risk to other Canadian citizens and to counter any future radicalization of Canadian citizens.

Keywords: Irregular Migration; Terrorism; Foreign Fighter; Radicalization; Deradicalization; Disengagement
Experimental Investigation of Thermal Diffusion in Binary and Ternary Hydrocarbon Mixtures
Authors: Mousavi Seyyed Arash
Published: May 2021

In a multi-component liquid mixture, the process of disassociation of the components induced by thermal gradient is called thermal diffusion or Soret effect. This effect plays a crucial role in separation of the components in hydrocarbon mixtures of oil. Accordingly, the main goal of this study is to experimentally investigate the Soret effect in binary and ternary hydrocarbon mixtures. Optical interferometry technique with Mach-Zehnder scheme was used to conduct the experiments. The interferometry techniques are not intrusive and the separation of the components in the mixture is not affected by the measurement instrument. A Soret cell is defined as a cubic cavity where the sample mixture is placed in it and, the separation of the components takes place in the cell by heating it from the above. Soret cells are used in convectionless experiments and natural convections are undesirable. The Soret cell used in space experiments was re-designed and optimized for ground-based experiments to avoid the natural convections. Computational studies
were made on the both cells to obtain the temperature and velocity fields. Then a set of thermal diffusion experiments conducted in order to compare the performance of the cells. The results shows that the induced convective motions in the second cell are significantly weaker than those in the previous cell which is desirable.
In the next step, the effect of the inclination of the cell on the thermal diffusion was studied. First numerical analysis was made to find the velocity and temperature fields in different inclinations and then a set of experiments was performed and the concentration distribution of the components in a binary mixture in different inclinations of the cell was found.
Finally, ground based experiments were performed to study the thermal diffusion in five ternary hydrocarbon mixtures. Optical interferometry with Mach-Zehnder scheme using two laser sources with different wavelengths was used. The Soret information of one of the mixtures is available in the literature and this mixture was studied here to validate the present experimental setup. The temperature and concentration of the mixtures were measured successfully in the Soret cell and a table of the measured Soret coefficient were provided.
An arithmetic approach to the analysis of multiple faults verification and synthesis at switch-level
Authors: Javaheri Mohammad Reza Samadpour
Published: May 2021

Switch-level modeling and simulation has become an important method of predicting the behaviour of CMOS circuits under the presence of faults. Many important phenomena in CMOS circuits, such as bi-directional signal propagation, charge sharing and variations in driving strength can be reliably modeled using this technique. This paper presents an algorithm for modeling directional and bi-directional CMOS circuits with an arithmetic solution for circuit verification and fault synthesis. This new approach is capable of simulating multiple fault injection into the circuit and speeds up switch-level simulation. Other advantages of this algorithm are its application in the mapping of single and multiple faults from switch level to gate level and the ability to function as a multi-level model. Multiple faults can be of the same or different types. Experimental results using Cadence tools show that the algorithm is successful and reliable for CMOS technology.
DRD2, DAT1, COMT, and OXTR Genes as Potential Moderators of the Relationship Between Maternal History of Maltreatment and Infant Emotion Regulation
Authors: Villani Vanessa
Published: May 2021

Background: Gene-environment (GXE) interaction models have demonstrated that DRD2, DAT1, COMT, and OXTR SNPs moderate parental factors (i.e., maternal depression, parenting) to predict outcomes related to emotion regulation (e.g., affective problems, attentional control). No studies have investigated the connections between maternal maltreatment history and infant dopamine and oxytocin gene variants as they relate to infant emotion regulation. The current study addresses these gaps, evaluating the interaction of selected genes as they interact with maternal history of maltreatment to predict infant emotion regulation.
Method: I investigated five infant genotypes (DRD2, DAT1, COMT, OXTR rs53576, and OXTR rs2254298) as they interacted with maternal history of self-reported maltreatment to predict observed infant emotion regulation behaviours. Self-reported maternal depressive symptoms were covaried. Infant emotion regulation was observed in the context of a potent stressor. I assessed three potential models of interaction, diathesis-stress, differential sensitivity, or vantage sensitivity.
Results: Analyses demonstrated that, over and above maternal depressive symptoms, DRD2 and COMT significantly interacted with self-reported maternal maltreatment scores in a ‘vantage sensitivity’ model and DAT1 significantly interacted with maternal maltreatment history in a ‘diathesis-stress’ model. A cumulative vantage sensitivity (CVS) index significantly interacted with maternal maltreatment history to predict emotion regulation scores, consistent with a vantage sensitivity model.
Conclusions: Findings indicated that infants with the “vantage” DRD2 (A1+) and COMT (Met) alleles, when exposed to mothers with lesser histories of maltreatment, fair better in terms of regulation than their non-susceptible counterparts. Infants with the “risk” DAT1 (presence of the 9-repeat) allele, when exposed to a parent with a greater history of maltreatment, tended to fare worse in terms of regulation behaviours. These differences in genetic interaction models suggest that an adaptive variation in genetic vulnerability and vantage-sensitivity, across an infant’s genome, can increase the possibility for optimal self-regulation outcomes, whether the environment is favourable or less favourable (i.e., lower versus higher history of maternal maltreatment, respectively).
Health Beliefs and Medication Taking Behaviour of Individuals Living with Mild to Moderate Chronic Kidney Disease
Authors: Hui Adelaide KL
Published: May 2021

