bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Room for truth: a new ritual for meaning making in a physical digital future
Authors: Stinson Bonnie J.
Published: May 2021

Room for Truth introduces a new physical-digital ritual which strengthens the connection between the self and the other by integrating the body’s sensory potential into social media. From self-trackers to Instagram, people are using technology to facilitate self-observation and connection with community, but mostly media fails to incorporate the body in two major ways. Firstly, the storytelling options available on mainstream platforms are largely restricted to photographic content and text-based commentary. This serves a visual-first design hierarchy which disregards the full sensory capacities of the body as n expressive organ, a natural storytelling interface which is the inheritance of all human beings. Secondly, the built environments in which people engage in genuine self-reflection are often private, tech-free spaces. However, public truth-telling can pull people out of filter bubbles, reduce polarization, instill empathy, and motivate people to take more informed action. The Room for Truth project aims to resolve these challenges by imagining a new social media which uses the body as its generative interface. It reimagines the method, the environment, and the appearance of existing methods of self-reflection to better facilitate collective truth-telling by focusing on uniting technology with the sensory storytelling potential of the human body. Specifically, the Room for Truth prototype introduces a new visual language for truth-telling in three ways: 1) a public-private booth with theming that invites self-reflection; 2) symbolic objects with embedded NFC tags which draw upon memory and sensory attributes to inspire complex storytelling; and 3) a mobile application which captures data and translates it into meaningful abstract animations which are publicly searchable. This paper discusses the Room for Truth project and the implications of a truth-telling process which bridges the physical, digital, and emotional to capture, reflect, contextualize, and transform personal and collective experiences: a new ritual for meaning-making in a physical-digital future.
Joint music making: effects on intra- and inter-group relations
Authors: Good Arla Jaye
Published: May 2021

Joint music making is an integral component of many social and cultural rituals. One
compelling explanation for the prevalence of joint music making is that it has the capacity to
enable social groups to develop and maintain social bonds, indexed by a more cooperative social
group. While a growing body of literature supports this theory, what remains unknown is
whether this social bonding capacity of joint music making can transcend salient intergroup
boundaries and foster more positive intergroup relations. My central hypothesis integrates social
identity theory and embodied social cognition with respect to joint music making. Specifically, I
hypothesize that joint music making will generate a collective identity and promote cooperation
across intergroup boundaries.

This dissertation consists of three research studies. Study 1 assessed the impact of joint
music making on social categorization and cooperation in a minimal groups context established
in a laboratory environment. Results demonstrated that joint music making fostered a collective
identity and promoted cooperation across minimal intergroup boundaries. Studies 2 and 3 were
field studies that considered the ecological validity of the impact of joint music making in
elementary school children. Study 2 assessed the impact of joint music making on cooperation in
a group of elementary school children with diverse ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds.
Results demonstrated that children who engaged in joint music making demonstrated more
cooperative behaviours than children who engaged in group art or competitive games. Study 3
assessed the impact of joint music making on social categorization in a situation involving
indirect contact between groups. This was investigated in the context of a cultural education
program involving singing administered in a uni-cultural private school. Qualitative and
quantitative data suggest that singing foreign songs encouraged the adoption of a collective
identity across intergroup boundaries (i.e., a shared common humanity); however, no changes
were found in behavioural intentions towards foreign children.

Together, these research studies provide preliminary evidence that joint music making
can promote a collective identity and cooperative behaviours across intergroup boundaries. This
dissertation contributes to the theoretical understanding of joint music making and its potential
applicability to improve intergroup relations.
Strategic adsorption/desorption of cellulases NS 50013 onto/from AVICEL PH 101 and protobind 1000
Authors: Baig Khurram Shahzad
Published: May 2021

Desorption of active cellulases from lignocellulosic substrates is a potential technique to reuse cellulases for the production of bioethanol. For desorption studies, adsorption of cellulases had to be performed first. Adsorption of cellulases NS 50013 onto microcrystalline cellulose (Avicel PH 101) and wheat straw lignin (Protobind 1000) was studied. It was found that Protobind adsorbed twice the amount of cellulases than Avicel did. An adsorption strategy developed was to work at pH 5 and a temperature less than 323 K to get maximum adsorption on the cellulose component, less adsorption on the lignin component of lignocellulosic materials, and to harmonize adsorption temperature with the industrial hydrolysis situation. Desorption of cellulases from Avicel and Protobind over a range of 298 K to 343 K and a pH of 6 to 9 was studied. Desorption obtained at pH 9 and 333K was optimum for both Avicel and Protobind. Hence, desorption was enhanced by 21 % and 11% for Avicel and Protobind respectively. The cellulases activity for Avicel was 48 FPU mL-1 at pH 9, 333 K, 5% glycerol, representing 91 % of the initial activity and for Protobind, the activity was 33 FPU mL-1 which represents about 66 % of the initial activity. All of these values were higher than ever reported in literature. At pH 5 and 298 K the amount of cellulases desorbed from untreated wheat straw (WS) was 33 % of those initially used for the adsorption step. It was increased to 42 % when 30 % delignified WS was used, and was further increased to 48 % for 60 % delignified WS. Desorption obtained for 60 % delignified WS was 75 % at pH 9, 333K and 5% glycerol. The desorption strategy recommended for bioethanol producing industries, is: 1) removal of lignin; 2) adsorption of cellulases at pH 5 and lower than 323K; 3) hydrolysis of lignocellulosic material; and 4) desorption of cellulases from non-hydrolyzed material at 333 K, pH 9, with 5-10 % glycerol. The proposed strategic desorption of cellulases may reduce the cost of Canadian bioethanol production by 26.5 % due to 75 % recyclability of active cellulases.
Playing games, saving lives: a critical analysis of serious games for nursing instruction
Authors: Pobuda Tanya
Published: May 2021

