cometadata/datacite-rtg-text-other-reclassification-records huggingface dataset:
Synergistic effects of D-arginine, D-methionine and D-histidine against Porphyromonas gingivalis biofilms
Creators: name: Zhang, Zhenyang
name: Li, Baosheng
name: Cai, Qing
name: Qiao, Shuwei
name: Wang, Dan
name: Wang, Heling
name: Zhang, Huiyan
name: Yang, Yalan
name: Meng, Weiyan
Publisher: name: Taylor & Francis
Year: 2021
Subjects: subject: Biochemistry
subject: Microbiology
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: Genetics
subject: Pharmacology
subject: Chemical Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: Ecology
subject: Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: Hematology

description: Porphyromonas gingivalis biofilms are implicated in the pathology of peri-implantitis and periodontitis. In this study, D-arginine (R), D-methionine (M), D-histidine (H), and a mixture of these D-amino acids (D-AAs) were investigated as an effective therapeutic strategy against P. gingivalis biofilms. The bacterial growth activity and minimum inhibitory concentrations were determined for each D-AA, along with the effects of the D-AAs mixture on biofilm development, morphology, structure, extracellular polysaccharides (EPS), cytotoxicity towards commensals, and bacterial structure. The D-AA mixture delayed the proliferation of P. gingivalis, changed its membrane structure, and decreased biofilm thickness and integrity, as compared with individual D-AAs. The EPS content increased with the concentration of D-AAs. The present study shows that a 4 mM RMH, triple D-AA mixture, enhanced deleterious effects on P. gingivalis biofilms without any cytotoxicity compared with individual D-AAs, thus providing a new strategy for the treatment of peri-implantitis and periodontitis.
University Ethics Courses and Student Self-Capacities: A Quantitative Study
Creators: name: Kennedy, Darrah
Publisher: name: Werklund School of Education
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Self-capacities
subject: Ethics education
subject: Educational Psychology

description: Moral identity is part of one's self-concept, and an internalized moral identity has been associated with ethical decision-making (Aquino & Reed, 2002; Gu & Neesham, 2014; Rua et al., 2017). Studies of decision-making biases show that people will make biased decisions to maintain congruence with their self-concept (Higgs et al., 2020; Watts et al., 2020). Self-capacities are an individual’s ability to relate to others while regulating intense negative affect and maintaining a solid sense of self through these relationships and changing emotions (Briere, 1992, 1996). Based on literature suggesting connections between moral identity, ethical decision-making, and self-capacities, in this study I used an online survey data collection method and a series of MANOVAs to examine the potential effect of ethics education on moral identity, decision-making biases, and disrupted self-capacities. The final sample consisted of 158 graduate and undergraduate University of Calgary students from a range of disciplines, 47 of whom had previously studied ethics and 111 who had not. Although none of the MANOVAs yielded significant results, I found that students who had studied ethics showed significantly lower scores on one of the scales of the instrument used to measure self-capacities, Susceptibility to Influence. Additionally, post hoc exploration of Pearson correlations among the instrument scales indicated several significant relationships between the disrupted self-capacities scales and decision-making bias scales for students who had studied ethics. Possible implications for counselling and ethics education are discussed. Keywords: Self-capacities, moral identity, decision-making biases, ethics education
Quantum Simulation of the Ultrastrong Coupling Dynamics in Circuit QED
Creators: name: Ballester, D.
name: Romero, G.
name: García-Ripoll, J. J.
name: Deppe, F.
name: Solano, E.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2011
Subjects: subject: Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
subject: Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
subject: Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We propose a method to get experimental access to the physics of the ultrastrong (USC) and deep strong (DSC) coupling regimes of light-matter interaction through the quantum simulation of their dynamics in standard circuit QED. The method makes use of a two-tone driving scheme, using state-of-the-art circuit-QED technology, and can be easily extended to general cavity-QED setups. We provide examples of USC/DSC quantum effects that would be otherwise unaccessible.
description: Final version published in PRX
The Need for Limiting Mechanisms on Not Criminally Responsible Dispositions
Creators: name: Friedland, Meryl
Publisher: name: Law
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Criminal Law
subject: Mental Health
subject: Not Criminally Responsible (NCR)
subject: Law
subject: FOS: Law

