Digital Commons Network^™

Effects Of Social Isolation On Wellbeing: Undergraduate Student Engagement In Positive And Negative Coping Behaviours During The Coronavirus Pandemic, Krista L. Lucier Ma

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Engagement in positive coping behaviours is correlated with enhanced wellbeing, with negative coping behaviours producing the opposite effect. Of all the pandemic’s aspects, it appears that lockdowns (and the resulting social isolation) produced the most significant negative effects. Research has not yet been published on the relationship between social isolation, subjective wellbeing (SWB), and physical wellbeing (PWB) of undergraduate student populations during the pandemic, and how coping behaviours may affect this relationship. The aim of this study was to elucidate the importance of positive coping behaviours (i.e., self-care practices) as opposed to more negative coping styles (i.e., dysfunctional lifestyle behaviours) …

Enhancing Thermoelectric Generator Performance, Xi William Wang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Waste heat recovery plays an important role for alleviating the energy crisis and mitigating climate change. The thermoelectrical generator (TEG), a solid energy convertor, is a promising technology. However, the performance of a TEG is sensitive to its geometric structure and working conditions. An improved geometric structure and matching to the working conditions can make a TEG fully utilize its thermoelectrical conversion potential.

The TEG optimization is a kind of combinatorial problem. An effective algorithm is needed to optimize a TEG’s performance. The particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is introduced in this study to optimize a TEG’s output power, efficiency, …

Characterizing Carbon In Agricultural Landscapes, Lauren Ann Weller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Soil organic matter (SOM) is an important pillar of soil fertility and ecosystem health. However, uncertainty exists both in the evaluation of agricultural conservation measures for specific local contexts and the sensitivity of the analytical tools used. Therefore, the objective of this thesis was to characterize organic matter from agricultural soils, focusing specifically on addressing field- and analytically based uncertainties associated with the ultraviolet-Visible (UV-Vis) and fluorescence spectroscopy of water-extractable organic matter (WEOM), and using the clay-dominated soils of Essex County as a case study. Here I explored optical spectroscopy properties across a gradient of agricultural practices and restoration to …

High Temperature Lubricated Wear Of Sand Cast And Die Cast Al Alloys For Continuously Variable Transmission (Cvt) And Other Applications, Xi Zhang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Light weight alloys like aluminum-silicon (Al-Si) alloys and magnesium alloys are widely utilized in the automobile industry. They have several favorable properties such as high wear resistance and good corrosion resistance at a wide range of temperatures. However, their wear-resistance under harsh operating conditions such as oxidation, creep and thermal fatigue still needs to be improved. In this work, the tribological behaviour of Al-Si alloys die cast A380, die cast ADC10, sand cast A356-T6, die cast B390, and magnesium alloy AE44 were investigated using a block-on-ring tribometer at 93 °C and 130 °C sliding temperatures and fixed sliding speed of …

The Role Of Companion Animals In The Lives Of University Students During The Coronavirus Pandemic, Cindy Ly

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The coronavirus 2019 pandemic introduced a new array of daily stressors, known as daily hassles, to the lives of university students. This study used the Stress, Appraisal, and Coping theory (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984) to understand how university students were affected by daily hassles and how they were coping with hassles-based stress, as well as how their companion animals provided social support during the stress and coping process. In this study, it was hypothesized that: (1) university students who experienced more daily hassles would experience higher perceived stress and lower overall life satisfaction; (2) university students who made effective use …

A Narrative Inquiry Of Teacher Candidate Experiences Of Sexual Violence Prevention Education, Salsabel Almanssori

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sexual violence scholars and practitioners in postsecondary and community contexts have long called for K-12 education to join them to take on the challenge of sexual violence prevention, citing school as simultaneously an important factor in addressing sexual violence and a place where it occurs. Meanwhile, teacher education scholars have pointed out there are missed opportunities to provide training for teachers at the earliest point in their training. Teacher candidates’ concurrent roles as an at-risk population and as educators and leaders entering schools puts them in an interesting space that is worth investigating. This research uses narrative inquiry to explore …