Used by military tacticians, political strategists, educational institutions and increasingly healthcare organizations, serious games are often defined as interactive digital games purpose-built to persuade and educate rather than strictly entertain (Zyda, 2005; Abt, 1970; Chen & Michael, 2005). Serious games offer learners the opportunity to experience subject matter in a different way than more traditional, classroom-based education. Using experiential learning theory (ELT) as defined by Kolb (1984), this Master’s Research Project (MRP) examines how two serious games, Post-Op Pediatric Clinical Simulation and Therapeutic Communication and Mental Health Assessment, Skills Practice: A Home Visit, created for nursing education, were constructed. Specifically, this paper explores how healthcare educators and technologists from Toronto-based post secondary institutions designed these serious games. Based on the designers’ understanding of serious games and their decisions, what key design elements were prioritized to support student learning and engagement? What design elements can be observed in these games? The analysis was conducted using qualitative content analysis of the designer’s interviews and qualitative content analysis of the games. The research uncovers that interactivity and immersion were observed to be prioritized by the designers in their discussions and in the final design of the game. This emphasis on interactivity and immersion was described by the designers as being in service of delivering a “real-world” simulated set of patient encounters in
acute care pediatrics and mental health assessments in Post-Op and Home Visit respectively. The game designers also made a series of design decisions that resulted in an always-on, pervasive game design which encourages pick-up-and-play game replayability and student experimentation.
An Investigation of the Relationship Between a Designated Country of Origin List and Access to Legal Aid In Ontario
Authors: Del Bel Belluz Alexandra
Published: May 2021

This qualitative and exploratory research project focuses on the Designated Country of Origin policy in the upcoming legislation, Bill C-31: the Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act and its relationship to Legal Aid Ontario. Through interviews with refugee lawyers and refugee settlement workers as well as analysis of policy and Legal Aid documents, research findings provide insight into the effect the Designated Country of Origin list will potentially have on access to Legal Aid Ontario services for refugee claimants from designated countries. Research recommendations point to the importance of reconsidering the manner in which Legal Aid funding is disbursed, as well as policy implications including adjusting the timelines outlined in the upcoming legislation, implementing more stringent designation policies and access to appeal processes.
The interplay between microbial metabolism and survival at surface-air interfaces : Implications for the Long-Term Storage of Used Nuclear Fuel
Authors: Stone Wendy
Published: May 2021

The Nuclear Waste Management Organization of Canada was mandated with the safe, long-term containment of the mounting nuclear industry waste (NWMO, 2005). The engineering of a multi-level barrier system in deep geological repositories to prevent radionuclide escape into groundwater involves the multidisciplinary collaboration of physicists, modelers, engineers, policy makers and legislators. This extreme environment is largely inhospitable to life nevertheless microbial ubiquity demands biological attention if we are to approach risk assessment with legislative integrity. Two decades of work driven by an engineer-turnedmicrobiologist (Stroes-Gascoyne et al., 2010) provided extensive data to support highly compacted bentonite clay for microbial suppression during repository saturation. However, interfaces still demand microbiological attention (Wolfaardt and Korber, 2012), and desiccated bentonite interfaces are thus the focus of this research. The foundational work (Chapter 2) developed tools for evaluating microbial activity in saturated and desiccated bentonite. Novel aspects included the evaluation of precipitated sulphides with fluorometry, and the use of closed loop CO2 measurements to assess microbial metabolism at bentonite-air interfaces. These tools were employed (Chapter 3) to measure the influence of relative humidity (RH) on persistent microbial metabolic activity at bentonite-air interfaces, and the influence of metabolic activity on the clay matrix. It was shown that the combination of bentonite interfaces and high RH stimulated the metabolic persistence of microbial communities during desiccation, despite high RH inhibiting the long-term survival of viable communities. A number of hypotheses were built on these observations (Chapter 4). These extended the observation of the interactive influence of high RH and bentonite to another hygroscopic matrix, polyethylene glycol, confirming that hygroscopic interfaces and high RH improve microbial access to water vapor at surface-air interfaces. It was also shown that oligotrophy increases biofilm desiccation-resilience in a desiccation-tolerant species (Arthrobacter), but not a desiccation-sensitive species (Pseudomonas). An appreciation of the microbial ability to harness their matrix for access to water vapor, and the interaction of this metabolic persistence with long-term survival, is applicable in the modeling and engineering of these industrial environments, and is an intriguing picture of the response of these versatile organisms to the vast challenges within which they so
remarkably persist.
Game-based threat assessment tool for improvised explosive device neutralization training
Authors: Chan Christopher
Published: May 2021