description: Accused persons in Canada who are found “not criminally responsible” (NCR) on account of mental disorder are excused from criminal liability, as they have no moral blameworthiness for their action leading to the criminal charge. However, persons found NCR are not acquitted. They are transferred to the jurisdiction of a provincial review board, where they remain under supervision and conditions unless or until they are found to not pose a significant threat to the safety of the public. NCR accused may be detained in hospital during their review board supervision, or face other deprivations of liberties. There is no maximum period that NCR accused may be under the jurisdiction of a review board. Accordingly, a person found NCR could be subject to deprivations of liberty for the rest of their lives, even if found NCR on a relatively minor offence. This can be a disincentive for accused persons considering the NCR verdict, particularly when they would face a finite, non-custodial or short custodial sentence on conviction. This thesis considers the need for limiting mechanisms on the duration of NCR dispositions. First, the options for proceeding through the criminal justice system that may be available to accused persons with mental disabilities are reviewed. The history of the NCR verdict and NCR dispositions is then considered, including legal and legislative changes that have culminated in the current disposition provisions. This is then contrasted with empirical studies regarding NCR dispositions and the impact of such dispositions on NCR accused. The contrast allows for a comparison of the “law-on-the-books” to the “law-in-action”. Emphasis is placed on the discrepancy between the stated goals of NCR dispositions, which are allegedly not punitive because NCR accused are not morally blameworthy, and the potential punitive effect of indefinite dispositions. This thesis asserts that additional limiting mechanisms are required on disposition provisions. Capping provisions are the central limiting mechanism analyzed and recommended. A mandatory "verdict inquiry” when an accused person applies for, or consents to, an NCR verdict is also recommended. The thesis concludes with proposed next steps and topics for further discussion.
When Articles Go Missing: Analyzing Optionality in Spanish Prepositional Relative Clauses
Creators: name: Levinstein Rodriguez, Andrea
Publisher: name: Arts
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: linguistics
subject: syntax
subject: experimental syntax
subject: prepositional relative clauses
subject: article alternation
subject: Spanish
subject: Acceptability Judgement Task
subject: Spanish syntax
subject: Linguistics
subject: FOS: Languages and literature

description: This thesis project presents a comprehensive overview of article optionality in Spanish prepositional relative clauses. This definite article, which is part of the operator phrase, is subject to a complex pattern of variation that regulates whether it can be present or absent in a given phrase. Through a mixture of experimental and formal analysis, this project investigates (i) the syntactic and semantic factors that influence the presence or absence of the article and (ii) the role of the article within the syntactic structure of Spanish prepositional relative clauses. A corpus study found that the article was significantly more likely to be absent when the antecedent of the relative clause was definite, inanimate, or plural, or when the embedded clause was not negated. In addition to these factors, a significant effect of preposition and an interaction between definiteness and the preposition en, which had not been attested in the literature, were found. Subsequently, an acceptability judgement task conducted on eighty-eight Mexican Spanish speakers showed higher acceptability ratings for article presence, definite antecedent, and the preposition en. The en:Definiteness interaction was replicated in post-hoc testing. Based on these results, I present a modified version of Cinque’s (2020) double-headed structure. I propose that prepositional relative clauses without the article follow Cinque’s matching analysis-like derivation, while those with the article contain a larger relative operator with a [+specific] feature, thus avoiding deletion. This project presents an updated understanding of an under-researched area of Spanish grammar. It provides empirical support to the claim that the presence or absence of the article is not a matter of free variation, and makes headway on identifying the factors that mediate the presence or absence of the article, as well as the mechanisms that underlie them.
Clonal selection prevents tragedy of the commons when neighbors compete in a rock-paper-scissors game
Creators: name: Juul, Jeppe
name: Sneppen, Kim
name: Mathiesen, Joachim
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2012
Subjects: subject: Populations and Evolution (q-bio.PE)
subject: Pattern Formation and Solitons (nlin.PS)
subject: Biological Physics (physics.bio-ph)
subject: Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability (physics.data-an)
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: The rock-paper-scissors game is a model example of the on-going cyclic turnover typical of many ecosystems, ranging from the terrestrial and aquatic to the microbial. Here we explore the evolution of a rock-paper-scissors system where three species compete for space. The species are allowed to mutate and change the speed by which they invade one another. In the case when all species have similar mutation rates, we observe a perpetual arms race where no single species prevails. When only two species mutate, their aggressions increase indefinitely until the ecosystem collapses and only the non-mutating species survives. Finally we show that when only one species mutates, group selection removes individual predators with the fastest growth rates, causing the growth rate of the species to stabilize. We explain this group selection quantitatively.
description: 4 pages, 4 figures
Deriving optimal and adaptive nanoparticles-assisted foam solution for enhanced oil recovery applications: an experimental study
Creators: name: Afifi, Hamid Reza
name: Mohammadi, Saber
name: Moradi, Siyamak
name: Mahvelati, Elaheh Hamed
name: Alemi, Fatemeh Mahmoudi
name: Ghanbarpour, Omid
Publisher: name: Taylor & Francis
Year: 2021
Subjects: subject: Biophysics
subject: Medicine
subject: Pharmacology
subject: 39999 Chemical Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: FOS: Chemical sciences
subject: Ecology
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: Sociology
subject: FOS: Sociology

