bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Hiding in Delight: Transgression, Irony And the Edge of Vice
Authors: Bigge Ryan
Published: May 2021

This study examines a Montreal-based underground magazine and its use of "edge" as a strategy of retaining subcultural capital and limiting its readership, thus creating a narrow but profitable niche market that extends Thomas Frank's work on rebel consumption. Vice, through its content, tone and business strategies, unites a series of diverse but related issues including subculture, transgression, cultural intermediaries, the political economy of magazines, the audience commodity, the politics of pleasure and how media texts constitute audiences as consuming subjects. Through a combination of interlocking discursive and aesthetic strategies that involve transgression and irony, Vice is able to minimize aspects of the audience commodity as described by Dallas Smythe while foregrounding its subcultural capital. In this way, it is able to convert subcultural capital into economic capital while remaining a relevant and authentic underground publication.
Email marketing from message filters to AR filters
Authors: Saindon Natalie
Published: May 2021

The major research project explores augmented reality (AR) marketing for the retail industry in the advent of AR support in web browsers. In spite of advancements in mobile technologies, mobile AR research is limited and consumer acceptance is low, with a sense of uselessness ranking highly amongst consumer concerns. Three marketing emails, including a promotional, cart abandonment, and a seasonal campaign, are prototyped to demonstrate how mobile web-based AR can be integrated into email marketing strategies of the retail industry to increase levels of perceived usefulness. By satisfying the aim of the project within the technology acceptance model (TAM), AR can begin to shift from frivolous novelty to valuable commodity. The project deepens the field of AR application research, fills the gap in mobile studies, and the knowledge gained serves retail marketers as they develop the digital marketing strategies of tomorrow.
Nuclear targeting of gold nanoparticles
Authors: Yang Celina
Published: May 2021

Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) have been extensively used in cancer research due to their abilities as anti-cancer drug carriers for chemotherapy and as dose enhancers in radiotherapy. Although most GNP research in the past involved cytoplasm localized GNPs, it is predicted that therapy response can be enhanced if GNPs can be effectively targeted into the nucleus. A strategy for designing a GNP-peptide complex for targeting the nucleus will be presented. Three different sequences of peptides (CKKKKKKGGAGDMFG, CGGRKKRRGRRRAP, CALNN) were conjugated onto GNPs. The first peptide was used to stabilize the complex, the second peptide to enhance uptake into the cell, while the third peptide was used to induce nuclear delivery. With nuclear targeting, more damage can be caused to the DNP of cancer cells upon irradiation. This research will establish a more successful NP-based platform that combines treatment modalities and more effectively approach cancer treatment.
Three dimensional finite-element modeling of blood flow in elastic vessels: effects of arterial geometry and elasticity on aneurysm growth and rupture
Authors: Yahya Mohammed
Published: May 2021

An intracranial aneurysm (ICA) is the localized dilated of cerebral arterial segment due to a degenerative arterial disease causing local wall weakness. Sudden ICA rupture of cerebral aneurysms is the leading cause of subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) which is a serious disease associated with high mortality and morbidity. In this research work, we have developed and validated a finite-element fluid-structure interaction (FSI) 2-way coupling model using COMSOL Multiphysics® software package. We applied the model to three idealized intracranial elastic arteries under the Newtonian blood flow assumption. The blood flow was characterized as a steady flow velocity at the inflow and various values of blood pressure at the outflow, while the arterial wall was modeled as a hyperelastic neo-Hookean material. The result shows the significantly weakened wall shear stress (WSS) at the aneurysm fundus and intensified WSS at the distal side of aneurysm neck. The wall deformation and WSS may play an important role in the growth and rupture of ICAs. Moreover, based on these results we postulate that lateral saccular aneurysms located on highly curved arteries are subjected to higher hemodynamic stresses and are more prone to rupture.
Performance Trends For Aerospikes & Supersonic Nozzles With Center-Bodies
Authors: El-Dahr Bassel
Published: May 2021