Calculated Charge State Distributions And Anisotropies Following The Β-Decay Of 6he, Eva E. Sculhoff

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

According to the standard model the beta-decay of 6He is a pure Gamow-Teller transition. The aim of this thesis is to provide theoretical support in the search for new physics beyond the standard model by examining the angular distribution of beta particles following decay. The simple structure of 6He, along with its ability to under go beta-decay into 6Li+ makes it an ideal candidate for studying the weak force. Due to the sudden increase in nuclear charge from Z = 2 to Z = 3, and the recoil momentum of the daughter nucleus resulting from the emitted leptons, this decay …

Developing Takeover Request Warning System To Improve Takeover Time And Post-Takeover Performance In Level 3 Automated Drivin, Niloy Talukder

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The automotive industry is shifting towards partial (level 3) or fully automated vehicles. An important research question in level 3 automated driving is how quickly drivers can take over the vehicle control in response to a critical event. In this regard, this study develops an integrated takeover request (TOR) system which provides visual and auditorial TOR warning in both vehicle interface and personal portable device (e.g., tablet). The study also evaluated the effectiveness of the integrated TOR system in reducing the takeover time and improving post-takeover performance. For these purposes, 44 drivers participated in the driving simulator experiment where they …

Survey Of Native Predatory Hemipterans And Assessment Of Nabis Americoferus Carayon (Hemiptera: Nabidae) As A Biological Control Agent Of Lepidopteran Tomato Pests, Andrew Laflair

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Invasive species have become a grave threat to the economic viability of our global vegetable producers. Tomato pinworm Tuta absoluta Meyrick (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) has expanded from its range originating from Peru to being established in nearly hundreds of countries, causing tomato production losses of up to 100% on occasion; however, it has not yet been found in Canada or the USA. Southwestern Ontario is a significant tomato producer making it a high risk from this invasive species. Efficient integrated control methods such as native biological control agents (BCAs) that avoid creating insecticide resistance are ideal. Surveys of Southwestern Ontario conservation …

Hardware Design And Implementation Of Genesio-Tesi Chaotic System, Manya Mehta

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This work presents digital implementation of integer and fractional order Genesio-Tesi chaotic system. In the proposed work, digital hardware design of the model is realized. The model is first validated through software simulations and then translated into Verilog code. Each coefficient is represented through signed 2’s complement fixed point representation. A methodology has been developed to construct integer and fractional order Genesio-Tesi system. Statistical analysis like Maximum Lyapunov Exponent and autocorrelation are employed to quantify the chaotic behavior of the system. Chaotic characteristics have been analyzed by plotting graphs for different set of initial conditions thereby verifying the sensitivity of …

Heterogeneous Collaborative Mapping For Autonomous Mobile Systems, Sooraj Sunil

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

An accurate map of the environment is essential for autonomous robot navigation. During collaborative simultaneous localization and mapping, the individual robots usually represent the environment as probabilistic occupancy grid maps. These maps can be exchanged among robots and fused to reduce the overall exploration time, which is the main advantage of the collaborative systems. Such fusion is challenging due to the unknown initial correspondence problem. This thesis presents a novel feature-based map fusion approach through detecting, describing, and matching geometrically consistent features present in the overlapping region between the maps. The main drawback of usual feature-based approaches is the incapability …

The Role Of Pier Shape And Aspect Ratio On Local Scour With And Without Sacrificial Piles, Mohamed Kharbeche

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The complexity of the scour process around bridge piers leads to uneconomical pier design and unnecessary costs. This is due to the current scour estimation methods, which over-predict scour depth. Several aspects of scour have not been fully considered in pier design and require further investigation, such as the pier shape and aspect ratio. Further, scour countermeasures are used to protect the pier and reduce the scour depth. The first objective of the present investigation is to study the combined effects of pier nose shape and aspect ratio on scour geometry. The second objective is to better understand the effect …