The aims of this secondary analysis were to describe medication taking behaviour and health beliefs among people with mild to moderate CKD, examine differences in health beliefs according to age and gender, and examine relationships between health beliefs and medication taking behaviour. The sample consisted of 30 men and 30 women between19 and 72 years old. Forty-two participants reported they did not miss medication doses, but remembering to take all the pills was the most challenging. Women were more likely to believe their kidney function would improve in the future and to believe treatment would keep them from becoming ill. No statistically significant differences were found in health beliefs by age. Perceived barriers were the strongest indicator of medication taking behaviour. Findings from this study shed light on the complexity of the medication regimen in CKD, and could guide health care providers to better support medication taking behaviour.
The efficacy of cognitive restructuring and mindfulness strategies in reducing post-event processing among socially anxious individuals
Authors: Gee Bethany A.
Published: May 2021

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is defined as a marked and persistent fear of social situations in which an individual is exposed to potential scrutiny from others (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Prominent models of SAD (Clark & Wells, 1995 ; Rapee & Heimberg, 1997) postulate that postevent processing (PEP), which involves reviewing a past social event in detail (typically in a negative way), serves as a key maintenance factor of SAD. The current study examined the efficacy of a single session cognitive restructuring or mindfulness strategy on decreasing PEP and its associated effects, and also investigated the cognitive processes involved. Seventy-four socially anxious participants completed a speech task to elicit PEP, were taught a cognitive restructuring, mindfulness, or control strategy to manage their negative thoughts related to the speech, and completed several questionnaires. Participants in the cognitive restructuring condition reported decreased PEP (degree and associated distress) and improved affect (but not reduced state anxiety), as compared to the control condition. Participants in the mindfulness condition also reported decrease PEP (degree but no associate distress) and improved affect (including reduced state anxiety), as compared to the control condition. No significant differences were found between the cognitive restructuring and mindfulness conditions. Participants in the cognitive restructuring condition also reported decreased beliefs about the perceived costs of negative social situations. Regardless of study condition, decreases in cost biases and maladaptive beliefs sign significantly predicted reductions in PEP. Thus, cognitive restructuring and mindfulness appear to be promising strategies to decrease PEP and its associated negative effects.
Globalization and media imperialism : a case study of the Slovak Republic's television media structure and content
Authors: Kuruc Katarina
Published: May 2021

An increase in the global circulation of symbolic commodities allows for both new and older forms of mass media to re-construct the ways in which individuals identify with themselves and with their own cultures. The goal of this project was to employ former communist Slovakia as a case study in order to examine the global circulation of symbolic commodities, specifically television programmes. This paper outlines Slovakia's television media structure and its development from the communist era to its current form. Secondly, it employs content analysis and articulation theory as methodologies in order to place Slovakia's television into context with two cultural theory theses; the media imperialism thesis and the globalization thesis. It was found that the [sic] as a result of several historical and political changes, the current conjuncture of Slovakia's television media includes a large number of American entertainment programmes, some domestic productions and a European structure of broadcasting
Assessing digital strategies and tools for legacy publishers: What works? What fails? And What's next?
Authors: Christie Nathan James
Published: May 2021

This paper will first outline the importance of transitioning to the digital era for legacy publishers, defined here as publishers that existed before the rise of the Information Age and the current dominance of digital technologies in the 21st century. Particular focus is paid to academic publishers, catalogues, and journals rather than publishers in education and trade. The parameters of digital transition, the choices a legacy publisher may face, and the problems that challenge legacy publishers are discussed and put into context in regards to a legacy publisher’s role in the digital age. Finally, an examination of different tools used in digital native companies is performed and their usefulness for legacy publishers are analyzed.
Exploring the experience of loneliness among older Sinhalese immigrant women in Canada
Authors: Madhavi AV Pramuditha
Published: May 2021