The aim of this report is to examine performance trends for Aerospikes and Supersonic nozzles with center – bodies. The initial case that was tested is a convergent – divergent conical nozzle with a geometry and inlet flow conditions obtained from a NASA technical note. The technical note mentions that air was used as the working fluid for the nozzle. This case served as the base case for comparison with the performance of later nozzle designs. Nozzle flow for all the cases that were tested was simulated using ANSYS Fluent, for ambient conditions at 20km standard atmosphere. The convergent – divergent conical nozzle has the following calculated performance parameters using results from ANSYS Fluent: mass flow rate of 9.660 kg/s, axial Thrust of 10,583.5 N, and a specific impulse of 111.7s. All of the Supersonic nozzles with center – bodies have calculated specific impulse values lower than 111.7s by 0.4 – 1.6s, for approximately the same calculated mass flow rates as the base case. Adding a center – body to the original conical nozzle, was simply detrimental to performance. With regards to the Aerospike nozzles, 18 of them were tested. Aerospike 18 has the highest calculated specific impulse, at 115.3s for a calculated mass flow rate of 9.671kg/s. Aerospike 13 came in second at 114.6s, for a calculated mass flow rate of 9.676 kg/s. Several of the Aerospike designs did not out-perform the base case in terms of specific impulse. For those Aerospikes, the convergent – divergent section had a significantly lower thrust than the base case and the center – body was not able to over-compensate for the lower thrust. This report also looks at trends in thrust contribution by the convergent – divergent sections and center – bodies of Aerospikes at different nozzle geometries. The working fluid for all the cases tested in ANSYS Fluent
including the base case, is air at a ratio of specific heats equal to 1.4.
Analyzing prediction methods for atmospheric dispersion of pollutants from incineration : three Canadian environmental assessment case studies
Authors: Fromme-Marcellin Michelle
Published: May 2021

Three Canadian environmental assessments (EAs) were chosen as case studies. Each undertaking is an incineration facility. The EAs are analyzed to determine their approach, methods and techniques for predicting impacts on surrounding air quality. A methodology for objectively assessing these EAs is based on a literature search, and extensive criteria are devised. The major finding of the report is the limited nature of the description of the manner in which decisions were made, the methods used for prediction, and a lack of sufficient presented data to allow a decision-maker to understand the conclusions drawn. Simple solutions are presented to improve the ability of the EA document to facilitate decision-making based on the common findings of the three case studies.
Modeling, force estimation and control of steerable catheters for robot-assisted intra-cardiac navigation
Authors: Hasanzadeh Shahir
Published: May 2021

Intra-cardiac catheterization is an effective procedure for diagnosis and treatment of many cardiac disorders such as arrhythmia. The objective of the catheter manipulation is to accurately position the catheter tip at the target tissue on the endocardium and provide a stable contact force for a specific duration to the region of interest. However, this is a challenging task due to the high flexibility of the catheter, ineffective visualization and dynamic environment of the heart. Additionally, the catheter-tissue interaction force, that the procedure outcome highly depends on, is not known to the interventionalist during the catheterization.

This thesis deals with improving the safety and effectiveness of the catheterization by making contributions to two main areas; catheter contact force estimation and automatic force/position control of a robotic catheter system. First, a quasi-static model of the planar catheter that predicts the catheter pose for the given actuation variables and external forces in the plane of catheter motion, is proposed. In the next step, the computational efficiency of the proposed model is utilized to develop an online approach for the estimation of the external force at the tip of a catheter based on the pose measurement. The proposed force estimation approach is also extended to 3D by developing an efficient model of the catheter that is derived by coupling the classical Cosserat rod model with a new model of the pull-wire actuation. Experiments performed using electromagnetic sensors verify the feasibility of the proposed schemes in medical applications.

In the control area, a position control scheme for a robotic assisted manipulation system is proposed, using the experimentally obtained inverse kinematics that compensates for the non-smooth dynamics of the distal shaft bending mechanism. Compensation of the backlash behavior of the catheter due to its interaction with the surrounding veins is also incorporated in the control scheme. The proposed position controller is then adopted as the internal loop of a hybrid position/force controller that positions the catheter tip to the target tissue and simultaneously, regulates the contact force to a desired value. The viability of the proposed controllers is then
verified through simulations and experiments.
Past - present - future: the revitalization of social housing in Canada
Authors: Atterbury Johann Sinclair
Published: May 2021

There is an urgent need to provide, maintain and revitalize social housing in Canada. Statistics show that an alarming percentage of Toronto's population lives in poverty. 71,000 families are currently on the social-housing waiting list and 150,000 to 300,000 Canadians are homeless. This research provides a critical analysis of the past and existing issues surrounding the design and function of social housing communities. In response to the issues outlined, this study identifies a need for the design of mixed-activity, 'integrated neighbourhoods' rather than isolated social housing schemes. The thesis proposes an architectural solution that draws on five guiding principles (modes of integration) of design. Integration of movement, open spaces, physical structures, social integration, and integrated sustainable systems were the five categories used to examine the level of intervention necessary for the revitalization of a selected site; Alexandra Park, Toronto, Canada.
Performance modelling of multi-tier cloud applications using Simpy
Authors: Chettiar Dayle
Published: May 2021