description: Here, Fe2O3 and SiO2 nanoparticles are synthesized and utilized to investigate their effects on foam stability and flowing behavior in porous media. At first, the effect of main operative parameters including surfactant concentration, formation water composition and dosage, and temperature on foam stability are studied at static condition for preparation of an optimal foam solution. Then, the synthesized nanoparticles are dispersed in optimal foam solution for subsequent main experiments. High pressure-high temperature microscopic injection experiments are employed to assess the oil-flow displacement in heterogeneous porous medium pattern by foam injection in the absence and presence of the nanoparticles. The results show that sodium dodecyl sulfonate surfactant concentration of 0.75 wt% provides the optimal dosage independent of other factors. The foam solution becomes unstable with increasing the salinity. Conversely, the presence of more sulfate ions improves the foam stability and foam textural characteristics. In the presence of the synthesized nanoparticles significant enhancement of foam solution stability is observed. Microscopic analysis of the injection experiments in glass micromodel reveals postponement of the displacing fluid breakthrough time, lessening the severity of the finger phenomenon at displacement front, and higher oil recovery for Fe2O3 and SiO2 nanoparticles-assisted foam solutions. However, the enhancement of the foam textural features and flowing behavior are more manifest in the case of SiO2 nanoparticles compared to the Fe2O3 nanoparticles.
Theatre for Young Audiences in Canada: Centering the Margins
Creators: name: Pronyshyn, Nathan Thomas
Publisher: name: Arts
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: TYA
subject: Theatre for Young Audiences
subject: Performance
subject: Professional
subject: Canada
subject: Children
subject: Youth
subject: Theater

description: Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) dwells in the margins of professional theatre production, theatre history, and contemporary discourse about theatre at large. Within Canada, such marginalization is pronounced, where scholars have only recently begun to examine TYA in the national context. Through my research and from my professional experience as a former artistic leader in TYA, I have identified a gap that has left many of the defining voices that shape the sector absent from scholarship. Similarly, I have suspected that many practitioners in TYA in Canada do not frequently tap into what little scholarship exists in the field. Drawing upon interviews with the artistic leaders of eleven of Canada’s most prominent TYA companies in combination with my findings from a literature review, this thesis offers insight about the values and views of artistic leaders; the material, practical, and ideological conditions they face; as well as how they navigate those realities. Tapping into emerging scholarship, I posit that TYA is shaped by notions of children and childhood and that, in order for artists to guide the sector forward, artistic leaders must bridge the often-disparate worlds of practice and research. Further, I put forth that TYA shares its paradoxical identity with children – whereby notions that consciously or unconsciously marginalize children do the same to TYA. I argue that those working in the field must strive to stand in solidarity with children by blurring binaries such as adult and child, professional and amateur, and performer and spectator. In doing so, TYA may better serve young audiences by speaking to and with them as they are, and in the process, challenge and reshape cultural perceptions.
Exploring light nuclei production at RHIC and LHC energies with A Multi-Phase Transport model and a coalescence afterburner
Creators: name: Bailung, Yoshini
name: Shah, Neha
name: Roy, Ankhi
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: In heavy-ion collisions, understanding how light nuclei species are produced can provide insight into the nature of hadronic interactions in extreme conditions. It can also shed light on understanding the matter-antimatter asymmetry and dark matter searches in astrophysical processes. To investigate the production mechanism of light nuclei such as deuteron, triton, and helium-3, we use a naive coalescence afterburner coupled to the well-known $``$A Multi-Phase Transport model" (AMPT). We focus on studying the production of light nuclei in central Au+Au collisions at different center of mass energies ($\sqrt{s_{_{\rm{NN}}}}$ = 19.6, 39, and 200 GeV) and in Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{\rm{NN}}}}$ = 2.76 TeV, at mid-rapidity. We generate events with the string melting version of AMPT, and feed the information of the nucleons with spatial and momentum conditions into the coalescence afterburner. Our study reports differential and integrated yields in transverse momentum ($p_{\rm{T}}$) of the light nuclei in different center of mass energies. We also estimate the coalescence parameters ($B_A$) as a function of $p_{\rm{T}}$ and collision energy for (anti-)deuterons, tritons and helium-3s for Au+Au and Pb+Pb collisions, which are compared to other light nuclei production studies. All results are compared with measurements from the STAR and ALICE experiments.
description: 10 pages, 7 figures
A sustainable nanocomposite, graphene oxide bi-functionalized with chitosan and magnetic nanoparticles for enhanced removal of Sudan dyes
Creators: name: Khawaja, Heena
name: Zahir, Erum
name: Asghar, Muhammad Asif
name: Asghar, Muhammad Arif
name: Daniel, Asher Benjamin
Publisher: name: Taylor & Francis
Year: 2021
Subjects: subject: Biophysics
subject: Biochemistry
subject: 29999 Physical Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: Medicine
subject: Pharmacology
subject: 59999 Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: FOS: Earth and related environmental sciences
subject: 39999 Chemical Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: FOS: Chemical sciences