CBRNe is an acronym referring to chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and
explosives. When specialized response teams deal with CBRNe-related incidents, one of the
guiding principles is to avoid contact with the threat until the nature of the threat can be
determined. Our research demonstrates that we can safely create, inspect and manipulate a 3D
model of a suspected CBRNe threat within a physics-based game engine where models are
created from extremely accurate data gathered from Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
sensors.

Our system is able to provide first responders the ability to visually identify key IED
components of interest and obtain relevant information directly from the simulation. The
primary goal of our research is to demonstrate that the functionality we developed can be used to
provide accurate information to its users for the purposes of training and potentially assist
CBRNe planning efforts in the future.
Distributed Inter-Domain Routing and Load Balancing in Software Defined Networking (SDN)
Authors: Su Taixue
Published: May 2021

Software Defined Networking (SDN) is an emerging network technology where network control plane, which is programmable, is decoupled from the data forwarding plane and moved to the SDN controller. Originally, an SDN network is controlled by a single controller. As the SDN architecture becomes more complex with multiple SDN domains and corresponding domain controllers, inter-domain routing becomes an important design issue.

There are a number of approaches for SDN inter-domain routing. The most popular approach is the hierarchical approach where a central controller coordinates with lower level domain controllers to control the data flow. The main drawback of the hierarchical approach is that it is not scalable, and the central controller represents a single point of failure. In this thesis, we proposed and designed a distributed inter-domain routing mechanism. The distributed approach enables domain controllers to exchange information with each other directly instead of communicating through the central controller. We also proposed and designed a new load balancing scheme which makes use of the network traffic information to choose a less-congested path among equal-cost multiple paths. We successfully implement the proposed inter-domain routing mechanism and load balancing scheme using Python/Java in the OpenDayLight SDN controller, which is a popular open-source SDN platform. In addition, the test result of the proposed load-balancing scheme shows that it performs better than the scheme based on the roundrobin mechanism.
Tourism Toronto's "How to eat..." guides: a global city's map to culinary colonialism
Authors: Kim Pruneah Michelle
Published: May 2021

By focusing on Toronto as a “global city” (Sassen, 1991), the main objective of this Major Research Paper is to examine the contradictory relationship between Toronto’s discourse of “food multiculturalism” (Flowers & Swan, 2012) and processes of “culinary colonialism” (Heldke, 2003). This paper will use Tourism Toronto’s “How To Eat...” guides as a case study of Toronto’s discourse of food multiculturalism. Through critical discourse analysis, this paper demonstrates how Toronto’s discourse of food multiculturalism depends on colonial assumptions that commodify its racialized immigrants and diaspora as the Other. Consequently, this paper finds that Toronto’s global city strategy is critically linked to culinary colonialism. Furthermore, this paper conceptually builds on culinary colonialism by emphasizing food adventuring as a performative act of the Other. Within this context, these guides also operate as an intimate map for individual eaters to perform ‘the Other’ through food.

Key Words: Global city; Food Multiculturalism; Culinary Colonialism; Performance Theory; Critical Discourse Analysis
Emotional Immersion Through Interactive Media
Authors: Housden Shaun William
Published: May 2021

Using gameplay, video games immerse players into a variety of different emotional experiences such as excitement, fear and disgust. Other emotional experiences such as sadness, anger and happiness are generally relegated to be expressed by video and audio in games such as cutscenes and voice clips. The goal of this project is to create a game that uses its interactivity to make players feel immersed in emotions not usually found in gameplay. This will be done through the use of VR motion controllers and headsets to make the player feel immersed and more emotionally connected to their actions in the game.
Immigrant Settlement and Integration Services and the Role of Nonprofit Service Providers: A Cross-national Perspective on Trends, Issues and Evidence
Authors: Shields John , Drolet Julie , Valenzuela Karla
Published: May 2021

