bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A Rhetorical Discourse Analysis of the Student Facebook Group UWO Students Against Israel Apartheid Week
Authors: Ringel Jessica
Published: May 2021

This MRP will examine the use of rhetorical strategies in an online political discussion group. The Rhetoric of Social Intervention (RSI) model will be used to perform a rhetorical and textual discourse analysis of the comments that users post in the Facebook group Each element of the RSI model (attention, power, need) helps group members to communicate their message through a persuasive approach, possibly leading to the enactment of some type of online or offline political change. Israel Apartheid Week (IAW) is a valuable case study because this annual event occurs in an attempt to instill the ideology that global society should view Israel as an apartheid state. Since ideology and rhetoric form the underpinnings of the RSI model, this lens is relevant to evaluating the use of rhetorical strategies within this particular group. The rhetorical dimensions of online discourse must be further explored in order to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the role of online political communication within a digital era.
Digital and traditional preservation of photographic albums
Authors: Tyner Jennifer
Published: May 2021

A photographic album is an intimate and unique object that traditionally has a significant and personal meaning to the maker. This thesis project presents an alternative method to displaying albums with the intention of preventing further wear and tear. By scanning the pages and creating a website or database that can be viewed by those who have Internet access, these cherished albums can be shared without the excessive handling that is characteristic to their nature. Custom-designed enclosures were constructed for each one as a physical housing for added protection. Six family photograph albums were scanned at the beginning of this project; a website has been created with the purpose of exhibiting each whole page in addition to the individual photographs.
An application of a genetic algorithm to retail staff scheduling
Authors: Khashayardoust Maryam
Published: May 2021

Staff scheduling has received increasing attention over the past few years because of its widespread use, economic significance and difficulty of solution. For most organizations, the ability to have the right staff on duty at the right time is a critically important factor when attempting to satisfy their customers' requirements. The purpose of this study is to develop a genetic algorithm (GA) for the retail staff scheduling problem, and investigate its effectiveness. The proposed GA is compared with the conventional, linear integer programming approach. The GA is tested on a set of six real-world problems. Three are tested using a range of population size and mutation rate parameters. Then all six are solved with the best of those parameters. The results are compared to those obtained with the branch-and-bound algorithm. It is shown that GA can produce near-optimal solutions for all of the problems, and for half of them, it is more successful than the branch-and-bound method.
Object segmentation methods for online model acquisition to guide robotic grasping
Authors: Ignakov Dmitri
Published: May 2021

A vision system is an integral component of many autonomous robots. It enables the robot to perform essential tasks such as mapping, localization, or path planning. A vision system also assists with guiding the robot's grasping and manipulation tasks. As an increased demand is placed on service robots to operate in uncontrolled environments, advanced vision systems must be created that can function effectively in visually complex and cluttered settings.

This thesis presents the development of segmentation algorithms to assist in online model acquisition for guiding robotic manipulation tasks. Specifically, the focus is placed on localizing door handles to assist in robotic door opening, and on acquiring partial object models to guide robotic grasping.
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First, a method for localizing a door handle of unknown geometry based on a proposed 3D segmentation method is presented. Following segmentation, localization is performed by fitting a simple box model to the segmented handle. The proposed method functions without requiring assumptions about the appearance of the handle or the door, and without a geometric model of the handle.

Next, an object segmentation algorithm is developed, which combines multiple appearance (intensity and texture) and geometric (depth and curvature) cues. The algorithm is able to segment objects without utilizing any a priori appearance or geometric information in visually complex and cluttered environments. The segmentation method is based on the Conditional Random Fields (CRF) framework, and the graph cuts energy minimization
technique. A simple and efficient method for initializing the proposed algorithm which overcomes graph cuts' reliance on user interaction is also developed.

Finally, an improved segmentation algorithm is developed which incorporates a distance metric learning (DML) step as a means of weighing various appearance and geometric segmentation cues, allowing the method to better adapt to the available data. The improved method also models the distribution of 3D points in space as a distribution of algebraic distances from an ellipsoid fitted to the object, improving the method's ability to predict which points are likely to belong to the object or the background.

Experimental validation of all methods is performed. Each method is evaluated in a realistic setting, utilizing scenarios of various complexities. Experimental results have demonstrated the effectiveness of the handle localization method, and the object segmentation methods.
"Conversations that fly:" the Little Review and modernist salon culture
Authors: Levy Ron
Published: May 2021

Margaret Anderson (1886-1973), the American writer, editor, publisher, and impassioned promoter of avantgarde forms of expression, defined great art as a struggle for communication (Anderson, Little Review Anthology 11). She ardently believed that the exchange of ideas is a sometimes difficult but vital component of the creative process. It is because of this belief that she launched a magazine called the Little Review in 1914, which quickly established itself as the leading avantgarde magazine of its era.