description: The environmental pollution, particularly water pollution, has gradually caused severe human health issues. Organic dyes are one of the most emerging pollutants in the environment. In the present study, graphene oxide (GO) was functionalized with chitosan (CS) and magnetic nanoparticles (Fe-NPs) and tested to remove Sudan I, II, III, and IV dyes from water. The synthesized GO-CS-Fe was characterized using UV–vis, SEM, TEM, EDX, and FTIR spectroscopy, and confirmed the structural composition of nanocomposite, with the Fe-NPs dimension over the GO-CS surface to be 31–44 nm. The effects of various experimental factors; time,pH, adsorbent amount, dyes concentrations, and temperature were executed using the batch experiment. The experimental data were fitted to pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order, intraparticle diffusion, and Elovich kinetic models. The isotherm models parameters of the Langmuir, Freundlich, Redlich–Peterson, Temkin, and Hill isotherms, along with the thermodynamics parameters were also calculated. The data was explained by the Langmuir isotherm model with maximum adsorption capacities for Sudan I, II, III, and IV as 360.6, 353.7, 351.0, and 347.6 mg/g, respectively. The rapid uptake of the dyes fitted the pseudo-second-order kinetic, asserting that the adsorption was diffusion controlled. The process was spontaneous and endothermic in nature. The reusability study of GO-CS-Fe was performed up to five cycles. The nanocomposite can retain its efficacy even after the considered cycles. In conclusion, the GO-CS-Fe nanocomposite has exhibited a high potential for removing Sudan dyes from the aqueous solution due to its high adsorption and regeneration capability.
Fundamental quantum limits to waveform detection
Creators: name: Tsang, Mankei
name: Nair, Ranjith
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2012
Subjects: subject: Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
subject: General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Ever since the inception of gravitational-wave detectors, limits imposed by quantum mechanics to the detection of time-varying signals have been a subject of intense research and debate. Drawing insights from quantum information theory, quantum detection theory, and quantum measurement theory, here we prove lower error bounds for waveform detection via a quantum system, settling the long-standing problem. In the case of optomechanical force detection, we derive analytic expressions for the bounds in some cases of interest and discuss how the limits can be approached using quantum control techniques.
description: v1: first draft, 5 pages; v2: updated and extended, 5 pages + appendices, 2 figures; v3: 8 pages and 3 figures
Impact of Shale Barriers on SAGD and ES-SAGD Performance
Creators: name: Kumar, Ashish
Publisher: name: Schulich School of Engineering
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Engineering--Petroleum

description: Shales are the common type of heterogeneity present in the oil sand reservoirs. Shale barriers usually have very low permeability leads to obstruction for fluid flow inside the reservoirs towards the wellbore. SAGD (steam assisted gravity drainage) and ES-SAGD (expanding solvent assisted gravity drainage) rely heavily on gravity drainage, and thus the impact of shales is more pronounced than the conventional recovery methods. Apart from reducing the oil drainage, shale barriers may also contribute to the heat losses. SAGD process is a well-known bitumen recovery technology. Hence, the impact of shale barriers is an essential aspect of understanding the bitumen recovery from oil sands. ES-SAGD is an emerging technology that combines solvent dilution effect along with steam to improve oil recovery while reducing carbon footprints. In this thesis, first, a procedure to construct the base 2D reservoir model is described. The procedure includes generation of log-normally distributed shale barrier realizations based on the mean and standard deviation. The impact of shale barriers on the recovery factor is described qualitatively using these realizations. Later, a non-linear model using a machine learning algorithm for predicting oil recovery factor using a synthetic dataset is being demonstrated. A detailed numerical simulation study has been conducted to analyse the impact of shale barriers on SAGD and ES-SAGD processes. Both recovery processes are analyzed over the whole simulation period. Additionally, they have also been evaluated at multiple cumulative steam-oil ratios (cSOR) cut-off at 2, 2.5, 3 and 3.5. Transition points are defined and explained to cluster the shale density/fractions based on similar behaviors. Co-injection of butane provided better recovery performance than hexane due to delayed condensation of C4 relative to C6.
Microscopic Irreversibility and the H Theorem
Creators: name: Magpantay, Jose A.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2012
Subjects: subject: Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Time-reversal had always been assumed to be a symmetry of physics at the fundamental level. In this paper we will explore the violations of time-reversal symmetry at the fundamental level and the consequences on thermodynamic systems. First, we will argue from from current physics that the universe dynamics is not time-reversal invariant. Second, we will argue that any thermodynamic system cannot be isolated from the rest of the universe. We then discuss how these two make the dynamics of thermodynamics systems very weakly irreversible at the classical and quantum level. Since time-reversal is no longer a symmetry of realistic systems, the problem of how macroscopic irreversibility arises from microscopic reversibility becomes irrelevant becomes there is no longer microscopic reversibility. At the classical level of thermodynamics system, we show that the H Theorem of Boltzmann is still valid even without microscopic reversibility. We do this by deriving a modified H Theorem, which still shows entropy monotonically increasing. At the quantum level, we show the the effect of CP violation, small irreversible changes on the internal states of the nuclear and atomic energy levels of thermodynamic systems. Thus, we remove Loschmidts's objection to Boltzmann's ideas.
description: 22 pages, to appear in International Journal of Modern Physics B
Molecular, Pathogenesis and Immunological Studies of the Canadian Delmarva (DMV/1639) Infectious Bronchitis Virus (IBV) Variant
Creators: name: Hassan, Mohamed Saleh Hussein
Publisher: name: Veterinary Medicine
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Delmarva 1639 infectious bronchitis virus
subject: recombination
subject: pathogenesis
subject: false layer syndrome
subject: infectious bronchitis vaccine
subject: chicken
subject: Animal Pathology
subject: Biology--Molecular
subject: Veterinary Science
subject: Virology
subject: Immunology
subject: FOS: Clinical medicine