Although people can become lonely at any age, older people are more likely to experience loneliness due to changes and losses that accompany aging. Older women are more likely to be lonely owing to their greater longevity as compared to older men (Hall & Havens, 1999). This situation can be worse for older immigrant women (Guruge, Kanthasamy & Santos, 2007). The purpose of this study was to uncover the experience of loneliness among older Sinhalese women in Toronto. Using a narrative inquiry approach (Clandinin & Clonnelly, 2000), I conducted in-depth individual interviews with two Sinhalese immigrant women. Study findings show that their feelings of loneliness were triggered due to loss of status and privilege, declined social network, negative role transition, and family oppression. Practice implications can include: work towards strengthening and expanding older immigrant women"s social network in order to create a conducive environment for psychosocial health and wellbeing.
Strong is beautiful(?): A multimodal analysis of strength and beauty in female and male sports commercials
Authors: Ihnat Brooke
Published: May 2021

Taking inspiration from Naomi Wolf’s The Beauty Myth, this major research paper examines the ways in which strength and beauty are constructed in female and male sports commercials. Building off of themes such as the sport-media complex, encoding and decoding models of communication, media representations of women and post-feminism, this paper is concerned with exposing the disparities between media representations of female and male athletes. Using the Women’s Tennis Association’s “Strong is Beautiful” ad campaign in tandem with AT&T’s
“Paul George Strong” ad, the questions that guide this major research paper are:

• How does strength act as a reductive concept?

• How is the word “beautiful” encoded in the “Strong is Beautiful” ad campaign?

• At what level (i.e. connotative or denotative) do the words “strong” and “beautiful” operate in the “Strong is Beautiful” television commercial?

• At what level does the word “strong” operate in the “Paul George Strong” television commercial? And finally, what does the “Strong is Beautiful” television commercial and the “Paul George Strong” television commercial communicate about the beauty myth in sport? What do these commercials say about post-feminism in sport?

Employing social semiotic theory and multimodal analysis, this paper concludes that strength is applied universally to the female athletes in the “Strong is Beautiful” commercial which solidifies the term as a male standard. As a result, the term has an oppressive connotation when used to describe female athletes thereby contradicting the very notion of what a female athlete should be: empowered.
An evaluation of defluoridation technologies in the context of decision-making strategies
Authors: Fantin Ann C
Published: May 2021

Fluoride can be considered beneficial or harmful to human health dependant on the amount that is ingested. Many methods exist for the removal of excessive fluoride from drinking water; however, not all defluoridation methods are appropriate for the specific local conditions that may be present within a community. The objective of this research project is to evaluate various available defluoridation technologies against characteristics of a successful and sustainable technology, while considering decision-making strategies that may be employed by those selecting an appropriate defluoridation method to suit the characteristics of the specific community that is affected by fluoride-impacted drinking water. An evaluation of the selected defluoridation technologies supports the notion that there is not an all-encompassing defluoridation technology that would be applicable to all types of situations in which fluoride impacted groundwater is a concern. Water treatment methods for developing countries require careful consideration and selection of a sustainable solution so as to provide long-term benefits and applicability. Formal decision-making strategies would be useful tools at the government level to provide a starting point to determine which available defluoridation methods would be viable at the end user level. Researchers, government officials and, most importantly, local inhabitants of suffering areas must work together to achieve the common goal of clean and safe potable water.
Sex for Sale: Prostitution and Visual Culture 1850-1910
Authors: Reid Jaclyn
Published: May 2021

"Sex for Sale: Prostitution and Visual Culture 1850-1910" is a Master's thesis that takes a historical approach to the visual in order to better understand the construction of the prostitute in Victorian culture. Recent scholars have noted ways in which the prostitute was routinely depicted as a threat and victim in nineteenth-century institutional discourse. This thesis complicates these readings by examining the construction of the fallen woman in commercial imagery. Far from depicting the streetwalker as a source of pity and disease, commercial culture redefined the image of the prostitute as a source of ambiguous visual pleasure. This allowed the signifiers of prostitution to extend through pornographic representation, entertainment advertisements, actress pin-ups and fashion magazines. Making illicit female sexuality a readily consumable pleasure, however, ultimately fostered greater efforts on the part of authorities to push prostitutes back into invisibility.
Assessing Organizational Capacity and Sustainability of a Partnership: the Future of CERIS
Authors: Cohen Stephen
Published: May 2021