The Little Review was launched on the eve of the First World War, a period when widespread tensions manifested themselves in the arts as well as in political and social realms. It was therefore a time when Modernism - a revolutionary movement in the literary and visual arts that began in the late nineteenth century in response to traditional discourses of rationality and reached its apogee in First-World-War and post-war era- established itself with a broad array of new cultural expressions (Tew and Murray 11). Modernist experimentations were spearheaded by its avantgarde, a group of radical artists and writers representing an aggressively antagonistic spirit and revolting against the old systems of order and bourgeois institutions of art, as theorist Renato Poggioli (8) has described the historical avantgarde of the early twentieth century. As we shall see, the Little Review was an important member of a vanguard that helped create a cultural revolution by casting off, and inventing entirely new, literary and artistic conventions.
The efficacy of cognitive restructuring and mindfulness strategies in reducing postevent 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 decreased PEP (degree but not associated 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 significantly predicted reductions in PEP. Thus, cognitive restructuring and mindfulness appear to be promising strategies to decrease PEP and its associated negative effects.
Locked Up and Blocked Out: The Digital Divide for Formerly Incarcerated Women in Canada
Authors: Reid Emma L.
Published: May 2021

In Canadian prisons and jails, populations are not able to access the internet, and many other essential technologies. Several research studies have examined the impact of the digital divide on incarcerated populations in the United States and other countries around the world (Barreiro-Gen & Novo-Corti, 2015; Reisdorf & Rikard, 2018). This study will expand on the current research by examining the impact of restrictions to internet access in Canadian prisons on the lives of formerly incarcerated women in Canada and, more specifically, how these restrictions affect their ability to reintegrate into society after the period of incarceration. The methodology of this research will be qualitative, and data will be collected through semi-structured interviews with individuals who have a variety of different experiences with the women’s correctional system in Canada. This study will address major areas of research in the field of study that addresses the digital divide, including the learning and development of digital skills, and how different identities can intersect to impact the way individuals experience the digital divide. Through constant comparative content analysis, this study describes the experience of the digital divide, how it both persists and develops from the time of incarceration to life post-incarceration, and how it can compound other types of barriers faced by women who have been incarcerated in our country.
Cross-cultural advertising campaigns and the translation of humour
Authors: Marn Victoria
Published: May 2021

With the Internet and globalization, companies are able to reach wider audiences than ever before. Cultural adaptation has become a necessary strategy for advertisers in order to reach cross-cultural audiences without creating new advertising concepts. Although shown to be an effective and popular method, using humour in advertising can be difficult for cross-cultural campaigns because humour is difficult to translate and culturally based. Using Robertson’s theory of glocalization, advertisers can use cultural adaptation to create effective humorous cross-cultural advertising campaigns. In order to determine an effective method of cultural adaptation, this paper analyses Apple Inc.’s successful “Get a Mac” television advertising campaign, focusing on the use of slang, characters, and cultural humour characteristics. The results of the analysis, which examines both the culturally adapted commercials as well as the localized one-off commercials, suggest that advertisers should use a blended approach to glocalization. This approach incorporates both glocalized advertisements (using the same concept for different cultures with necessary modifications made) as well as localized advertisements (unique advertisements for each culture). By using this approach, advertisers can create effective humorous advertising campaigns for cross-cultural audiences.
First steps in assessing microbial involvement in the geochemical evolution of uranium mine tailings : evaluation of iron reduction potential, biofilm formation and community heterogeneity
Authors: Guran Virgil C.
Published: May 2021

The  high  pH  (~10)  and  elevated  concentration  of  metals  and  oxyanions  such  as  As,  Fe,  Ni,  Mo  and  Se  in  the  Deilmann  tailings  management  facility  (DTMF)  presents  a  highly  selective  environment  for  microorganisms.  The  objective  of  this  study  was  to  assess  the  potential  for  metal  and  ion  solubilization  by  the  indigenous  mixed  microbial  community  in  both  optimum  (high  carbon)  and  in-situ (low  carbon  alkaline  environment)  conditions  in  terms of bulk pH and redox potential in order to satisfy the requirement for calculating long term stability. A flow-cell system was developed in order to monitor the extent of microbial metal   reduction   as   well   as   determine   biofilm   formation   by   tailings-isolated   mixed   communities.  The  microbial  consortium  isolated  from  the  DTMF  has  shown  the  ability  to  reduce ferric iron for energy conservation under both carbon conditions.  
"The Cashtro Hop Project" Hip Hop music and an exploration of the construction of artistic self-identity
Authors: Cachia Christopher Joseph
Published: May 2021