description: Infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) is a gammacoronavirus that infects chickens leading to economic losses globally. Although the disease caused by IBV is known as infectious bronchitis (IB), the virus also replicates and induces lesions in the renal, reproductive, and gastrointestinal systems of chickens. The control of IB relies mainly on using live attenuated and inactivated vaccines. The IBV Delmarva (DMV)/1639 variant has impacted the layer flocks in Eastern Canada over the past few years. The affected flocks showed a high incidence of false layer syndrome (FLS). The studies conducted in this thesis focused on three major areas: 1) molecular characterization of IBV DMV/1639 isolates obtained from clinical cases in Eastern Canada, 2) investigating the pathogenesis of the Canadian IBV DMV/1639 variant and the host responses to this virus in chickens, and 3) evaluating the protective efficacy of the existing IB vaccines against the infection with this virus in chickens. Following whole genome sequencing (WGS), phylogenetic and recombination analyses showed that the Canadian IBV DMV/1639 strain is a chimeric virus derived from a Connecticut (Conn) vaccine-like strain, a 4/91 vaccine-like strain, and one strain that is yet-unidentified. An experimental challenge of 1-day-old specific-pathogen-free (SPF) chicks showed that this virus has a wide tissue tropism and induces marked cystic lesions in the oviduct of growing pullets. A significant drop in egg production, accompanied by characteristic gross and microscopic lesions in the reproductive organs, followed the experimental challenge of SPF chickens at peak of egg production. Infected chickens showed significant recruitments of KUL01+ macrophages and CD4+ and CD8+ T cell subsets in the oviduct tissues. In addition, anti-IBV antibodies were detected systemically and locally in the oviduct washes. Heterologous IB vaccines that are commercially available in Canada protected laying SPF chickens against a drop in egg production induced by the Canadian IBV DMV/1639 strain. Vaccinated chickens had lower viral replication and mild reproductive tract lesions. Overall, the knowledge generated in this thesis contributed to the understanding of IBV-host interactions including virus evolution, pathogenesis, host responses, and vaccination-based control.
Long-term fertilization effects on ectomycorrhizal community structure and fine root length in interior spruce forests
Creators: name: Hay, Tristyn Nicole
Publisher: name: University of British Columbia
Year: 2012

description: Ever-present on the roots of appropriate host trees, ectomycorrhizas are pivotal in the survival and productivity of trees of interior British Columbia. Although ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi provide access to nutrients that would otherwise be unavailable to roots, nutrient supply can still limit above ground productivity of trees. Such nutrient constraints have led to the use of fertilization as standard practice for increasing tree yields in some parts of the world. Although much research has been completed on the short-term response of ECM communities to nitrogen enrichment, almost none has focused on responses to long-term fertilization treatments aimed at maximum tree productivity. In our study, the response of ECM fungal communities of three interior spruce (Picea glauca) stands in interior British Columbia to 10-15 yr of fertilization was studied. The treatments included (i) unfertilized control, (ii) annual fertilization (kg ha⁻¹); to maintain 1% foliar N (iii) periodic fertilization (kg ha⁻¹); 200N, 100P, 100K, 50 sulphur, 25 magnesium, 1.5 boron applied every 6 years. The study sites were located in three different biogeoclimatic zones: the moist, cold (SBSmc2), the moist cool (SBSmk1) and the wet cool (SBSwk1) variants of the Sub-Boreal Spruce zone of central interior British Columbia. Using morphological and molecular analysis, the identity of the dominant ECM fungal symbionts on the randomly-selected root tips was determined in order to characterize the ECM fungal community. Both ECM fungal diversity and richness differed amongst sites, but did not appear to be affected by fertilization. The relative abundance and frequency of Tylospora spp., one of the dominant genera in the community, were lower in plots exposed to annual fertilization at one of the sites. No overall effect on the ECM fungal community was observed in response to fertilization. As the periodic fertilization treatment more closely reflects operational modes of fertilization in these regions, these results suggest that large-scale fertilization could be established in the central interior of British Columbia without major disturbance to this important component of the soil microbial community.
MOKA: a new tool for Strong Lensing Studies
Creators: name: Giocoli, Carlo
name: Meneghetti, Massimo
name: Bartelmann, Matthias
name: Moscardini, Lauro
name: Boldrin, Michele
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2011
Subjects: subject: Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Strong gravitational lensing is a powerful tool for probing the matter distribution in the cores of massive dark matter haloes. Recent and ongoing analyses of galaxy cluster surveys (MACS, CFHTLS, SDSS, SGAS, CLASH, LoCuSS) have adressed the question of the nature of the dark matter distribution in clusters. N-body simulations of cold dark-matter haloes consistently find that haloes should be characterized by a concentration-mass relation that decreases monotonically with halo mass, and populated by a large amount of substructures, representing the cores of accreted progenitor halos. It is important for our understanding of dark matter to test these predictions. We present MOKA, a new algorithm for simulating the gravitational lensing signal from cluster-sized haloes. It implements the most recent results from numerical simulations to create realistic cluster-scale lenses with properties independent of numerical resolution. We perform systematic studies of the strong lensing cross section as a function of halo structures. We find that the strong lensing cross sections depend most strongly on the concentration and on the inner slope of the density profile of a halo, followed in order of importance by halo triaxiality and the presence of a bright central galaxy.
description: 14 pages - 17 figures, accepted on MNRAS
Origin of Green Shales in the Devonian Swan Hills Formation, Alberta, Canada
Creators: name: Howrish, Morgan R.
Publisher: name: Science
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Devonian
subject: Swan Hills
subject: green shale
subject: carbonate
subject: reef
subject: Geology
subject: FOS: Earth and related environmental sciences