Todays cloud deployed applications are mostly multi-tiered. Usually, the first tier consists of an Application Service Providers' (ASPs) web servers, the second tier has application servers and the third tier contains database servers. Tiered architectures are often difficult to evaluate in terms of performance. Existing performance models are very effective in finding the mean performance measures. However, metrics such as response-time percentiles are of greater importance to the end-users since it is more desirable to reduce the variability of a system’s response time, rather than minimizing the mean response time. In this work, a multi-tier application is modeled as an open queuing network of 3-tiers and the response-time percentiles are estimated using discrete event simulation. Here, we assume that each tier is replicated into a number of copies and each copy runs on a separate Virtual Machine (VM). Although simulation models are computationally more expensive as compared to analytical models, they are much more general. The simulation model of this work can be used as decision support for ASPs in order to determine the optimal configuration of VMs for a given workload such that a required response-time percentile is within a given threshold. In this work, Simpy, a discrete event simulation framework, has been used. The results show that as the number of VMs are increased in a 3-tier open queueing network, the overall system performance (i.e. percentiles and mean response times) does not necessarily become better. The results further show that different system configurations containing the same number of VMs, yield different performance depending on the replication level in different tiers.
Development of personalized online systems for web search, recommendations, and e-commerce
Authors: Wen Hao
Published: May 2021

Personalized online systems for Web search, news recommendation, and e-commerce are developed. The process of personalization of online systems consists of three main steps: determining a user's needs, classifying products or services, and matching the user's needs with suitable products or services. A multi-feature based method to automatically classify Web pages into categories of topics hierarchically representing the Web pages is proposed. An approach to modeling and quantifying a user's interests and preferences using the user's Web navigational data is presented. The approach is based on the premise that frequently visiting certain types of content or Web sites indicates that the user is interested in related content or retrieving information from those sites. A personalized search system utilizing a Web user's interest, preference and search context models is developed. A Web user's interest and preference models are constructed and updated by analyzing the user's navigational data and automatically classifying Web pages. A user's search context model is used to determine how the user's interest and preference models impact on his or her search behavior. An algorithm to re-rank search results generated by a conventional search engine is designed to provide a personalized Web search service. A hybrid recommender system of personalized recommendation of news on the Web is developed. Based on the similarities between Web pages and users' models of interest and preference, the Web pages are recommended to the users who are likely interested in the related topics. Moreover, the technique of collaborative filtering is employed, which aims to choose the trusted users and incorporate machine intelligence combined with human efforts. Once trusted users are determined, their behavior on the Web is considered as the manual recommendation part of the system. A method of classifying Web customers for planning customized e-marketing is proposed. The proposed e-marketing approach can be divided into four steps: determining a customer's general interest model, ascertaining a customer's local browsing model, classifying Web customers, and designing a personalized marketing and promotion plan for e-commerce based on the customer classification. Various experiments are carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approaches and systems.
Creating access : an examination of the viability of Toronto's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy as a tool of access for undocumented residents
Authors: Kipfer Kelly
Published: May 2021

In 2004, the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy was proposed to community service organizations, police and school boards in Toronto, Canada as a strategy for providing undocumented residents with access to basic services and protections. Under this proposal, service organizations would implement policies against collecting status information from clients and would agree to refrain from reporting undocumented clients to immigration enforcement. While there has been some positive reception to DADT in the city, numerous challenges have threatened its long term viability. This study examines the problems involved in implementing this policy and explores how this initiative may be effective in providing undocumented residents with access to basic services.
The Influence Of The Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor On The DNA Damage Response As Examined Through Clathrin Affiliated Signalling Complexes
Authors: Boras Ivan
Published: May 2021

The EGFR is an oncogene that when dysregulated, can cause tumour progression. Upon binding ligand, EGFR triggers activation of many signalling pathways including PI3K/Akt, RasErk, STAT, and PLCγ1. EGFR may also control DNA repair mechanism, although this remains poorly understood. Control of DNA repair by EGFR may be particularly relevant in the context of action and resistance of cancer drugs that cause DNA damage (eg. Cisplatin). I have examined how acute activation (10-30 minutes) of EGFR regulates DNA repair induced by cisplatin treatments and by examination of repair-markers such as γH2AX. I observed that as little as 10 minutes of EGF stimulation is sufficient to elicit remodelling of γH2AX in chronic cisplatin-treated cells. Using these methods, I dissected the EGFR signals and membrane traffic phenomena required for EGFR-dependent control of DNA repair. This work may reveal new ways to enhance the efficacy of existing chemotherapies, such as cisplatin, for cancer treatment.
Nonlinear Attitude Control Of Underactuated Spacecraft
Authors: Frias Alexander
Published: May 2021