While Hip Hop culture has regularly been legitimized within academia as a social phenomenon worthy of scholarly attention (witness the growing number of studies and disciplines now taking Hip Hop as object for analysis), this is the first Hip Hop-themed project being completed within the academy. Indeed, academic and critical considerations of one's own Hip Hop-based musical production is a novel venture; this project, as a fusion of theory with practice, has thus been undertaken so as to occupy that gap. The paper's specific concern is with how (independent) Hip Hop recording artists work to construct their own selves and identity (as formed primarily through lyrical content); the aim here is to explore Hip Hop music and the construction of artistic self· presentation. I therefore went about the task of creating my own album - my own Hip Hop themed musical product - in order to place myself in the unique position to examine it critically as cultural artifact, as well as to write commentary and (self-)analyses concerning various aspects of (my) identity formation. The ensuing outlined tripartite theoretical framework is to serve as a model through which other rappers/academics may think about, discuss, and analyze their own musical output, their own identities, their own selves.
Market Analysis of Apparel Preferences and Consumer Satisfaction of Female Baby Boomers in Canada
Authors: Sparado Jenelle
Published: May 2021

The study investigated the consumer behaviors, shopping patterns, and consumer satisfaction of female baby boomers. With a specific focus on the Canadian retail market, the study first surveyed women born between the years of 1946 and 1964 to obtain market research and data that will further aid in a smaller focus group. As boomers enter into their fifties and sixties, there is a growing disconnect between what a boomer wants and what is available to them on the market. The study provides strategies for product sourcing by determine what fit, fabrics, and styles of clothing that boomer women want, and whether or not they are satisfied with what is available to them on the market. The results are beneficial to both consumer and retailer in understanding clothing preferences.

Keywords: Baby boomer, clothing, buying behavior
Disturbing masculinity within the caregiving spaces: praxis of paid Filipino male live-in caregivers in Toronto
Authors: Nyaga Dionisio
Published: May 2021

This study is an attempt to understand the plight of paid Filipino male live-in caregivers in Toronto. Caregiving has historically been associated with women. Today, live-in caregiving is normalised as Filipino women’s work. Cultures, language and policies promote this gendering. What happens when a Filipino man decides to undertake paid live-in caregiving? This study wants to understand the trajectories that surround caregiving and masculinity; particularly looking at paid Filipino immigrant man. By invoking trans-nationality and border crossing, this study lays bare issues of masculinity and paid caregiving in Toronto.
Detection and antimicrobial activity of immobilized quaternary ammonium antimicrobial monolayers on porous and non-porous surfaces
Authors: Porosa Lukasz
Published: May 2021

This research describes the development of novel, environmentally-friendly, non-releasing contact-active thin film coatings by immobilizing the quaternary ammonium (QA) antimicrobial group on a multitude of surfaces. Various chemical anchors based on organosilanes (i.e. textiles, silica, oxide surfaces), organosulfur comprising of thiol (noble metals), organophosphorus comprising of phosphonate and phosphonic acid (i.e. stainless steel (SS), titanium (Ti)), and catechol (Ti, SS) monolayers are employed to attach the QA antimicrobial onto metal surfaces, while benzophenone photoactive crosslinkers containing QA groups are used to coat plastic surfaces (C-H surfaces, i.e. polyethylene (PE), silicone (Si), polyvinylchloride (PVC)). Surfaces treated with covalently attached antimicrobial coatings function by killing microbes on contact, preventing surface attachment, colonization and contamination without releasing the chemical into the environment. The advantages of this method of delivery of the antimicrobial include a lower cost of application, decreased antimicrobial resistance, lower toxicity and increased environmental safety.

Samples prepared by an overnight immersion in an ethanolic solution of phosphorus containing quats followed by an overnight cure at 100oC showed the highest antimicrobial reduction versus electrospray application and no curing. Short chain phosphonic acid quats and the organosilane quat were inactive on titanium. Antimicrobial activity of long chain phosphonate quats prepared by dip coating and annealing on metal surfaces (Ti, SS, Al) was tested by growth enumeration in the dry state utilizing methods developed in the Wolfaardt lab. All samples showed a 100% reduction (106 cells) of viable Salmonella, Arthrobacter, S.aureus and P.aeroguinosa after 2 hrs of contact time and maintained their activity over 24 hrs versus the uncoated controls. To demonstrate the phosphonate quats were truly immobilized, Ti samples from the first trial were washed in distilled H2O, dried, and re-innoculated with 106 Anthrobacter colonies. No visible colonies of Anthrobacter remained after 2 hrs of contact time with the Ti surfaces indicating a contact killing mechanism at play.
An in vitro of radiation dose enhancement using gold nanorods and plasmonic photothermal therapy
Authors: DiCenzo Daniel DiCenzo
Published: May 2021