Classification Of Breast Cancer Nottingham Prognostic Index Using High-Dimensional Embedding And Convolutional Neural Networks, Li Zhou

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This work builds a prediction model for multi-omics breast cancer Nottingham Prognostics Index (NPI) classes. Rapid development in next-generation sequencing led to the ability to measure different biological indicators called multi-omics data. The availability of multi-omics data sparked the challenge of integrating and analyzing these various biological measures to understand the progression of the diseases. High-dimensional embedding techniques are used to present the features in the lower dimension, that is a 2-dimensional map. This thesis presents a supervised learning method used to predict breast cancer NPI. The objectives of this research are (i) build a diagnosis system for breast cancer …

Robot Learning From Human Observation Using Deep Neural Networks, Michael Elachkar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Industrial robots have gained traction in the last twenty years and have become an integral component in any sector empowering automation. Specifically, the automotive industry implements a wide range of industrial robots in a multitude of assembly lines worldwide. These robots perform tasks with the utmost level of repeatability and incomparable speed. It is that speed and consistency that has always made the robotic task an upgrade over the same task completed by a human. The cost savings is a great return on investment causing corporations to automate and deploy robotic solutions wherever feasible.

The cost to commission and set …

Different Implementation Methods Of Tanh On Fpgas For Neural Networks Application, Samira Soaryaasa

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Artificial neural networks (ANN) consist of a layered network of the neurons which compute the weighted sum of multiple inputs and pass it through a non-linear activation function (AF). A major difficulty is faced in the implementation of AF, which is usually hyperbolic tangent (Tanh) function. Tanh consists of exponential and division terms which makes its accurate implementation very difficult. Tanh is the most suitable for back propagation learning algorithm because it is differentiable. Previous studies have shown that the accuracy of the AF impacts the performance and the size of the whole neural networks (NNs). AFs are important elements …

High-Performance Gallium Nitride Switching Semiconductor Based Pmsm Drive For Ev Applications, Jiangobo Tian

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the techniques of characterization and applications of gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductor switching devices in power conversion areas, especially permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) based electric vehicle (EV) traction drives to achieve improved system performances.

At first, an investigation has been conducted to report the progresses of wide bandgap (WBG), especially GaN devices in power conversion applications. Based on the motivations to bridge the knowledge gap, the switching transient performance of enhancement–mode gallium nitride high–electron–mobility transistor (eGaN HEMT) and its impaction on switching energy loss have been chosen to start the research due to its technical challenges. Based …

35ci Solid-State Nmr Characterization Of Polymorphs And Cocrystals Of Xylazine Hci, Louae M. Abdulla

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Xylazine HCl (X), a common veterinary analgesic, has four reported polymorphs that are stable under ambient conditions, Form A (Xa), Form X (Xx), Form Z (Xz), and Form M (Xm), and one monohydrate (Xh). A commercial sample of X was found to contain mixtures of polymorphs and previous synthetic approaches proved unreliable and/or unsuccessful for the production of pure phases in high yields. Herein, we report methods for the reliable preparation and interconversion of polymorphs of X (including mechanochemical synthetic pathways), the discovery of a novel polymorph (Xy), and synthesis of three novel cocrystals with coformers containing amide and carboxylic …

Analysis Guidelines And Functionalities Of The Catia Native Fea Solver For Composite Materials, Mohamed Edrisy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The emergence of commercial FEA solvers was a significant breakthrough that boosted the accuracy and complexity of engineering design. While composite materials are special materials, their mechanical properties can be custom made by considering the needs and requirements of the design problem. Given the rapidly expanding global consumption of composite materials, access to FEA solvers capable of assigning these materials is an absolute requirement.The CATIA software is a platform for designing, analyzing, and manufacturing of parts. However, there is no meaningful documentation in the public domain exploring the finite element functionalities of CATIA software for composite materials. Isotropic materials are …