This dissertation investigates the nonlinear control of the attitude for an underactuated rigid-body spacecraft system in the body-orbital and inertial frames. The problem involving the stabilization of the body-orbital attitude of an underactuated output-feedback system is examined. Using sliding mode control in conjunction with finite-time nonlinear observer, a novel observer-based control law is rigorously analyzed and proven to achieve attitude convergence. Under time-varying disturbances, inertia matrix uncertainties, and high initial errors, the proposed novel law achieves attitude convergence for three-axis stability and ultimate boundedness within 5 degrees and 0.01 deg/s, for attitude error norm and angular velocity norm, respectively. Next, the attitude control problem is rigorously analyzed in the inertial frame, where the underactuated rigid-body spacecraft system equations of motion are highly nonlinear, and the linearized equations of motion are not controllable. To this end, a generalized velocity-free time-varying state feedback controller is developed to achieve globally exponential stability with respect to the homogenous norm and proven to provide ultimate boundedness of all signals with 5 degrees attitude error norm and 0.5 rad/s angular velocity error norm. Finally, the inertial frame attitude stabilization problem is treated as an optimal control problem. For this case, the Legendre pseudospectral method is used to discretized the spacecraft dynamics into Legendre-Gauss-Lobatto (LGL) node points, where the Lagrange polynomial interpolation is applied to obtain a suitable candidate optimal control sequence. Model predictive control is used to implement the optimal control in predefined control windows sequentially to achieve three-axis stability for a rest-to-rest maneuver within 0.3 orbit.
Optimization models for distribution planning and operation
Authors: Masteri Farahani Kamran
Published: May 2021

Smart grid technologies, renewables, energy storage devices and electric vehicles are going to
characterize the next generation distribution systems. It is important to note that inclusion of electric
vehicles and renewables, inherently due to their natural power profile, result in distribution systems
having a peaky load profile with lower asset utilization factors. Optimal planning and operation of
distribution systems are important aspects and should consider this changing paradigm.
This thesis aims to develop new solutions for optimal planning and operation of distribution systems
considering these new technologies and their implications. The thesis specifically aims to use new
techniques such as complementarity in conjunction with classical optimization techniques to
develop new algorithms for optimal planning and operation of distribution systems. The proposed
work includes the following. Two new distribution planning algorithms are proposed that include
the installation and optimal sizing of Battery Energy Storage System units in addition to traditional
assets, such as feeders and transformers. It incorporates plan and asset lifetimes as a means of
establishing the minimum total annualized costs of new and replacement assets, operation and
maintenance, and customer interruptions. For a fair comparison, all costs reflect the current year and
are annualized over a specific study period. Even though the second technique has the same base as
the first method, it is a multi-objective algorithm that uses fuzzy optimization technique to handle
multiple contradicting objectives that cannot be combined into a single objective as they are in
different units. This method has been developed due to the lack of certainty in how to calculate
customer interruption cost in literature. It was proven in both methods that Battery Energy Storage
System could be a more economical option compared to expensive underground feeders. Then in
order to realize Smart Radial Distribution System of the future, a real-time optimal reconfiguration
algorithm is proposed, which uses a classical nonlinear optimization technique and guarantees an
optimal solution in the least time. The method optimizes the system loss and is based upon a
complementarity technique that transforms a set of discontinuous solution spaces into a single
continuously differentiable solution space, thus enabling the use of classical nonlinear optimization
techniques without resorting to heuristics. The method is tested on 33-bus and 69-bus systems and
the results are better or matching the other methods available in literature while it is significantly
faster.
[S.P.A.] Sensory Phenomenological Architecture
Authors: Ng Lawrence Sheung Chee
Published: May 2021

Can phenomenological architecture be simply described as: Phenomenological Architecture = Phenomenology + Architecture? In the simplest terms, phenomenology is the interpretive study of human experience. Any object, event, situation or experience that a person can see, hear, tough, smell, taste, feel, intuit, know, understand, or live through is a legitimate subject or phenomenological investigation. Architecture is not only the physical form of the building we inhabit, but a place, memory and time in which we see, hear, touch, smell, taste, feel, intuit, know, understand and live. Therefore, architecture is a natural subject for phenomenological investigation. As individuals, we immerse ourselves in the spaces we inhabit and form our own individual and unique experiences. By immersing ourselves in the spaces we inhabit, we interact with the form, textures and smells of the building which we are in. Can an inert thing such as a building help support the development of human beings' experiences; therefore help with his or her understanding of the world that they are physically in? The concept of phenomenological architecture seeks to provide a balanced and holistic physical manifestation of explaining, describing and representing an architectural intention that places emphasis on the human experience. The human experience includes paying particular emphasis on some of the essentials which help develops an experience. Essentials such as bodily senses, memories, materiality and perception are examined. This therefore creates a focus by using architecture as a catalyst in creating human experiences. In conclusion, phenomenology added with architecture does not fully explain phenomenological architecture, but it is how architecture works and helps encourage phenomena and experiences which creates phenomenological architecture.
A generic expert system framework with fuzzy Bayesian inference for medical classification and diagnosis in cardiology
Authors: Rahnama Hossein
Published: May 2021