Gold nanoparticles (GNP) have been shown to highly absorb ionizing radiation compared to tissue. GNPs have also been shown to be high absorbers of non-ionizing radiation with a peak absorbance at a wavelength dependent on their shape and size. This study investigated radiation dose enhancement in PC3 cells when in the presence of gold nanorods (NR) and near infrared light (IR). The PC3 cells were incubated with either PEGylated NRs (PNR) or anti prostate stem cell antigen antibody with nuclear localization sequence peptide conjugated NRs (AbNR). They were exposed to near infrared light at a wavelength of 810 nm to achieve a temperature of 42 ºC to 43 ºC for 60 minutes. They were also exposed to 160 kVp x-rays. It was found that both targeted and non-targeted GNPs when exposed to radiation and near infrared light synergistically enhanced radiation dose. It was also found that AbNRs provide greater dose enhancement than PNRs.
Social Housing in a Competitive City : Exploring the Evolution and Impacts of Changes in Toronto's Social Housing System
Authors: Goettler Vanessa
Published: May 2021

This paper seeks to explore the evolution of social housing policy in Toronto as well as provide insight into new "revitalization" initiatives. After identifying key trends in social housing, it compares these insights with the opinions expressed in interviews with key informants in Toronto's housing sector. The implications of this research reveal several important findings. First, in regard to the supply of social housing, it is clear that Toronto is in the midst of a housing crisis. Secondly, despite significant research that casts doubts on the proposed benefits of new "revitalization" schemes, key informants in the sector appear to have accepted the current agenda of the social housing sector. The entrenchment of such opinions, it is argued, marks a clear change from past priorities in social housing and also contributes to the overshadowing of the dismantling of the social housing sector at a time when it is most needed.
Validation of wind-driven rain module for HAM-tools
Authors: Siassi Sam
Published: May 2021

This study is a continuation of previous research carried out to improve the hygrothermal analysis capabilities of the readily available HAM-Tools building simulation software. Previous study intended to improve the program by adding a wind driven rain (WDR) module using the semi-empirical model from ASHRAE 160P. However, further verification of the model was needed. In this study, the WDR module’s verification process was corrected and compared to WUFI simulation. The module was then validated by comparing its results with field measurements. The results indicated that the newly designed HAM-Tools WDR module have good agreement with field measurements. HAM-Tools with added WDR module is then used to study the hygrothermal responses of wood-frame wall with WDR amount calculated using different averaging techniques of high resolution meteorological data. It was concluded that in climates with high rainfall, it is best to use high resolution data (at least 10 minutes) for hygrothermal simulations.
Development of a Calibration Source for Measurement of Gaseous Oxidized Mercury in Ambient Air
Authors: Davis Matthew
Published: May 2021

A HgCl₂ containing diffusion source was evaluated for its potential usefulness as a calibration source for gaseous oxidized mercury (GOM) measurements. Unlike previous calibration sources described in the literature, this source made use of a flow rate of at least 1 L min-¹, and was maintained at a temperature of as low as - 15oC. Under these conditions, the source was found to emit GOM at an environmentally relevant level of 0.0905 pg s-¹, with a GOM fraction of approximately 78%. The source was found to have a consistent response to temperature, a steady state emission level of Hg could be rapidly established and the source was temporally stable. Duplicate sources were compared with one another and found to emit similar levels of Hg under identical sampling conditions. Various methods of cleaning HgCl₂ contaminated items were tested, with the most successful method using a stannous chloride wash solution.
Influencing sustainable travel using Instagram
Authors: James Brianne
Published: May 2021

Sustainable tourism is defined as a development of tourism that does not exploit natural and constructed environment and instead preserves the culture, inheritance, and artistic values of the local community (Dávid, 2011). Global mass tourism, a form of tourism that involves tens of thousands of travellers going to the same destination during the same time of year, has contributed to an increase in waste, carbon, water scarcity, cost of living, overcrowding, and misconstrued cultural identities (Juvan, Ring, Leisch, & Dolnicar, 2016; Eraqi, 2014; Smith, 2018). The use of social media has changed the way people discover, research, discuss, and book travel destinations. As a tool that hosts travel discussions and affords travel experiences to be documented, viewed, and narrated, the content posted to Instagram plays an instrumental role in shaping pre-travel narrative. Using studies on sustainable tourism, social media, and persuasive design, this Major Research Project analyzes how Instagram can promote sustainable tourism by integrating new features to its platform.
Trajectory based market models with operational assumptions
Authors: Fleck Andrew W. L.
Published: May 2021

Mathematical finance makes use of stochastic processes to model sources of uncertainty in market prices. Such models have helped in the assessment of many financial situations. These approaches impose the stochastic process a priori which is then fitted to data. Hence, unchecked hypotheses can creep into the formalism and observable phenomena plays little role in building the model fundamentals.