Wear Mechanisms Of Tool Steel And Their Effect On Trimming Of High Strength Steel Sheets, Zeyuan Cui

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Trimming is a shearing operation that removes excess material from stamped parts, and minimizing the associated tool wear will help to reduce manufacturing costs and improve the edge quality of trimmed parts. The objectives of this research are to (i) identify the damage mechanisms in trim die materials, (ii) characterize the damage in the vicinity of the cutting edge of trim dies and determine their evolution with increasing numbers of trimming cycles, (iii) study the micromechanisms of wear-induced plastic deformation and damage at the sheared edge of AHSS. The mechanical properties of the trim die materials (D2, Uddeholm Carmo and …

Diketopyrrolopyrrole Derivatives For Single Material Solar Cells, Adam M. Cassar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Although diketopyrrolopyrroles (DPPs) have been extensively studied as organic pigments and dyes and as building blocks for molecular and polymeric organic electronic materials, their propensity for self-organization has been given surprisingly little attention. Self-organization provides control over the morphology and supramolecular structure of materials and, consequently, the performance of a material. The dependence of performance on supramolecular structure is particularly delicate in bulk heterojunction organic solar cells and the emerging low-cost single material organic solar cells (SMOSC). Most donor-acceptor dyads and triads presently developed for SMOSCs consist of dyes as electron donors and fullerene derivatives as electron acceptors, but their …

Dynamic Interactions In Semiconducting Polymers; New Materials For Soft Electronics With Biomimetic Properties, Michael Udunyi Ocheje

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The development of materials that can stretch while remaining conductive has generated significant research interest. The push for the development of these materials is due to their potential for cheaper, more durable electronics with the new functions (stretchability and healability) and form factors required for the next generation of wearable and skin-inspired electronics. Polymeric semiconductors have emerged as prime candidates for the development of these materials, due to their π-delocalized network which makes them conductive, their synthetic versatility, and their intrinsic mechanical properties. Furthermore, their ability to be solution processed provides an avenue for printing, roll-to-roll, and large area solution …

Teach A Person To Fish: An Examination Of The Functionalities Of Outdoor Classrooms In Windsor-Essex County, Loretta Marie Sbrocca

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Outdoor classrooms are valuable learning environments that are adaptable in the face of differing terrain, climate, geography, weather and changing educational requirements. They can be used to teach all subjects, engage students in personal development goals and organizational priorities, and promote community involvement. How can educators harness the vast potential of outdoor classrooms as a learning tool? Understanding their functionalities is one means. This research employs an online questionnaire and optional follow-up interviews with various types of educators throughout Windsor-Essex County to help participants understand the functionalities of their own outdoor classrooms. Results showed that educators had different interpretations of …

Spatial And Temporal Dynamics Of Top Predators In A Large Lake, Silviya Vasileva Ivanova

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Environmental degradation is the legacy of the Anthropocene era and maintaining ecosystem health is a major challenge for managers globally. Restoration ecology aims to improve ecosystem health through reintroduction and rehabilitation of important native species to maintain or increase biodiversity and achieve stable and resilient communities. Non-native species may affect reintroduction efforts through interactions in time and space. This dissertation proposes that understanding the spatio-temporal ecology of two species along with their energy demands and growth (i.e., bioenergetics), would provide key clues for untangling the complexities of species interactions and further the knowledge on influences of non-native species on native …

Quantitative Magnetic Resonance Imaging Methodology Development, Layale Bazzi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a non-invasive medical imaging modality that provides excellent soft tissue contrast and resolution. Objects with high magnetic susceptibility distort the magnetic field, leading to severe artifacts in conventional MRI. It is very challenging to image around metal implants. Novel strategies may exploit the field distortion for spatial encoding. The magnetic field map is required in the development of these methods. A robust field map can also be employed to quantify high susceptibility particles that play a major role in cell tracking studies and hyperthermic treatment of cancers.