Medical knowledge is expanding fast and it is difficult for general practitioners to remain abreast of all medical domains. Also, access to domain specialist is limited due to availability and geographical constraints. In many situations the diagnosis in [sic] upon the decision of the general practitioner and in cases this has resulted in the problem of patient's misdiagnosis. The purpose of this research is to create an expert system as a decision support model which is capable of risk analysis for diagnosis based on the patient's demography and laboratory tests. The expert system is designed in compliancy with medical communications protocol such as HL7 and can be integrated to any HL7 compliant Electronic Medical records system to provide more intelligence in diagnosis. Using linear scoring models and Fuzzy logic, the patient's demography and laboratory results will be used as rule bases. Such knowledge will be used as priors for a Bayesian engine to create the diagnostic spaces. Patient's information is compared in the space and the general practitioner can select between the possible hypotheses. Each diagnostic decision will be associated with a risk value. Using such scoring model provides a new semantic in diagnosis by providing risk values for every diagnosis made and by suggesting the most suitable treatment. Unlike many other existing expert systems, the architecture is designed in a generic standard which provides the capability to use the system for all medical domains. Achieving this generality has been a major goal achieved and its details are discussed in this document.
Post-Communist Romanian cinema: context and the turn to realism
Authors: Iliescu Dana
Published: May 2021

"Romanian cinema needs to start again from scratch. It has to regain a sense of everyday reality and it has to render
truthfully an important slice of recent history which has been horribly falsified. A blast of Neorealism is practically a
moral obligation for our cinema at this time in its history."
- Eugenia Voda, film critic, 1995.

Romanian film critic Eugenia Voda has made this nearly prophetic statement only five years after the end of Romania's communist regime. Yet more than prophetic, her remark was an appeal to filmmakers, and their conscious as well as conscientious sense of truth. Although more than ten years have passed since, her words often resonate in close association with recent Romanian films and their honest representation of social reality, unique in the history of Romanian cinema.

But to what extent is recent Romanian cinema a national cinema? Given the Western history of analysis of foreign cinematic productions, any current examination of non-Western films within a Western theoretical context must be carried out in relation to the prior theoretical developments, debates, and conclusions within the national cinema framework.

Benedict Anderson's concept of the "imagined community' resides as foundation in the process of defining what is national (Anderson, 1983). When speaking of nationalist media, Anderson claims that while a nation is portrayed as a community, it is only an imagined one. Members of a nation do not all know each other, "yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion" (Anderson, 1983, p.6). From this perspective, cinema's popularity and ease of distribution has led to films becoming part of mass communications, and thus it can easily play a role in disseminating both national and nationalist ideals. persisted as a theoretical framework during the development and establishment of film studies as a Western academic discipline.
Barbie Savior : Politicizing Voluntourism Through Instagram Parody
Authors: Vydelingum Anastazya
Published: May 2021

This Major Research Paper explores the Barbie Savior parody Instagram account to understand how the account attempts to politicize voluntourist/local relationships and how its posts constitute a strategy of social critique. Barbie Savior Instagram posts parody the white saviour complex enacted by short term missionaries who post their volunteer experiences on social media. A mixed methods approach provides quantitative and qualitative insights into how this intersectional critique addresses the phenomenon of voluntourist selfies on Instagram that promote a self-brand centered on touristic and religious authenticity through strategic use of captions and hashtags.