We attempt to reverse the procedure in order to include presumably more realistic price movements. Operational assumptions are used to construct a trajectory set relating discrete chart properties with investors' portfolio re-balancing preferences. By identifying features of these trajectories we can construct models that capture different sources of risk and use a geometric procedure to produce replication bounds for a contingent claim.

Why a future unfolding chart fails to belong to the proposed trajectory set is testable. A preliminary risk-reward analysis based on this is also developed.
AGORA 2012: The Return to Traditional Marketplace
Authors: Ho-Suen Winnie Lam
Published: May 2021

Market forms such as shopping malls and department stores have been cloned endlessly in both rural and urban areas in many countries as a successful retail model. Despite the fairly homogeneous architectural expression and internalized (isolated) environment of new market forms (cut off from the city at large), the mass production of generic markets are seen favourably, since they are cost effective and offer the high dollar-per-square-footage that developers seek and that favours a global consumer economy. Therefore, the more traditional public markets that were once an expression the local life and culture are now being replacing by the “McDonaldized” (Rizter, 2006 page 123) marketplaces. They all have a similar architectural form, type and style that have little or no linkage to the locale and, in addition, are private zones. Since the 1970s, the intensity of construction of such generic market places has been slowly overriding the authentic identity of market architecture in many regions. In order to distinguish and express the unique architectural developments and the difference in local lifestyles of different regions, it is important to maintain local identity of building that houses “historically stable programs” (Leong, 2011, p. 138) such as local market. It is also crucial to keep the marketplace public in nature where people can socialize with greater freedom. This project intends to re- capture the local identity in a specific urban marketplace as a test of how contemporary design can maintain, revitalize and reinterpret the essence of the local architecture. The site is a typical residential- commercial neighbourhood known as Li-Nong in Shanghai. It is a row house neighbourhood built in 1924 in the heart of the city. The deterioration of buildings and limited access into the neighbourhood has contributed to the decline of businesses in the neighbourhood’s commercial strip. This project attempts to revitalize the historical laneway commercial neighbourhood and make it into a pedestrianized and inviting neighbourhood where locals can still have a shopping experience that is informed by the 1924 Shanghai-nese architecture.
Futurismo Now: a Conceptual Menswear Fashion Collection Exploring Masculinity through Futurist Aesthetics, an Exhibition of Conceptual Fashion Collection
Authors: Jang Yeonseok
Published: May 2021

The Futurism Art movement and its manifestoes had a crucial impact on European literature, art, and fashion. This practice-based research project is an exploration of hegemonic masculinity (Connell, Donaldson…) through the lens of the Italian Futurism movement. My goal was to produce a conceptual menswear collection using Giacomo Balla’s “The Futurist Manifesto of Men’s Clothing” as the main design framework. This research dissects aspects of hegemonic masculinity and compares them with masculine tendencies that characterized the work of the Futurism movement. Through this study I meant to investigate if, by applying design elements and themes promoted by futurist artists, my menswear designs could reflect contemporary masculinities.
The teaches of Peaches: rethinking the sex hierarchy and the limits of gender discourse
Authors: Bonner Christina
Published: May 2021

The goal of this Major Research paper is an exploration detailing how Canadian Electro-Pop artist Peaches Nisker transcends normative gender and sex politics through performance and frames the female erotic experience in a way that not only disempowers heterosexuality but also provides a broader more inclusive sexual politics. Through this analysis I focus specifically on three distinct spheres; performance, fandom and use of technology to argue that her critique of sexual conventions provides an expansive and transgressive new definition of female sexuality. Musical performances by female artists, particularly icons such as Madonna and Britney Spears, have demonstrated popular culture's inability to legitimize queer and non-compulsory heterosexual practices. These performances often function as limiting representations of the sexual female. Queerness in popular music culture is often showcased as non-traditional and used as a form of spectacle. The appropriation of homoerotic imagery has traditionally served the purpose of appeasing the mass patriarchal pornographic gaze. I argue that Peaches embodies the essential queer spirit, presenting a politics that builds upon a more fluid sexuality. She reconfigures queer and heterosexual imagery using the language and framework that has been provided by compulsory heterosexuality, to shatter the foundation so often used against women and thereby presenting a new female erotic.
Making a sanctuary city: an exploratory study of police service policies and practices towards undocumented/non-status community members in Ontario
Authors: Hershkowitz Mia
Published: May 2021