Pure phase encoding (PPE) techniques with short encoding …

Examining The Prevalence Of Burnout Among Golf Operations Employees In Canada, Sheldon Taylor Fetter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project examined the prevalence of burnout among golf operations employees across Canada and the effects of various antecedents and outcomes associated with the burnout phenomenon. A multiple regression analysis revealed significant relationships between burnout and post-secondary education, job role, and the average number of hours worked. Using path analysis, significant relationships were also found between job satisfaction and burnout, turnover, and organizational commitment, burnout and turnover, and organizational support and organizational commitment. A revised version of Walters and Raybould’s (2007) conceptual model of burnout introduced non-mediated relationships between the antecedents and outcomes of burnout, furthering our understanding of the …

Using Genetic Approaches To Study Local Adaptation And Reproductive Success In Snow Buntings (Plectrophenax Nivalis), Keta K. Patel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Genetic analyses can facilitate effective and timely conservation and management actions. Arctic-migratory species in particular are in need of conservation genetic insights as they are experiencing substantial population pressures due to the impact of climate change (and other anthropogenic effects) on processes that affect their survival and reproduction. Therefore, identification of genetic mechanisms driving population divergence and variation in reproductive fitness in such species is critical. The goal of this thesis is to examine reproductive isolation among breeding populations of an Arctic-migratory passerine, the snow bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis) and determine factors that drive local adaptation and variation in …

Cognitive Load Estimation Using Heart Rate Variability Measures For Driver Monitoring Systems, Safoura Kavousi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The society of automotive engineers define six levels of automation in vehicles from Level-0 (no automation) to Level-5 (full automation). Until the Level-5 automation is achieved, driver monitoring systems play a major role in road safety in partially automated vehicles. A driver monitoring system uses sensors to extract various psychophysiological measurements from the driver in order to monitor their readiness to safely operate the vehicle. Some driver monitoring systems use webcam type cameras to extract various features related to the alertness of the driver, such as, head-pose patterns, eye-closing patterns, and facial features. The use of physiological features such as …

How Animal-Assisted Therapy Is Understood And Perceived By Health Care Providers And The General Public In Canada, Healey M. Gardiner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The incorporation of dogs to assist humans with various activities has been documented for centuries. When a dog is included in treatment to meet an individual’s therapeutic goal it is known as Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT). Little is known about how AAT is understood and perceived among healthcare professional and public populations in Canada. Although AAT has increased in popularly, limited research exists regarding its efficacy. Further, variation exists in the understanding and perceptions of AAT among the general pubic and healthcare professionals, possibly due to a lack of awareness of existing operational definitions and distinctions between classifications of “assistance animals.” …

A Critical Study On The Effect Of Dimensionality Reduction On Intrusion Detection In Water Storage Critical Infrastructure, Ranim Aljoudi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems are often imperiled bycyber-attacks, which can often be detected using intrusion detection system (IDSs).However, the performance and efficiency of IDSs can be affected by several factors,including the quality of data, curse of dimensionality of the data, and computationalcost. Feature reduction techniques can overcome most of these challenges by eliminatingthe redundant and non-informative features, thereby increasing the detectionaccuracy. This study aims to shows the importance of feature reduction on the intrusiondetection performance. To do this, a multi-modular IDS is designed that isconnected to the SCADA system of a water storage tank. A comparative study …

Development Of Predictive Ballistic Models For Hypervelocity Impact On Sandwich Panel Satellite Structures, Riley Carriere

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sandwich panels are widely used in the design of uninhabited satellites and, in addition to having a structural function can often serve as shielding, protecting the satellites’ equipment from hypervelocity impacts (HVI) of orbital debris, and micrometeoroids. This thesis aims to provide: a comprehensive review of HVI experimental studies for honeycomb- and open-cell foam-cores; an examination of available predictive models used to assess the panels’ ballistic limits; as well as signify the influence of honeycomb-core parameters, such as cell size and foil thickness, as well as core material, on the ballistic performance of honeycomb-core sandwich panels (HCSP) when subject to …