Key words: Voluntourism; Short Term Missions; Instagram; Parody; White Saviour Complex; Authenticity
Inclusive education in Guyana : perspectives of policy makers, teachers, and parents of children with special needs
Authors: Ajodhia-Andrews Amanda Devi
Published: May 2021

his study examines inclusive education within Guyana for children with special needs (0-8 years), from the perspectives of policy makers, teachers and parents of children with special needs (N=22). The study is framed within a constructivist perspective, and uses a grounded theory design and analysis. Findings indicate four factors which are potential barriers to implementing inclusive education in Guyana: attitudes / perceptions toward those with special needs, change agents, resources and experiences with children with special needs. This study describes the interrelating relationsips among the core phenomenon (i.e. attitudes towards those with special needs), and other conditions (i.e., change agents, resources and experiences with children with special needs). The interrelationship between these factors stimulates strategies or actions. These lead to consequences which prevent sustainable and successful inclusive education within Guyana. There is a discussion of recommendations and conclusions which may assist in supporting inclusive education within Guyana.
Investigation and Study of Monomers and Polymers Based on Known Metal Induced Couplings of Alkynes and Diynes
Authors: Quinn Jesse
Published: May 2021

Both reduced zirconocene ("Cp
Using decision trees for inductively driven semantic integration and ontology matching
Authors: Gajderowicz Bart
Published: May 2021

The popularity of ontologies for representing the semantics behind many real-world domains has created a growing pool of ontologies on various topics. While different ontologists, experts, and organizations create the vast majority of ontologies, often for internal use of for use in a narrow context, their domains frequently overlap in a wider context, specifically for complementary domains. To assist in the reuse of ontologies, this thesis proposes a bottom-up technique for creating concept anchors that are used for ontology matching. Anchors are ontology concepts that have been matched to concepts in an eternal ontology. The matching process is based on inductively derived decision trees rules for an ontology that are compared with rules derived for external ontologies. The matching algorithm is intended to match taxomonies, ontologies which define subsumption relations between concepts, with an associated database used to derive the decision trees. This thesis also introduces several algorithm evolution measures, and presents a set of use cases that demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses of the matching process.
Never Grow Up: The Queerness Of Immaturity In American Film
Authors: Davine Lauren R.
Published: May 2021

This dissertation examines the contradictory status of immaturity in our culture. While immaturity’s otherness to heteronormative adulthood is a source of fear and anxiety, this otherness is also what makes it desirable–that is, immaturity represents an escape from the pressures and standards of adulthood, signifying an oppositional subjectivity reminiscent of youthful rebellion. Indeed, the oppositional nature of immaturity is ultimately what gives it power as a source of political agency. Rather than seeing immaturity as something to be ashamed of, or as something to be avoided or defeated, this dissertation, following Judith/Jack Halberstam, views immaturity as a powerful form of resistance as well as a queer “way of being.” In fact, these two latter elements–resistance and queerness–go hand-in-hand; queerness within this project is primarily understood as an uncompromising “resistance to regimes of the normal,” specifically those pertaining to maturity and success. Beginning with a focus on male immaturity, I establish the fear/desire dynamic characterizing the immature male through close readings of the 1950s male-centered melodrama, combined with an historically-oriented analysis of postwar American culture. Next, I examine how comedy and dramedy films about childish men from the 1980s to the present day are also structured by this contradictory dynamic, as they both resist and reinforce heteronormative adulthood. My textual analysis of these films are grounded in theories of queer temporality. Finally, I focus on the female counterpart to the immature male, examining various constructions of female immaturity in recent cinema. Here, I utilize a broader range of queer temporal theories to demonstrate the political potential of immature womanhood, where “immature” gains agency through its queer and feminist resistance to the tyranny of heteronormative adulthood. While this dissertation ultimately seeks to demonstrate how immaturity functions as a site of resistance to (hetero)normativity, it also acknowledges how it can (specifically in the context of male homosociality), reinforce and reproduce oppressive structures, further underlining immaturity’s incongruous status.
Understanding entertainment value: an investigation into the subjectivity of people who experience entertainment
Authors: Vladica Florin
Published: May 2021

The purpose of this doctoral dissertation and the research presented herein is to test and refine a general method of observing, capturing, describing and comparing subjective viewpoints on entertainment value. Of particular interest and equally important is the effort to provide a theoretical foundation for the conceptualization, operationalization, and empirical testing of the entertainment value concept, adopting the perspective of those experiencing performance-based and screen-based entertainment. This dissertation is also a crossover study between and among amusement, recreation, entertaining experiences, audience research, and events and live performances. Results will be integrated into the broader study of entertainment, where the core phenomenon under investigation is the entertainment experience. Entertainment value is a multi-faceted concept, widely used but poorly, or at least not effectively, operationalized for use in scholarly and commercial research. It is proposed herein that entertainment value refers to the type of value that screen-based products and live performances yield to those who experience these generic forms of entertainment. Entertainment value is perceived consumer value, experiential and subjective, a multi-dimensional concept and construct intrinsic to the entertainment experience. In three complementary studies, respondents are grouped based on shared subjective experiences resulting from the consumption of three different kinds of innovative entertainment products: a) an animated, short documentary film, b) one episode a described video television comedy; and c) a live cultural performance. In an innovative way, Stephenson’s Q Methodology (1953) and Typology of Consumer Value proposed by Morris Holbrook (1999) are adopted, tested and refined to empirically identify, describe and compare the subjective viewpoints of those who experience entertainment. The Q Methodology allowed for a rich description of a range of entertainment experiences from almost three hundred respondents. Interpretation of subjective reactions and self-reports, and the differences among these viewpoints, have been facilitated by and pointed to corresponding types of perceived entertainment value. In this sense, Holbrook’s (1999) typology for consumer value proved useful, by complementing in a number of ways the design and implementation of this exploratory research with Q methodology.
Death and the virtual: memorialization on social networking websites
Authors: Curtis Sarah
Published: May 2021