The primary purpose of this paper is to offer a relevant comparative context for considering settlement and integration service delivery and the role of nonprofits in working with government as well as the communities they serve in the promotion of immigrant well-being. Settlement and integration services provide various forms of support and assistance to immigrant populations which help newcomers get established in, and meet their core needs/requirements for their adaption into their new homeland, and ultimately to become citizens of that country. Making use of a broad cross-national comparison of experiences, approaches and programming in newcomer settlement, we seek to provide a wider context from which to reflect on the Canadian case.
A “perfect storm” Language, Power and Metaphor in Government Reports from the 2008 Global Financial Crisis
Authors: Davie Kenneth P.
Published: May 2021

In 2008, governments around the world made the extraordinary decision to rescue private banks deemed ‘too big to fail’ by delivering trillions of dollars in public funds to these privately managed institutions. These actions contradicted decades of neoliberal ideology concerning the natural, self-correcting nature of financial markets long advocated by powerful individuals within the upper echelons of finance and government in Europe and America. Governments were required to produce reports explaining their policy decisions following these actions and this task presented a number of linguistic challenges due to the metaphorical nature of language in economic discourse. This study focuses on metaphors used to discuss the 2008 economic crisis in government reports produced by the United States Congress and the European Union.
This research adopts Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis method to identify sites within these texts where power and control are exerted through the strategic use of metaphor, formality and relational values with both quantitative and qualitative findings. The finding(s) of this study indicate that throughout the 2011 United States Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Report and the 2009 European Union financial crisis report, the primary metaphors used to communicate the financial crisis are the concepts of illness, nature and machines. The reports differ in the amount of these metaphorical concepts used, the frequency of their usage and dispersion of their usage. This research also shows how these metaphors function as linguistic strategies for the exercise of power over others by drawing on Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis and examples are provided.
The design and development of an audio-only rhythm game
Authors: Yu Qingxiao
Published: May 2021

The size of visually-impaired population in the world is large. They usually have a better hearing than normal people, but the lack of vision prevents them from enjoying video games. Audio games, as the main output of the type of game is sound, naturally become a game genre that visually-impaired people can play. The project designed and developed a rhythm audio game for visually-impaired people. The game has been successfully tested for different songs.
Fluid: a critical examination of queer artists and their clothing choices
Authors: Myette Alysia
Published: May 2021

Fluid is a documentary that explores how self-identifying queer artists self-fashion and engage in cultural production as a two-fold approach to queer worldmaking. The documentary presents the ideas and sentiments of six Toronto based queer artists towards their practice and their clothing choices through a multidisciplinary practice led methodology. Using filmed and audio recorded interviews, Fluid centers the voices of intersectional identities in queer fashion studies. Fluid is the key component of a larger major research project (MRP) that seeks to discover how queer artists engage in queer worldmaking through sartorial choice making, artistic practice and self-expression. Through a series of documented interviews, reflection and analysis, this MRP sheds light on themes of gender performance, resistance, queer failure and survival in the self-fashioning of queer artists. This MRP also makes visible how these themes manifest as cultural production and as an extension of their creative practice.
Dual Core Ytterbium Doped Fiber as a Gain Medium for a High Powered Swept Source Laser for Use in Multi-Channel Optical Coherence Tomography
Authors: Harduar Mark K.
Published: May 2021

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a novel imaging modality that provides volumetric in-vivo high-resolution (1-15μm) images in real-time. Multi-channel OCT (MOCT) imaging utilizes many imaging channels simultaneously yielding several advantages over single-channel OCT. The benefits of MOCT are at the cost of the added requirement of several imaging beams, which demands high power output from the laser source. Dual-core Ytterbium (Yb) doped fiber was used in two configurations to demonstrate its use as a MOCT light source gain medium: 1) within a ring cavity resonator and 2) in a post-amplification regime with a low powered seed-laser. The amplification wavelength range was tailored to be centered at ~1060nm, where light absorption and scattering is at a minimum in water. In the post-amplification configuration, the output power was increased from 5mW to >200mW, with the axial resolution reducing from 10μm to 12μm. We also present initial in-vivo MOCT imaging of a tadpole.
Perceptions on intergenerational solidarity among Filipino immigrant youth in the Greater Toronto Area
Authors: Viola Helena
Published: May 2021

Young-adult and parent relationships are widely examined throughout the literature. However, there has been very little focus on youth's perspective on the relationships with their parents and families. While, there is a combination of both conflict and solidarity in immigrant families, in my work, I will be looking at the intergenerational solidarity between youth and their parents, from the perspective of young people. This study is exploratory and qualitative, and aims to contribute to the research on immigrant Filipino families in the Canadian context. This study found positive views by the youth about their relationship with their parents. Parental expectations and obligations in family matters such as school and career aspirations were deemed important by the youth participants. Despite some disagreements on issues, such as dating and career choices, the youth reported agreement with their parents on family values such as respect and obligation to the family.
Making Wrong Look Right : The Role of Media in the Exclusion of Migrant Farm Workers
Authors: Peterson Katherine L.
Published: May 2021