This case study explores the sustainability and continuation of a centre of research and knowledge transfer around issues related to immigration and settlement. It discusses the institutional context of CERIS and the various policy and practice relevant uses of academic research. It draws on literature and theory about organizational capacity in nonprofit organizations and academic partnerships. The case assesses whether CERIS, has the capacity to renew and continue functioning beyond its funding mandate. Data was primarily collected from in-depth interviews with key stakeholders. The results of this paper indicate both opportunities and challenges for a renewed CERIS-like organization to continue functioning in the environment. The study has implications generally for the sustainability of collaborative partnerships.
Redressing the Ocularcentric Culture of architectural design: A Phenomenological and Participatory Approach in VR
Authors: Boulatova Elisaveta
Published: May 2021

In the development of architectural representation, the image has become a metonym of architectural experience. This productive tension is maintained by the expectation of fragmented representation to identify and reproduce the experiential and phenomenological dimensions perceived in the physical experience with architecture. Returning to the investigation of representation and perception exemplifies that each new technology introduces a new scale of extension in both design capability and opportunity for feedback. The degree of immersivity introduced by virtual reality
technologies elicits several scales of experience. This thesis uses virtual prototyping in the design stage to elicit a product that is not a reflection of intention, but a result of something discovered, evaluated and experienced in immersion prior to realization. An increase in receptivity to the qualities of the design and its context relative to the perceiver has the potential to change the relationship of digital space to digital place.
Redressing the Ocularcentric Culture of architectural design: A Phenomenological and Participatory Approach in VR
Authors: Boulatova Elisaveta , Hui Vincent
Published: May 2021

In the development of architectural representation, the image has become a metonym of architectural experience. This productive tension is maintained by the expectation of fragmented representation to identify and reproduce the experiential and phenomenological dimensions perceived in the physical experience with architecture. Returning to the investigation of representation and perception exemplifies that each new technology introduces a new scale of extension in both design capability and opportunity for feedback. The degree of immersivity introduced by virtual reality
technologies elicits several scales of experience. This thesis uses virtual prototyping in the design stage to elicit a product that is not a reflection of intention, but a result of something discovered, evaluated and experienced in immersion prior to realization. An increase in receptivity to the qualities of the design and its context relative to the perceiver has the potential to change the relationship of digital space to digital place.
Conspicuous consumption as architectural proxy
Authors: Titizian Razmig
Published: May 2021

Contemporary architecture in emerging economies is at risk of losing rich cultural identity in built environments as much of today’s reaction is driven by afixation on superlative ostentatiousness as the normative design process. This thesis asserts that there are several attributes of architectural conspicuous consumption that emerging economies could adopt in order to sustain their cultural identity through architecture. This will be achieved through the inclusion of both past cultural traditions and current global trends, which will be demonstrated in the thesis project in Guangzhou, the centre of China’s industrial market and growing urban center.
Finding the line of best fit: constructing a profile for rural-based international medical graduates in Canada
Authors: Kovacs Hannah
Published: May 2021

Canada's vast landscape has produced challenges in providing equitable access to healthcare for those living in rural and remote areas. Over several decades physician shortages have increasingly compromised rural communities' access to medical services. In response, provinces and territories have recruited international medical graduates (IMGs) to address these shortages. Synthesizing literature and frameworks from American, Australian and Canadian sources, this paper will explore issues related to IMG recruitment and retention to rural practice. Using an evidence-based review of the literature and data from the Canadian Residency Matching Service (CaRMS) this investigation will examine the profiles of IMGs who voluntarily pursue rural practice in hopes of identifying trends and future directions for recruitment and retention efforts.
Changes in Chinese supermarket development in the Toronto CMA : a case study of T & T Supermarket
Authors: Hii Rebecca
Published: May 2021

The Chinese have developed expansive ethnic economies with high levels of institutional completeness throughout the Toronto CMA. While Chinese shopping centre development has been studied extensively in the literature, little research has been done on changes in the Chinese food industry, one of the oldest and largest sectors of the Chinese ethnic economy. Using T & T Supermarket as a case study, this paper investigates changes in Chinese supermarket development in the Toronto CMA. The first most notable change is the evolution of Chinese supermarkets from traditional-concept stores, which sell almost exclusively Chinese goods, to the one-stop supermarket, which offers a wider range of goods and services to a larger customer base. Chinese supermarkets have also experienced shifts in location from Chinese shopping plazas and enclosed malls to mixed-ethnic shopping plazas and enclosed mainstream malls. Finally, this study examines the prevalence of cross-shopping in mixed-ethnic shopping centres, thus illustrating potential benefits and future trends in ethnic shopping centre development.
Blog Consumption: How Females Engage with Fashion in the Digital Age
Authors: Bialowas Kate
Published: May 2021