"The shift towards online communication has impacted many aspects of our lives, in that we increasingly use the internet in ways that have a lasting impact on our lived experience. One of the ways this impact occurs is through the virtual manifestation of phenomena related to death. Customs related to death - such as funerals and memorials - are being remediated on the internet in ways that are varied and complex. Remediation, a term introduced by Jay Bolter and Richard Grusin, involves the reinvention of previous forms of media using new media technologies.1 In this way, every form of media is understood to be a new version of a form of media that already existed. Looking at sites of memorialization of all kinds through the framework of remediation illuminates the ways that the manifestation of issues related to death and memorialization on the internet has and will continue to both complicate and enhance the ways these sites are experienced and conceptualized by those that visit them. While traditional physical memorial sites have always existed - and will continue to exist - sites of remembrance that appear on the internet are emerging as a complementary medium of memorialization"--From the Introduction.
A Proposed Management Plan for the New World Archaeology Department's Photographic Archive at the Royal Ontario Museum
Authors: Mallon-Jensen Tracy
Published: May 2021

This practical thesis project addresses the dilemma faced by many museums of deteriorating archival photographs that are related to objects in their permanent collections. Collection managers often have little time, expertise or financial means to preserve these important resources. The first part of the thesis provides a guide to assessing and devising a management plan using a collection of 25,000 images in the New World Archaeology department of the Royal Ontario Museum as a case study. The guide addresses the physical issues of object identification, condition assessment, materials and methods of rehousing a diverse collection, and creating a proper storage environment. It also examines issues of improving intellectual access through cataloguing and digitizing as well as budgeting. A report summarizing the condition of the New World Archaeology collection accompanied by recommendations for implementation of a management plan is the focus of the second part of the thesis. This project highlights the need for institutions to recognize the value of these deteriorating materials and devote the necessary resources to their preservation.
A multi-objective approach under uncertainty for designing a green meat supply chain network
Authors: Mohebalizadehgashti Fatemeh
Published: May 2021

Traditional logistics management has not focused on environmental concerns when designing and optimizing food supply chain networks. However, the protection of the environment is one of the main factors that should be considered based on environmental protection regulations of countries. In this thesis, environmental concerns with a mathematical model are investigated to design and configure a multi-period, multi-product, multi-echelon green meat supply chain network. A multi-objective mixed-integer linear programming formulation is developed to optimize three objectives simultaneously: minimization of the total cost, minimization of the total CO2 emissions released from transportation, and maximization of the total capacity utilization. To demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed optimization model, a green meat supply chain network for Southern Ontario, Canada is designed. A solution approach based on augmented εε-constraint method is developed for solving the proposed model. As a result, a set of Pareto-optimal solutions is obtained. Finally, the impacts of uncertainty on the proposed model are investigated using several decision trees. Optimization of a food supply chain, particularly a meat supply chain, based on multiple objectives under uncertainty using decision trees is a new approach in the literature.
Continuous Authentication Based On Learning User Command Sequence
Authors: Khalilian Bijan
Published: May 2021

In the context of information and computer security, a masquerader is an individual who can gain access to a system by disguising itself as a legitimate user. One of the prominent and popular methods for authenticating masqueraders is by using an intrusion detection system (IDS). This thesis promotes the idea that learning the user command sequence can be served as an alternative for address intrusion detection. Several approaches have been proposed in the literature, where this idea has been explored. To our knowledge, the method by Maxion and Townsend produces the best results of all past techniques so far in terms of detection rate (82.1% using the Greenberg dataset). In this thesis we propose an IDS-based approach that consists in combining a novel Naïve Bayes classifier with a recently proposed sequential sampling technique for continuous authentication, applied to user command sequence, to detect masqueraders. Our experimental evaluation shows that our proposed scheme achieves a detection rate of 98%.
Extended Kalman Filter Application in Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor Sensorless Control
Authors: Qiu Ming
Published: May 2021