Since the 1960s, Ontario farms have become temporary worksites for temporary workers. Despite this permanent use of temporary labour on Ontario farms the workers remain largely invisible and unrecognized. The purpose of this research project is to address this misconception and unveil the hidden or otherwise ignored way that our food ends up on our kitchen tables. While the larger purpose of the paper is to dispel the myths that circulate around food production in Ontario, the paper will demonstrate how media in all four countries continue to feed into the hegemonic discourse that surrounds the use of temporary foreign workers in Canada. This research will offer a discussion for why is it this exclusion of farm workers has been rationalized through a critical analysis of the media discourse that has circulated through four different counties, including Canada, Mexico, Jamaica and Guatemala.
With Alice
Authors: Lewis Delphine
Published: May 2021

At the age of fourteen, Alice began exploring the frustrations she faced as an adolescent, an artist, and a feminist—through her artistic practice. With Alice is a portrait of my cousin Alice, exploring her ever-shifting identity through painting and performance over a two-year period.

Alice’s admiration for female characters that appear in 1930s, 40s and 50s films compelled her to paint women of these eras. The paintings blend images of herself with actresses she idolizes. In borrowing and re-working their images, Alice personifies aspects of her own personality inspired by these icons.

The photographs in With Alice portray Alice in her creative process, shaping her artwork and herself. In the formal portraits, Alice poses consciously for the camera, performing the women she paints. In participation with one another, we have created portraits of her own embodied icons.
The Labour Market Participation of Immigrant Women : A Study on Immigrant Women in the Flemingdon Park Area
Authors: Tian Sew Ming
Published: May 2021

Through face-to-face interviews with seven immigrant women living in the Flemingdon Park area, this paper explores the barriers that immigrant women encounter in accessing the labour market, and the challenges they face in the labour market. The findings suggest that lack of work experience, language barriers, absence of networks, lack of education, and family responsibilities and gender roles are major barriers that immigrant women have to cope with while accessing the Canadian labour market. Working environment and underemployment appeared to be the challenges that immigrant women who are, or have been in the labour force, had to deal with in the work place.
Ballistic Impact of Single Particles into Gelatin : Experiments and Modeling with Application to Transdermal Pharmaceutical Delivery
Authors: Guha Rachel Ann
Published: May 2021

The high speed penetration of particles into the human dermis is of interest for targeted drug delivery by transdermal powder injection. However, performing well-controlled single impact experiments with micron scale particles on dermal tissues is difficult. Therefore, the suitability of the use of a dimensionally scaled up 'model' system utilizing steel balls impacting a gelatin to simulate the perforation of micron sized gold particles into human skin was investigated. A finite element (FE) model of a 'calibration' system consisting of a 2 μm gold sphere impacting the human dermis at 651 m/s was used to extract the combinations of possible epidermal material properties which allowed an FE predicted penetration able to match measured data from an existing study in the literature. Novel scaling laws were developed to link the 'model' and 'calibration' systems, and impact experiments were performed on gelatins of various formulations to determine the formulation that produced a penetration which, when scaled, matched that of the calibration system. The resulting material properties of the gelatin were appropriately scaled and used to choose the best combination of skin material properties. In this manner, a quasi static elastic modulus of 2.25 MPa was found for skin, in good agreement with reported values from the literature.
Further experiments were performed with steel, polymethyl-methacrylate, titanium, and tungsten carbide balls impacting the gelatin, in order to determine the effects of particle size and density on penetration depth. FE simulations of both the model and calibration systems confirmed the scaling relationships and impact behavior found in these experiments. Both the FE model and the steel-gelatin experiments were able to predict the penetration trends found by other investigators in the examination of typical particles used for vaccine delivery. It can therefore be concluded that scaled up systems utilizing ballistic gelatins can be used to investigate the performance of transdermal powder injection technology.
Photoacoustic Detection and Optical Spectroscopy of High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound-Induced Thermal Lesions in Biologic Tissue
Authors: Alhamami Mosa
Published: May 2021

In this study, the capability of a photoacoustic (PA) method in detecting high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) thermal lesions was investigated in chicken breast tissue in vitro and the optical properties of the HIFU-treated and native tissues were determined. Created with a 1-MHz HIFU transducer, the detectability of the induced thermal lesions was assessed photoacoustically at 720 and 845 nm and their optical properties were characterized in the wavelength range 500-900 nm. The results show that the averaged ratio of the peak-to-peak PA signal amplitude of HIFU-treated tissue to that of native tissue is more than 3 fold. The optical spectroscopy investigation revealed that the absorption and reduced scattering coefficients are higher for HIFU-treated tissues than native tissues. This work demonstrates the capability of the PA method in detecting HIFU-induced thermal lesions due, in part, to the increase in their optical absorption coefficient, reduced scattering coefficient, and deposited laser energy fluence.
FMRI Investigation of Spatial Memory Abilities in Individuals Living With Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders
Authors: Wilkins Leanne K.
Published: May 2021