This paper explores the policies and practices of police services in Ontario as they relate to undocumented/non-status community members. The study findings, via interviews with senior police officers, are discussed regarding implications on service provision and police service development of sanctuary city policy and/or the adherence to municipalities’ designation as a sanctuary city. The Toronto Police Service is the only police service in Ontario that has a formal directive on service provision towards undocumented/non-status persons. The current procedure is that once it becomes known to a police officer that someone is undocumented the Canada Border Service Agency is contacted and the municipal police service is no longer involved. The challenges in shifting current police practices are identified.
A Novel Approach For Analyzing Mixing Quality In Solid-Liquid Stirred Tanks Via Coupled Computational Fluid Dynamics - Discrete Element Method And Electrical Resistance Tomography
Authors: Tran Cindy
Published: May 2021

The mixing quality of a solid-liquid stirred tank operating in the turbulent regime was investigated, numerically and to an extent experimentally. Simulations were performed by coupling Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and the Discrete Element Method (DEM). The results were evaluated against experimental data obtained using Electrical Resistance Tomography (ERT). This facilitated a novel and more rigorous assessment of CFD-DEM coupling – i.e. based on the spatial distribution of particle concentrations. Furthermore, a new mixing index definition was developed to quantify suspension quality to work in tandem with existing dispersion mixing indexes. This provides a more complete interpretation of mixing quality. In this work, it was found that the model underestimated suspension and dispersion due to model limitations associated with mesh size and fluid-particle interaction models. Furthermore, the predicted mixing quality was sensitive to changes in the drag model, including other fluid-particle interaction forces in simulations, and variations in certain particle properties
Aging and Emotional Effects on Working Memory and Long-Term Memory for Target and Distracting Information
Authors: Truong Linda
Published: May 2021

To resolve discrepancies between studies on the effects of emotional content on working memory, and to examine changes with age, this study examined the effects of emotional content on working memory and subsequent long-term memory for targets and distracters. Thirty-six younger (ages 18-29) and 36 older adults (ages 65-87) participated in a working memory task in which they viewed two target words intermixed with two distracters followed by a probe word, and responded to whether the probe was a target word. The emotional content (valence and arousal) of targets and distracters was manipulated. Subsequent long-term memory was tested with a free recall task. Results indicated that emotional content of targets facilitated working adults experiencing disruption from positive and neutral distracters, and older adults experiencing interference from negative distracters. Emotional effects in long-term memory were only seen for younger adults.
Effects of cooperative and competitive game playing on empathy
Authors: Charewicz Nicole
Published: May 2021

The present study examined the effects of cooperative and competitive game playing on empathy. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions, with a confederate: playing a video game cooperatively (N = 51), or playing a video game competitively (N = 55). The game played was the non-violent, puzzle-platformer Portal 2. When playing cooperatively, participants completed levels through the multiplayer option where they had to act together with the confederate to be successful. In the competitive condition participants played the single-player campaign and competed with the confederate for the best time-to-completion of the first series of levels. After playing Portal 2 for approximately 15 minutes, participants watched the confederate submerge her hand in what they thought was ice-cold water for 30 seconds. Participants sat facing the confederate and rated their perception of the confederate’s pain, their own pain, the amount of empathy they felt for the confederate, as well as how close they felt to the confederate. A subsequent measure also assessed the extent of participants’ empathic concern by providing them the option to reduce the time that the confederate had to put her hand in the water a second time. Results showed no significant differences between the two conditions with respect to levels of empathy. However, participants felt more trusting and friendly towards the confederate in the cooperative condition.
An interferometric study of free convection in a window with a heated between-panes blind
Authors: Almeida Fabio
Published: May 2021

An experimental study has been conducted to examine free convection in a window with an enclosed aluminum Venetian blind. The unique feature of this experiment was that the blind slats were heated electrically to simulate absorbed solar radiation. Centre-glass convective heat transfer measurements and temperature field visualization were obtained using a laser Mach-Zehnder interferometer. Measurements were made for three plate (glazing) spacings, three blind slat angles, three blind heat fluxes, and two plate temperature differences. It was found that a recently proposed simplified model, called the Reduced Slat Length (RSL) model, closely predicted the experimental results when the flow appeared to be laminar and steady. Under these conditions, the temperature field and lateral heat transfer was dominated by conduction. Under some conditions, evidence of highly unsteady/turbulent flow was observed. As expected, the RSL model performed poorly under these conditions.
Stability-based motion planning for a modular morphing wing
Authors: Kwong Michael C. F.
Published: May 2021