description: Throughout its growth history, the Devonian Swan Hills Reef Complex at Swan Hills has been subjected to variably long episodes of subaerial exposure, storm events, strong wind, oceanic currents, base level fluctuations and/or a long post-depositional burial history. For nearly sixty years, several generations of carbonate specialists have invoked one or more of these mechanisms to explain the presence of fine-grained green shale sediment observed sporadically throughout the carbonate-dominated reef complex. Through core examination, petrography and geochemical analysis, this study proposes a new model which reinterprets green shale from the above processes to a coproduct of dolomitizing and potentially non-dolomitizing fluids. The terrigenous clays are suggested to be sourced from underlying clastic formations, in particular, the Watt Mountain Formation, and advected upwards alongside a mixture of carbonate mud, organic matter, pyrite and carbonate debris which accumulated onto the reef environment through hydrothermal mud volcanism. Advection and extrusion of such green shale slurries were associated with NW-SE trending basement faults that initiated buildup nucleation on the widespread platform and acted as an important segment of a large hydrothermal convection cell driven by regional tectonism. In addition to being reducing and toxic, these gaseous slurries were likely episodic in nature, acting in a fault-valve type manner, and resulted in the diverse depositional spectrum of green shale across various facies, diagenetic environments and stratigraphic intervals. The hydrothermal mud volcanism model thus provides a new and testable explanation for the origin, transportation, sedimentation and diagenetic transformations of green shales in the Devonian succession of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin.
Three Levels of Open Science Implementation in Slovenia
Creators: name: Pušnik, Miro
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023

description: Miro Pušnik the Director of the Central Technical Library at the In 2021, Slovenia signed up to the Pact for Research and Innovation, a commitment that establishes common values and principles for research and innovation in the European Research Area (ERA). Slovenia has actively responded to the need to harmonise research and innovation activities by adopting comprehensive legislation and implementing strategic measures to guide these activities. In these official documents, open science, adherence to the FAIR principles for the sharing of research results and an urgent changes in the assessment of research work are identified as key points for the advancement of science in Slovenia. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to provide a concise overview of the measures taken by Slovenia to align with the ERA open science policies, together with the underlying motivations for doing so.
Investigating the Design of an Immersive Smart Home System for Supporting Seniors Living with Neurocognitive Disorders
Creators: name: Alabood, Lorans
Publisher: name: Science
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Human-Computer interaction (HCI)
subject: Mixed reality
subject: Smart home systems
subject: Aging in place
subject: Computer Science