Different strategies dependent on different brain regions may be spontaneously adopted to solve most spatial memory and navigation tasks. For this dissertation, I used brain-imaging and cognitive tasks to test the hypothesis that individuals living with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) have selective hippocampal-dependent spatial memory impairment. A hippocampal-dependent spatial strategy (locale/allocentric/cognitive map/viewpoint-independent) involves relying on learning the relations between landmarks in the environment, whereas a response strategy (taxon/egocentric/viewpoint-dependent) is more associated with caudate function and involves learning a sequence from a single starting position. In Experiment 1, I examined performance and brain activation with fMRI during the 4-on-8 virtual maze (4/8VM) to test the hypothesis of intact response versus impaired spatial memory in SSD. The SSD participants who adopted a spatial strategy performed more poorly and had less hippocampal activation than other groups. In Experiment 2, I further examined these data using multivariate PLS (partial least squares) analyses to identify whole-brain patterns of activation associated with group and strategy differences on the 4/8VM. Results revealed clusters of correlated activation within the temporal lobe unique to the SSD-Spatial group. The SSD Response group activated the same regions as the Healthy groups, but to a greater extent suggesting over-activation. In contrast to the between-subjects nature of strategy differences on the 4/8VM, for Experiment 3 I used the Courtyard Task to seek converging evidence of a selective hippocampal-dependent impairment in spatial memory using a within-subjects design. The Courtyard Task has previously demonstrated impaired performance among individuals with hippocampal lesions under shifted-view (allocentric) but not same-view (egocentric) conditions. Consistent with a profile of hippocampal dysfunction, the SSD group demonstrated a particular deficit under the shifted-view condition. The results support the development of protocols to train impaired hippocampal-dependent abilities and harness non-hippocampal dependent intact abilities. Overall, this dissertation provides valuable information characterizing spatial memory and highlights the importance of strategy use in SSD.
Sequential Monte Carlo methods for multi-sensor tracking with applications to radar systems
Authors: Housfater Alon Shalev
Published: May 2021

The aim of this thesis is to explore specific sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) methods and their application to the unique demands of radar and bearing only tracking systems.

Asynchronous radar networks are of special interest and a novel algorithm, the multiple imputation particle filter (MIPF), is formulated to perform data fusion and estimation using asynchronous observations. Convergence analysis is carried out to show that the algorithm will converge to the optimal filter. Simulations are performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of this filter.

Next, the problem of multi-sensor bearing only tracking is tackled. A particle based tracking algorithm is derived and a new filter initialization scheme is introduced for the specific task of multi-sensor bearing only tracking. Simulated data is used to study the efficiency and performance of the initialization scheme.
Where flesh meets bone: dance in the modern art museum
Authors: McCurdy Erin Joelle
Published: May 2021

Dance has recently taken up an increasing presence in major modern art museums as core curatorial programming, occupying galleries throughout exhibition hours. Although time figures prominently in emerging literature addressing this trend, spatial analyses remain fragmentary. Yet, dance is distinctive from other time-based media because of its heightened relationship with space. This raises an important question: how does dance’s newfound presence ‘re-choreograph’ the spaces of modern art museums? Extending the work of Henri Lefebvre, this dissertation adopts an expanded definition of museum space encompassing physical, social and conceptual domains. Dance, an art concerned with the shaping of space, is examined as a transformative force, productively intervening with the galleries, encounters, objects, and historical narratives comprising modern art museum space.
In this study, purity and atemporality are identified as the preeminent principles organizing modern art museum space, and dance, an ‘impure’ and process-based art, is theorized as a productive contaminant, catalyzing change. Using this theoretical framework and Using this theoretical framework and evocative descriptions of Boris Charmatz’s 20 Dancers for the XX Century (Museum of Modern Art, New York, 18-20 October 2013), dance’s unique collaboration with modern art museum space is analyzed. Socially, dance’s multisensuality pollutes museum goers’ ocularcentric experiences with art. Conceptually, dance diversifies understandings of objects and the androcentric history they uphold.
Physically, dance is carving out new spaces, with performance venues being incorporated into the ‘bones’ of high profile institutions. Interspersed between these analytical chapters, evocative descriptions of Spatial Confessions (On the Question of Instituting the Public) by Bojana Cvejić and collaborators (Tate Modern, London, 21-24 May 2014)
introduce observations beyond the analytical scope, opening up the liminal spaces of this document to ongoing inquiry. This dissertation contributes a sustained analysis of dance’s spatial impact on modern art museums. By investigating how dance intervenes with the limitations of the white cube, it critiques this supposedly ‘blank’ space, questioning its continued supremacy within these institutions. Moreover, as dance is ushered into performance venues within the museum’s expanding domain, this dissertation interrogates the modern propensity for specialization and master narratives pervading the spaces of these institutions, despite decades of interventional artistic and curatorial practices.
Finding a place to call home: the experience of frontline workers searching for housing for refugee claimants in Toronto
Authors: Shaw River Ariel
Published: May 2021