Aircraft wing geometry morphing is a technology that has seen recent interest
due to demand for aircraft to improve aerodynamic performance for fuel saving. One proposed idea to alter wing geometry is by a modular morphing wing designed through a discretization method and constructed using variable geometry truss mechanisms (VGTM). For each morphing maneuver, there are sixteen possible actuation paths for each VGTM module, and thus offering a three module morphing wing to have a total of 16(to the power of 3) permutations of actuation paths for one morphing maneuver. Focused on longitudinal static stability, critical parameters and aircraft stability theory, this thesis proposes a method to find an optimal actuation path for a designated maneuver iteratively. A case study of a three module morphing wing demonstrated the actuation path selection process. Numerically, different actuation paths had different levels of longitudinal static stability; these paths were drawn in CATIA and were visually verified.
Mystery ships and risky "Boat People" : a discourse analysis of newsprint media and coverage of the 2009 Tamil refugee migration
Authors: Bradimore Ashley
Published: May 2021

This study seeks to identify how Canadian newsprint media portrayed seventy-six Tamil refugees who arrived off the coast of Victoria, British Columbia on October 17, 2009. The corpus consists of articles published between October 2009 to January 2010 from The Vancouver Sun, The Toronto Star, and National Post. Using discourse analysis, I questioned issues of framing, representation, and identity and sought to understand how the Tamil refugee migration was understood within public dialogue. The study found that there was an overall negative representation of the Tamil refugees as the press emphasized issues of criminality and terrorism, and constructed the refugees as 'risky'. The discussion placed security -- rather than human rights -- as a focal point and portrayed the immigration system as both "failing" and "abused" by "bogus claimants". This security framework provided the necessary political environment for refugee reform Bill C-11 to be ushered through parliament later that spring.
High precision circular plane system for angular measurement
Authors: Yuan Zhaomin
Published: May 2021

The purpose of this project is to increase the measurement accuracy of the rotation angle and
measurement speed. There is one rotatable circular plane with many holes in it, the initial
location of this circular plane is stored in a CCD camera and is regarded as a stationary
circular plane. When the rotatable circular plane is rotated, the intensity of the light across
the holes of two circular planes is changed. This intensity will represent the position of the
rotatable circular plane, so the position of that plane can be measured by calculating the
intensities of light access between the two planes.

In this project, several methods are proposed to increase the accuracy of measurement.
To prevent a non- concentricity problem between two circular planes, only one circular plane
is used in this system. To reduce the dfficulties in the fabrication process, holes will be
used instead of using traditional slits. To increase the reading and calculation speed, an
FPGA will be used in this system. For improving sampling accuracy, a Kalman filter is
used. Overall, this system can reach an accuracy of 2:2176* 10-5 degree with all angles.
Modeling User's Non-Functional Preferences for Personalized Service Ranking
Authors: Mirmotalebi Rozita
Published: May 2021

As the number of web services is increasing on the web, selecting the proper web service is becoming a more and more difficult task. How to make the selection results from a list of services more customized towards users’ personal preferences and help users identify the right services for their personal needs becomes especially important under this context. In this thesis, we propose a novel User Modeling approach to generate user profiles on their non-functional preferences on web services, and then apply the generated profiles to the ranking process in order to make personalized selection results. The User Modeling system is based on both implicit and explicit information from the user. Also, this is a flexible model to include different types of non-functional properties. We performed experiments using a real web service dataset with values on various non-functional properties to show the accuracy of our system.
Evaluation of the Multispecies Freshwater Biomonitor to Determine Behavioural Effects of Tributyltin and Atrazine on Daphnia Magna and Hyalella Azteca
Authors: Fleet Vivian E.
Published: May 2021

The Multispecies Freshwater Biomonitor (MFB) has been identified as a system able to continuously monitor water quality through detection of changes in the movements of biota which may be caused by external stressors. In this study, behavioural changes of Daphnia magna and Hyalella azteca when exposed to tributyltin and atrazine were detected using the MFB. The applicability of the MFB to be used as a monitor of drinking water quality and the usefulness of the organisms in this automated system was determined. Neither contaminant brought about behavioural changes in either organism that were detectable by the MFB. While extensive literature indicated that this system was useful for field applications, this study concluded that the MFB is not yet able to detect contaminants entering a water system using the above test species. Future research is required to examine other species' ability to detect aquatic contaminants and the ability of the MFB to detect such responses.
Adaptive Power Line Harmonic Detection for Active Filter Applications
Authors: Liu Weidong
Published: May 2021