This thesis presents the modeling, analysis, design and experimental validation of a robust sensorless control method for permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) based on Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) to accurately estimate speed and rotor position. Currently, there is no robust position/speed sensorless control method available for the permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) in the published literature. Traditionally, commercial off-the-shelf simulation models for PMSM do not incorporate initial rotor position and simplified steady-state based modeling of the associated power electronic circuitry and controls are used. These limitations have prevented the development and application of a robust real-time sensorless control method with good dynamic performance over the full speed range for the PMSM. The main focus of this thesis is to overcome these limitations. In particular, a detailed real-time PMSM model in MATLAB/Simulink simulation environment is developed which is used to validate the EKF sensorless control method by varying the initial position of the rotor. The proposed position/speed sensorless control based on EKF method along with all the power electronic circuitry are modeled in this simulation environment. This user-friendly simulation and rapid-prototyping platform is then effectively used to predict, analyse, fine-tune and validate proper operation of the proposed EKF sensorless control method for all operating conditions. In particular, different control strategies are reviewed and the performance of the proposed EKF sensorless control method is critically assessed and validated for different types of dynamic and static torque loads. The robustness of the proposed EKF sensorless method is demonstrated by validating proper operation of the closed-loop motor control system for different rotor initial positions and insensitivity of the EKF speed/position estimation method to the PMSM parameter variations. Proper operation of the proposed EKF based sensorless control method for a high speed permanent magnet synchronous machine is verified experimentally in the lab at Honeywell.
A study of key players in developing low carbon buildings/communities in Canada: a case study in Ontario
Authors: Chow Christine
Published: May 2021

Architects, engineers, developers, contractors, building facility managers, and relevant
governmental officers are the key players in developing and managing low-carbon buildings and
communities, whose decisions and actions largely determine the level of carbon emission from
them. This study is intended to investigate how these key players perform in current practices
and to identify any areas for improvement. This paper presents a case study conducted in
Ontario, Canada's province that can best represent the leading development industry within a
developed country. A significant number of key players were surveyed through questionnaires
and interviews. Key findings include: (1) Although low-carbon emission is a target for the
Ontario construction industry, design considerations are still highly dependent on financial
limitations and more attention is required towards technical factors and (2) knowledge, skills
and tools are not sufficient to support improvements to low-carbon design and development.
This paper also discusses ongoing research activities and anticipated outcomes.
Digital application solutions in collections management : the photographer's catalogue database : case study : Sally Mann
Authors: Dlugosz Olga M
Published: May 2021

The author proposes a working model solution for a digital collection catalogue database, in FileMaker Pro. The catalogue cross-references photographs, publications, exhibitions, sales, correspondence, and other activity incidental to a photographer's career and body of work. The studio and archive of Sally Mann, an influential and highly regarded American photographer, is used as an illutrative example.
Mapping home: literary and filmic representations of multi-scalar dwelling
Authors: Bida Aleksandra
Published: May 2021

In this dissertation, I investigate the overlapping individual, relational, and social scales of home in contemporary literary and cinematic texts, drawing on Martin Heidegger’s writing on dwelling (as the essence of being human), Zygmunt Bauman’s concept of liquid modernity (particularly the commitment avoidance that its “fluidity” fosters), and Jacques Derrida’s work on hospitality (both the welcoming and hostile social practices that this term encompasses). I explore these ideas and scales of home in international and multi-medial texts, which include Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves (2000), Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere (television series and novel 1996, graphic novel adaptation 2007), M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village (2004), Nicolas Dickner’s Nikolski (2005, trans. 2008), Lars von Trier’s Dogville (2003), and Wolfgang Becker’s Good Bye, Lenin! (2003). My corpus of texts demonstrates that a traditional understanding of home as a distinct location is incompatible with the realities of liquid modernity, and, moreover, sheds light on new modes of constructing home as a composite of locations and scales—a complex, multi-scalar, geocultural map of identity and belonging. Together, these texts show a dual pattern that makes visible the need to rethink the notion of home: an inclusive map of home on various scales helps home-makers to integrate the various places and people who populate their understanding of home, while the inability to conceive of home in this multifarious way nurtures social fissures, conceptual homelessness, and even psychoses. My main objectives are to challenge neutral, utilitarian conceptions of space, place, and home, and to demonstrate the possibility of what Heidegger calls “poetic dwelling” in liquid modern times and an increasingly inhospitable, market-driven social landscape