This qualitative research paper examines the roles of frontline workers who work in refugee-specific shelters in Toronto, and whose tasks involve finding housing for refugee claimants. Four participants from different shelters were interviewed and were asked about the barriers that they face when fulfilling this role. These types of barriers are those that FLWs experience on behalf of their clients, in addition to barriers that FLWs experience in their workplace which can impact the success of their work. This paper reflects on these findings using an Anti-Oppressive Practice framework. Findings reveal that the participants experience a range of discrimination against their clients by landlords, in addition to stigma surrounding unemployment, welfare recipients, and newcomers. Participants also face difficulties fulfilling their client’s expectations of housing that is available in Toronto. Furthermore, participants face barriers at their workplace such as working over time and being understaffed.

Keywords: Refugee claimants, frontline workers, housing, Toronto
Examining Barriers to Municipal Underrepresentation of South Asians in Peel Region
Authors: Marshall Sarah
Published: May 2021

One’s ability to represent the community with which they identify is often determined along racialized lines, where the political exclusion of certain groups causes underrepresentation of racialized minority groups in politics. This study
will be examining the particular case of South Asians in Peel Region, where there is significant representation of South Asians at the federal and provincial level, but virtually none at the municipal level. This study will utilize a social inclusion framework to uncover the barriers in place restricting South Asian representation in politics at the municipal level and the steps that can be taken to mitigate these barriers to promote more diverse representation for all individuals in the political sphere.
A real-time pedestrian detection system for safety applications
Authors: John Rinju Alice
Published: May 2021

Nowadays, People are more distracted by their vulnerable devices, whenever they enter a cross road. As a result, a fatal accident or injury will occur. This motivated the need to implement a reliable pedestrian detection system. To optimize the system, a cross road scenario is considered where the driver is taking a right turn and a smart camera is used to capture consecutive pictures of the pedestrian. The consecutive frames are studied using Region Of Interest method and the Gaussian mixture model method. Once the detected pedestrian enters region of interest in less than 2 meters, a warning and automatic brake system is initiated to prevent the accident. Finally, the results of the proposed methods are compared based on the processing speed and performance rate of the Shape based detection technique (Wei Zhang, [12]). The performance rate was above 90% and processing speed was about 1 sec for the proposed methods.
How Interactive Art Installations Can Be Utilized For Practices Of Mourning
Authors: Petkovic Tatjana
Published: May 2021

This research examines how interactive art installations can facilitate practices of mourning. The paper considers the following questions; 1) How does our relationship with space, time, and art affect how we mourn a deceased loved one? 2) How does space affect the living body when grieving? 3) How does time affect the memory of a departed loved one? 4) How does art therapy as meaning-making benefit the mourning process? The research engages with questions of perception, memory, inner and external space, and the embodied experiences of art. It offers an analysis through a phenomenological and socio-psychological lens of how art can be used to benefit the mourning process. The paper contains case studies examining current art installations and interactive art installations depicting mourning and grief. The paper explores how art and perception create meaning within our sense of self, and how this can benefit the grieving process.
DirectAR: Teaching the basics of Cinematography Using Augmented Reality as Learning Tool
Authors: Arteaga Gonzalo Andres Bastidas
Published: May 2021

This paper examines the development of an augmented reality app that will be used as a tool for people interested in learning the conventions of cinematography. Augmented reality has demonstrated its value in various aspects of education, from helping highschoolers learn abstract concepts of chemistry, to medical and nursing training. DirectAR merges augmented reality with tried and tested visual language concepts in order to give its users a hands-on learning experience. This is possible due to the creation of AR characters that serve as models with which users of this app are able to grasp concepts by actually putting them into practice
Resource Allocation for Energy Harvesting Communication Systems over Fading Channels
Authors: Baljon Mohammed Abubakor
Published: May 2021

Abstract: Energy Harvesting (EH) is an emerging communications paradigm to defeat the limitation of network longevity by recharging the nodes by harvesting energy from the environment. The Energy Harvesting Network (EHN) requires a stable and efficient power control scheme like other conventional communication systems. It is more complicated than conventional communication networks, in that it should not only consider the quality of service requirements of the network but also adapt to the randomness of the energy arrival. In this thesis, several optimal offline and online resource allocation strategies for point-to-point and two-hop EH communication networks over wireless fading channels are investigated.