description: The Internet of Things (IoT) technology allows for creating customized and accessible smart home systems for supporting aging in place. These systems are called Supportive Smart Home Systems (SSHS). Nonetheless, this approach comes with two main challenges. Firstly, customizing and interacting with IoT devices requires a certain level of technology literacy which many Seniors with Neurocognitive Disorders (SwNCDs) and caregivers may not have. Secondly, relying solely on smartphone applications is impractical for homecare purposes. Head-mounted Mixed Reality (MR) devices blend the physical and digital worlds to unlock natural and intuitive holographic interactions. This model makes designing tailored and seamless user experiences for SwNCDs more feasible. In addition, integrating a wearable MR device into an SSHS provides instant and effortless user interactions. However, considering MR is an emerging field of study, there is a major lack of design recommendations, especially for SwNCDs users. In this thesis, we applied a comprehensive User-Centered Design approach to introduce an immersive supportive smart home system for SwNCDs. During the investigation phase, we conducted a systematic literature review study to provide a taxonomy of the SSHS literature. Thereafter, we investigated the special requirements of SwNCDs by conducting a requirements elicitation study. Based on findings from these two studies, we introduced an initial system design. We leveraged video prototypes demonstrating all possible user-system interactions of the initial prototype to run an online Design Critique evaluation with 24 participants across Canada and the USA. After running all Design Critique sessions, a course of Thematic Analysis was conducted on the qualitative data to extract design recommendations for immersive smart home systems. Finally, we used the newly extracted design recommendations to reiterate our initial system design to produce a high-fidelity prototype and implemented it on a HoloLens2 device. We conducted usability evaluations using the Cognitive Walkthrough and Heuristic Evaluation methods. The evaluations did not identify any major usability issues in the prototype. These findings indicates that our design and evaluation process has the potential to introduce highly usable smart home system concepts.
Second-order gravitational self-force
Creators: name: Pound, Adam
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2012
Subjects: subject: General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Using a rigorous method of matched asymptotic expansions, I derive the equation of motion of a small, compact body in an external vacuum spacetime through second order in the body's mass (neglecting effects of internal structure). The motion is found to be geodesic in a certain locally defined regular geometry satisfying Einstein's equation at second order. I outline a method of numerically obtaining both the metric of that regular geometry and the complete second-order metric perturbation produced by the body.
description: 5 pages, added clarifications in response to referee comments, accepted for publication in PRL
Development of radial flow channel for improved water and gas management of cathode flow field in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell
Creators: name: Friess, Brooks Regan
Publisher: name: University of British Columbia
Year: 2012

description: This thesis presents an innovative radial flow field design for PEMFC cathode flow plates. This new design, which is in the form of a radial field, replaces the standard rectangular flow channels in exchange for a set of flow control rings. The control rings allow for better flow distribution and use of the active area. The radial flow field was constructed with aluminum and plated with gold for superior surface and conductive properties. These materials were selected based on the results obtained from the performance of the standard flow channels of serpentine and parallel constructed of hydrophilic gold and hydrophobic graphite materials. The new flow field design provides a competitive performance compared to the current standard serpentine and parallel flow fields in a dry-air-flow environment. The polarization curves for a dry cathode reactant flow, however, shows excessive membrane drying with the radial design. Humidifying the air flow improves the membrane hydration while the fuel cell with the innovative radial flow field produces a higher limiting current density compared to other channel designs, even the serpentine flow field. The water removal and mass transport capacity of the radial flow field was proven to be better than parallel and serpentine. This performance increase was achieved while maintaining the pressure drop nearly half of the pressure drop measured in the serpentine flow fields. The initial results for this design show promising performance and further optimization and simplification of the design should improve the performance and allow for simpler manufacturing processes.
“There's no one-size-fits-all solution for opioid use:” A Situational Analysis Exploring Opioid Use and the Opioid Crisis
Creators: name: Sapoznikow, Avery J.
Publisher: name: Werklund School of Education
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: opioids
subject: opioid
subject: substance use
subject: drug use
subject: heroin
subject: fentanyl
subject: prescription opioids
subject: painkillers
subject: morphine
subject: oxycodone
subject: situational analysis
subject: postmodernism
subject: social constructionism
subject: substances
subject: drugs
subject: Opioid Crisis
subject: recovery
subject: treatment
subject: Education--Health
subject: Education--Social Sciences
subject: Mental Health
subject: Public Health
subject: Psychology--Social

description: Canada is currently in the midst of an ongoing war on drugs and poisoning crisis, otherwise known as the Opioid Crisis. Overdoses and deaths are occurring across the country in all provinces and territories. The situation of opioid use and the Opioid Crisis is wrought with conflicts, tensions, and complexity. To best understand the complexity of opioid use and the Opioid Crisis, the perspectives of self-identified former opioid users were collected through a survey (n=83) and follow up interviews (n=6). Situational Analysis (SA) was used to analyze the data to elucidate and explore the complexity of opioid use and the Opioid Crisis from the perspectives of self-identified former opioid users. Multiple iterations of visual maps were created to display the complexity of the situation and outline various perspectives and contests of former opioid users. Through the analytic mapping of participant data, I identified human and non-human elements related to opioid use and the Opioid Crisis. This includes sites of tension such as the morality and utility of opioid use, the causality of the Opioid Crisis, and approaches to recovery from opioid use. I review these findings within the context of the current literature and consider the implications of the results in terms of impacts on opioid users, policy, and counselling practice.
Using 1,2 dimethylimidazole to improve gel thermalstability for wellbore plugging in ultra-high temperature fractured reservoirs
Creators: name: Jia, Hu
name: Kang, Zheng
name: Li, Zhijie
Publisher: name: Taylor & Francis
Year: 2021
Subjects: subject: Biophysics
subject: 29999 Physical Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: Genetics
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: Biotechnology
subject: Evolutionary Biology
subject: 39999 Chemical Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: FOS: Chemical sciences
subject: Ecology