Independent fashion bloggers are changing the fashion industry in a dynamic way, introducing spaces for women who have not traditionally been represented in mainstream fashion media. This exploratory study investigates how young adult female consumers are engaging with images on fashion blogs, compared with fashion print magazine
images that have been found to lower women’s self-esteem. A literature review provides a thematic foundation for the study, examining 1) how fashion has changed in the digital age; 2) what motivates fashion bloggers to blog and how they have become effective marketing tools and trend forecasters; 3) how print magazine images portray women; and 4) how female consumers engage with these images. A content analysis examines 17 of the most popular North American fashion bloggers, as rated by Signature9.com. Ten posts from each blogger reveal whether the images conform to idealized fashion print magazine images. Five bloggers serve as interview stimuli for 12 female participants, who explain their fashion media habits while examining and discussing the visual stimuli. The findings reveal factors that influence young females’ engagement with fashion media and highlight what they desire when it comes to fashion images
Review Of Stormwater Management In Ontario And A Case Study On The Etobicoke Exfiltration System
Authors: Ternier Sabrina
Published: May 2021

Stormwater management has transformed throughout the decades with the purpose of maintaining the pre-development hydrological cycle to protect humans and the environment. Despite the progress, Ontario’s water bodies have continued to degrade. This research discusses and recommends three essential modifications to stormwater management to increase environmental and human protection. These include: 1) management based on the four seasons, 2) management based on regional conditions such as local climate and receiving water body characteristics, and 3) updating current stormwater management objectives to provide detailed direction.

The Etobicoke Exfiltration System is used as a case study to demonstrate some aspects of the proposed stormwater management modifications and to show the benefits of addressing the five stormwater characteristics (volume, peak flow, quality, duration, frequency) throughout the year. Modelling its performance under 2 to 100 year Chicago storms and use of previous EES studies show the wide range of objectives it can achieve. Future stormwater designs should look to the EES as insight into how stormwater can be properly managed.
Marketing a startup targeting millennial travellers
Authors: Ozcan Ali Eren
Published: May 2021

Millennial generation travellers have different behaviors towards advertisements. The purpose of this project is to focus on answering the thesis question: do image-based advertisements including human figure gain more attraction than image-based advertisements that includes graphical, colorful content? For this research, we will create a startup focused on serving millennial travellers. Then, we will conduct a comparison between classic, combined, and graphic advertising styles, using differently created images. The goal of this comparative study is to understand the most effective advertising strategy for a startup geared toward millennial travellers. We tested these advertising strategies on millennial travellers visiting Toronto or currently living in Toronto. Our hypothesis was that millennial travellers will be more interested in an image-based advertisement including humans or human face within travel and tourism advertisements. The results showed that millennial travellers are more interested in an image-based advertisement including humans or human face.
Rate Maximization Using Cooperative Ratio Over Rayleigh Fading Channels
Authors: Rajagopalan Lavanya
Published: May 2021

Cooperative Diversity transmission, a newly upcoming field in the area of wireless communication, has been receiving great attention. This diversity transmission exploits the spatial diversity created by antenna sharing to improve the performance of a wireless network. The working of a cooperative diversity system is such that a source node communicates with a destination node with the help of another partner node. One important question usually raised regarding the operation of this system is that of the amount of power allocation among partnering nodes. Initial stages of research in this area had assumed equal distribution of power resources between the nodes. This approach has been proven as clearly suboptimal. Several works to allocate power optimally are coming up. In this project, optimal power allocation is used as a key approach to analyze the rate performance of the system. This is done with the help of a parameter called cooperative ratio which is the ratio of the power used for cooperative transmission to total power. Simulation results to support the analysis have also been provided.
Afrocentric Schools Within a Multicultural Context: Exploring Different Attitudes Towards the TDSB Proposal Within The Black Community
Authors: Ekwa-Ekoko Isabelle
Published: May 2021