As a first step, the RGWF (Recursive Geometric Water-filling) algorithm is introduced, which provides an optimal offline transmission policy for a point-to-point EH communication system. Next, a network composed of a source, a relay, and a destination, where the source is an EH node is considered. Joint time scheduling and power allocation problems are formulated to maximize the network throughput by considering conventional and bufferaided link adaptive relaying protocols. Based on the modified RGWF algorithm, the joint power allocation and transmission time scheduling problem are decoupled, and efficient offline schemes are proposed for a two-hop wireless network for delay-tolerant and delay sensitive applications. In the second part, the aim is to obtain the optimal transmission policy that maximizes the average total throughput of a point-to-point EH communication system with low and high data arrival rate in an online manner. The solution is obtained using dynamic programming by casting the proposed problem as a semi-Markov decision process (SMDP). In a delay-tolerant approach with high data rate, a cross-layer adaptation is considered, where the proposed policy chooses modulation constellation for EH networks dynamically, depending on battery state, data buffer state in addition to channel state. The proposed SMDP-based dynamic programming approach has proven to be dynamically adaptive to the change of the channel and/or buffer states that optimally satisfy the BER requirements at the physical layer, and the overflow requirements at the data-link layer.
Relationships Between Fat Crystal Characteristics and Emulsion Stability in Water in Oil Systems
Authors: Hodge Shane Mason
Published: May 2021

Investigations were made into the stabilization of water in oil emulsions using crystalline particles of paraffin wax and fully hydrogenated canola and cottonseed oils. A model system was studied to develop a methodology of study and provide a benchmark for a subsequent study of a real-world system. The model system involved the use of light mineral oil, purified water, paraffin wax and glycerol monooleate emulsifier. The wax was crystallized prior to and following emulsification. Prepared emulsion samples were monitored for sedimentation and flocculation behaviour. Measurements of coalescence were obtained by pulsed field gradient NMR. Formation of the solid crystalline wax phase following emulsification resulted in emulsions more stable to flocculation and coalescence than samples containing the same amount of wax crystallized prior to emulsification. Analysis of emulsion samples with polarized light microscopy showed the wax crystals were associated with the water droplet interfaces rather than dispersed freely within the continuous oil phase. Another investigation employed similar experimental protocols but incorporated food-grade materials. Two different solid fats were used, chosen for their differing polymorphic (crystal habit) behaviour. Solid crystals of canola stearine (ß-tending) and cottonseed stearine (ß-tending) were compared in their abilities to stabilize emulsions at levels of addition between 0 and 2%. Each type of fat was incorporated into the emulsion in a pre-crystallized state, or while melted and crystallized following emulsification. Cottonseed stearine was found to be in the ß polymorph when quickly crystallized following emulsification from 45⁰ to 5⁰C over 6 minutes. Further calorimetric and X-ray diffraction investigations revealed this crystallization behaviour was a result of a solid-state transformation via an imperfectly formed ß̕ intermediate. With respect to the post-crystallized emulsions, where the polymorphism of the two fats were both in the ß-form, the canola stearine provided better stabilization against coalescence than the cottonseed stearine. This observation coincided with a stronger energy of interfacial attachment for crystallized canola than for cottonseed as calculated from measurements of contact angle and interfacial tension. With the pre-crystallized system, incorporation of cottonseed stearine resulted in reduced sedimentation and coalescence compared to samples containing pre-crystallized canola stearine. This difference was attributed to the presence of fine shards of ß̕-form crystals. The system that imparted the highest degree of overall stability incorporated the use of canola stearine srystallized following emulsification.
Point-of-interest recommendation in location-based social networks
Authors: Pourali Alireza
Published: May 2021

The focus of point-of-interest recommendation techniques is to suggest a venue to a given user that would
match the users’ interests and is likely to be adopted by the user. Given the multitude of the available venues and the sparsity of user check-ins, the problem of recommending venues has shown to be a difficult task. Existing literature has already explored various types of features such as geographical distribution, social structure and temporal behavioral patterns to make a recommendation. In this thesis, we show how a comprehensive set of user and venue related information can be methodically incorporated into a heterogeneous graph representation based on which the problem of venue recommendation can be efficiently formulated as an instance of the heterogeneous link prediction problem on the graph and we propose a new set of features derived based on the neural embeddings of venues and users. We
additionally show how the neural embeddings for users and venues can be jointly learnt based on the prior check-in sequence of users and then be used to define a set of new features. We have also used a new proposed heterogeneous graph similarity search framework to find similarity between users and venues using our graph. These features are integrated into a feature-based matrix factorization model. Our experiments show that the features defined over the user and venue embeddings are effective for venue recommendation and outperform existing state of the art methods.