The objective of this thesis research is to develop an efficient method for accurate detections of power line harmonic distortions for the control of active filters. The research has achieved its objective with four significant results. First, an adaptive power line harmonic detection method is developed, which is based on the findings of extensive research in the areas of inside and outside of power electronics controls. Second, a simple and practical formulation of the adaptive harmonic detection method is developed, which is simplified significantly from the original complex design formulations for noise cancellations. Third, vigorous verifications of effectiveness of the adaptive detection method using computer simulations are carried out, which cover the steady state operations, the dynamic operations, normal power line conditions, non-ideal supply and load conditions, etc. Fourth, experimental verifications of the accuracy of the adaptive detection method are conducted, which cover typical distorted power line conditions for normal and unbalanced operations. For illustration, this thesis presents carefully designed computer simulation and experimental case studies that cover a wide range of power line conditions.
Characterizing the VAC14 multimeric state
Authors: Ho Shannon Cheuk Ying
Published: May 2021

PtdIns(3,5)₂ is involved in a number of cellular processes, such as the regulation of endolysosome morphology and membrane trafficking, autophagy and ion transport. In mammala, PtdIns(3,5)₂ deficiency results in vacuolation most notable in the neurons of the central and peripheral nervous system. This can potentially block the trafficking of neurotransmitters leading to a progression of neurodegeneration diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease. PtdIns(3,5)₂ is synthesized by the Fab1/PIKfyve lipid kinase and degraded by the Fig4/Sac3 lipid phosphatase. Fab1 and Fig4 are found in a complex with its regulator, the Fac14/ArPIKfyve adaptor protein. The aim of this study was to identify the multimeric state of recombinant Vac14 in order to help elucidate the importance of the Vac14 multimer in the regulation of PtdIns(3,5)₂. The result of this study indicated that recombinant Vac14 forms a homodimer and/or homotrimer.
Thermally Induced Deformations in Nuclear Fuel Elements
Authors: Yang Haihui (Stella)
Published: May 2021

Nonlinear three-dimensional multibody surface-surface contacts, thermally induced deformations, and the curvature transfer factor in CANDU fuel elements are investigated using the finite element method in this thesis. ANSYS is selected to obtain numerical solutions for CANDU fuel elements under several operating conditions. In the ANSYS models, the 20-node structural elements (SOLID186) are employed to mesch individual solids; the surface-to surface contact pairs (TARGE170 and CONTA174) are used to handle contacts between solids. Sensitivity studies on the curvature transfer factor are conducted for several key operational parameters. If there is full radial contact between the pellets and the sheath, a CANDU fuel element may be considered as a composite beam because of the large length-to-diameter ratio. The Timoshenko beam theory is used in conjunction with a three-node mean element to explore the thermal deformation behaviours of a fuel element. A program written in MATLAB is much more efficient compared with the ANSYS solutions.
The Digital Album : Photo Collection And Organization In FLICKR
Authors: Rajzman Michael
Published: May 2021

Launched in 2004, Flickr.com is among the most popular photo-sharing websites on the planet. A mix of social networking and traditional album creation, Flickr is ideally suited to some of the key functions of family photography - sharing stories and memories, and maintaining social relations. This paper draws links between traditional album creation and social networking, while serving to document actual patterns of use and organizational abilities presented in Flickr in very simplistic ways, 'dumping' their photos online in a way that is reminiscent of how people used to dump printed photos into shoeboxes. A very different group more often found within Pro use accounts, took full advantage of the organizational structures presented in the website, creating complex webs of interconnected sets, tags and groups, while involving themselves in group photo pools and other social aspects of the site.
Surface roughness estimation for FDM systems
Authors: Nourghassemi Behnam
Published: May 2021

By selecting the optimal build angle, the surface roughness of rapid prototyped parts can be minimized. The objective of this study is to develop a model for estimation of surface roughness as a function of build angle and other build parameters for parts built by Fusion Deposition Modeling (FDM) machines. For that purpose, principles of the FDM technique, along with other rapid prototyping techniques, are reviewed and various standards for surface roughness measurements are introduced. Different analytical models for the estimation of surface roughness for FDM systems, which were proposed in the literature, are reviewed and reformulated in a standard format for comparison reasons. A new hybrid model is proposed for analytical estimation of the surface roughness based on experimental results and comparison of the models. In addition, Least Square Support Vector Machine (LS-SVM) is applied for an empirical estimation of the surface roughness. Robustness of the LS-SVM model is studied and its performance is compared to the hybrid model. The experimental results confirm better results for the LS-SVM model.