This exploratory research study examines the complex reactions within the Black community in Toronto, Canada towards the opening of the first public Africentric/Black-focused school. The study seeks to understand the various hopes, fears and reservations among the Black community towards this school and the social impact Black Community members perceive the school will have on Black youth, and on Black Canadians in general. As such, the study is situated within the broader context of racism and the social exclusion of racialized minorities in Canada, with a specific focus on the experiences of Black Canadians. Included are the results of qualitative interviews with Black Canadians alongside several theoretical frameworks that assist in explaining participants’ reactions to the Africentric school in the context of the social inclusion of Blacks within mainstream Canadian society.
K-means clustering based tone-mapping operator for high dynamic range video
Authors: Taherian Negar
Published: May 2021

The field of high dynamic range (HDR) imaging deals with capturing the luminance
of a natural scene, usually varying between 10−3 to 105 cd/m2 and displaying it
on digital devices with much lower dynamic range. Here, we present a novel tone
mapping algorithm that is based on K-means clustering. Our algorithm takes into
account the color information within a frame and using k-means clustering algorithm
it builds clusters on the intensities within an image and shifts the values within each
cluster to a displayable dynamic range. We also implement a scene change detection
to reduce the running time of our algorithm by using the cluster information from
the previous frame for frames within the same scene. To reduce the flicker effect,
we proposed a new method that multiplies a leaky integer to the centroid values of
our clustering results. Our algorithm runs in O( N logK + K logK ) for an image
with N input luminance levels and K output levels. We also show how to extend the
method to handle video input. We display that our algorithm gives comparable results
to state-of-the- art tone mapping algorithms. We test our algorithm on a number of
standard high dynamic range images and video sequences and provide qualitative and
quantitative comparisons to a number of state-of-the-art tone mapping algorithms for
videos.
Tissue characterization of prostate cancer using quantitative analysis of low frequency ultrasound
Authors: Sofroni Ervis
Published: May 2021

Current accepted methodologies used for detection of the prostate rumor involve measurements of prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels, patient age followed by ultrasound guided biopsies leaving a lot to desire in the ability to correctly identify lesions. Also PSA level test has been shown to produce a high number of false positives leading to unnecessary invasive biopsies. The goal of this thesis is to investigate the use of trans-rectal conventional low frequency (1-10MHz) ultrasound as a non-invasive imaging modality for the detection of prostate tumors. Currently we are investigating the use of multiparameter spectroscopic analysis of the ultrasound radio frequency signal in combination with ultrasound elastrographic imaging of the prostate and correlating the results with whole-mount histopathology from radical prostatectomy. Ten patients with prostate cancer prior to surgery were subjected to trans-rectal conventional low frequency ultrasound scans. Parametric maps are generated for each individual spectral parameter. Ratios of disease area versus normal prostatic tissue are identified using low frequency ultrasound and compared with the equivalent ratios obtained from whole-mount histopathology. Preliminary results show that areas of suspected disease identified by spectral parameters correlate with areas of disease presence in the corresponding whole-mount sections. An initial software platform performing visualization of areas of disease based on parametric maps generated from spectral analysis methods was developed.
A Study On Ventricular Fibrillation And Ventricular Tachyarrythmia Classification Methods Using Continuous Wavelet Transform
Authors: Afatmirni Elnaz
Published: May 2021

Ventricular Tachycardia (VT) and Ventricular Fibrillation (VF) are fatal cardiac diseases associated with cardiac arrest. It is difficult to manually classify VT and VF signals. However, precise classification of VT and VF signals can assist cardiologists to identify and ultimately prevent onset of VF or VT. In this thesis, some of the underlying features which characterize VF and VT are extracted and are used to efficiently classifying these signals. The features are acquired from energy coefficients matrices using Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT) through application of Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The features are the vector containing newly generated energy projection coefficients and the vector containing the number of the top 99% principal components (Eigen-Values) for each case. Feature vectors are then passed through Fast Forward Neural Network (FFNN) and Leave One Out Method (LOOM) classifiers for discrimination. The results are then compared for the highest classification results for VF and VT signals.
Multichromic Triphenylamine-based dyes: Designing better interfaces for DSSC applications
Authors: Abdi Omar Khalif
Published: May 2021

A family of multichromic dyes with excellent light-harvesting abilities have been designed. They utilize redox robust triphenylamines tuned with thienyl-moeities. To confirm their performance as sensitizers for dye-sensitized solar cells, devices are en-route for fabrication and optimization with varying electrolytes. They serve as excellent candidates towards integration with a hole-transport material: forthcoming goals will involve alteration of the dyes to allow in-situ photo-electrical polymerization with poly-3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene. Solid state analogues of the devices present the ability to be manufactured through a direct-write process.