description: Working fluid loss as well as formation damage is usually encountered as a big challenge during well completion and workover for fossil-fuel production. Polymer gel is widely used for wellbore plugging to isolate the working fluid and the reservoir for controlling fluid loss and protecting the reservoir. However, with the increasing number of ultra-high temperature well (>180 °C) operations, the thermal stability of the gel plug is increasingly required. In this paper, 1,2 dimethylimidazole (C5H8N2) is first used to prepare a gel plug. The effects of C5H8N2 on gel gelation at dynamic heating mode, viscosity, elasticity, thermal stability and temporary plugging performances are evaluated at 190 °C. It is found that the addition of C5H8N2 does not affect the gelation, while a slightly viscosity-reducing effect is exhibited. At 190 °C, the gel without C5H8N2 broke down within 4 hours and lost its temporary plugging performance, while the gel with 20% imidazole remained unbroken after 60 hours. For the fractured core (5 cm in length) plugging experiments, the addition of 15% C5H8N2 significantly increased the breakthrough pressure of gels from 0.2 MPa to 1.9 MPa compared to pure gels (without C5H8N2). The enhancement mechanism of C5H8N2 is investigated. Recommendations for the application of gels with C5H8N2 are given in the paper. This paper provides an avenue for the development of gel plug to deal with wellbore temporary plugging jobs in ultra-high temperature fractured reservoirs.
Untersuchung des Einflusses verschiedener Wetterelemente als mögliche Auslöser migräneartiger Kopfschmerzen
Creators: name: Wogenstein, Florian
Publisher: name: Universität Rostock
Year: 2018
Subjects: subject: 004 Data processing Computer sciences
subject: 610 Medical sciences Medicine

description: Weltweit leiden etwa 10% der Bevölkerung an Migräne. Umwelteinflüsse, vor allem Änderungen verschiedener Wetterelemente, werden von Betroffenen häufig als auslösende Faktoren genannt. Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit war die Untersuchung von Wetteränderungen als mögliche Auslöser von Migräneanfällen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass entsprechende Änderungen das Risiko, einen Migräneanfall zu erleiden, für einzelne Patienten erhöhen können. Insgesamt konnte gezeigt werden, dass kein allgemein für alle Patienten gültiger Einfluss der untersuchten Wetterelemente auf Migränepatienten vorhanden ist.
Successes and challenges of cassava enterprises in West Africa: a case study of Nigeria, Bénin, and Sierra Leone
Creators: name: L.O Sanni
name: O.O Onadipe
name: P Ilona
name: M.D Mussagy
name: A Abass
name: A.G.O Dixon
Publisher: name: Gates Open Research
Year: 2019

description: Successes and challenges of cassava enterprises in West Africa: a case study of Nigeria, Bénin, and Sierra Leone
Higgs production at the LHC: updated cross sections at $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV
Creators: name: de Florian, D.
name: Grazzini, M.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2012
Subjects: subject: High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)
subject: High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We present predictions for the inclusive cross section for Higgs boson production by gluon--gluon fusion in proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV. Our calculation is accurate up to next-to-next-to-leading order in QCD perturbation theory and includes soft-gluon effects up to next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy and two-loop electroweak corrections. The dependence on heavy-quark masses is taken into account exactly up to next-to-leading order and next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy, and a treatment of the Higgs boson line-shape is provided according to the complex-pole scheme.
description: Effect of the charm-quark included. The charm-quark contribution decreases the cross section by about 1% for mh=125 GeV
Robust quantum gates for systems subject to decoherence via optimal control: Markovian vs non-Markovian dynamics
Creators: name: Floether, Frederik
name: de Fouquieres, Pierre
name: Schirmer, Sophie
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2011
Subjects: subject: Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We study the implementation of one-, two-, and three-qubit quantum gates for interacting qubits using optimal control. Different Markovian and non-Markovian environments are compared and efficient optimisation algorithms utilising analytic gradient expressions and quasi-Newton updates are given for both cases. The performance of the algorithms is analysed for a large set of problems in terms of the fidelities attained and the observed convergence behaviour. New notions of success rate and success speed are introduced and density plots are utilised to study the effect of key parameters, such as gate operation times, and random variables, such as the initial fields required to start the iterative algorithm. Core characteristics of the optimal fields are statistically analysed. Substantial differences between Markovian and non-Markovian environments in terms of the possibilities for control and the control mechanisms are uncovered. In particular, in the Markovian case it is found that the optimal fields obtained without considering the environment cannot be improved substantially by taking the environment into account and the fidelities attained are determined mostly by the gate operation time as well as the overall strength of the environmental effects. Computation time is saved if the fields are pre-optimised neglecting decoherence. In the non-Markovian case, on the other hand, substantial improvements in the fidelities are observed when the details of the system-bath coupling are taken into account. In that case, field leakage is shown to be a significant issue which can make high gate fidelities impossible to obtain unless both the system and noise qubits are fully controlled.
description: Complete revised, more concise version with new material added, to appear in NJP