Digital Commons Network^™

Three-Dimensional Transient Heat Transfer Characterization Of Crossflow Minichannel Heat Exchanger Apparatus, Mohammed Ismail

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Heat exchangers are the key components in automotive, residential and industrial applications. These are employed in vehicle thermal management systems, thermal regulation process as well as heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration systems. It is important to assess their performance and behavior in transient situation, especially when a sudden change in their operating conditions takes place. This research advances steady state and transient heat transfer in minichannel heat exchanger (MICHX) with the aim of improving heat transfer and exploring transient response. This study uses three-dimensional (3D) computational models to resolve flow and heat transfer in air-to-liquid crossflow MICHX. A finite …

Developing A Multiliteracies Pedagogy In Mature Female English Language Learners In Iran, Yalda Mohiti Asli

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates how the formal teaching and learning theory of multiliteracies serves mature female English Language Learners in Iran. A multiliteracies approach aims to influence the impact of the dramatically changing social and technological contexts of communication and learning and the potential contribution of a multimodal approach to adult language teaching and learning in the educational context. Data collection and analysis included collaborative researcher and teacher-participant lesson planning, 3 curriculum intervention workshops, observation and field notes, document analysis, and in-depth interviews to explore the English language development of the adult female participants of this research. This research provided the …

Tension And Compression Behavior Of Corroded Steel Beams Rehabilitated With Bfrp, Soham Mitra

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The deterioration in structural integrity of North America’s aging infrastructure, and the global initiative towards the use of sustainable materials in construction necessitates the use of cost-effective and eco-friendly methods for infrastructure rehabilitation. Previous studies have concluded that carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) and glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP) are effective in rehabilitating steel and concrete structures. However, there are limited reports on the use of eco-friendly basalt fibre reinforced polymer (BFRP). This research presents the feasibility of BFRP composites in rehabilitating steel I-beams with corrosion defects on the bottom flange as well as on the top flange through experimental …

Peer Influences On Antisocial And Prosocial Behaviours In Group Home Foster Care: Evidence Of Greater Protections In Better Resourced Homes And Higher Income Neighborhoods, Gershon Osei

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Youths in foster care are a vulnerable population at risk of experiencing diverse challenges, ranging from academic to socio-emotional and behavioural. Those in group home care can be at great risk of developing mental health and behavioural problems, sometimes severe, due to their experiences of childhood traumas, multiple placements and negative peer influences. Peer influences can also be quite positive and protective. The relative positive or negative influences of peers on youths’ prosocial to antisocial behaviours are well-known in residential treatment contexts in the USA, much less so in such Canadian contexts; not at all in group homes in Canada. …

Using Uv Technology For Microbial Contamination Remediation Of Beach Water, Natasha Rahman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Microbial contamination of beach water negatively affects public health and the nation’s economy. Combined sewer overflows (CSO) and sanitary sewer overflows (SSO) have repeatedly been identified as major threats to water quality. UV radiation can be used to reduce the risk of bacterial pollution. In order to quantify the efficacy of UV treatment in a timely manner, real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) methods are analyzed in this thesis. First, a robust qPCR-based method was developed to quantify UV inactivation of E. coli. This method employed long amplicon qPCR with various gene targets in order to do a scan of …

Interpersonal Rejection And Self-Affirmation: The Moderating Effect Of Body Weight Contingent Self-Worth On Women’S Body Image Evaluation, Lauren M. O'Driscoll

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Drawing upon the contingencies of self-worth and sociometer theories of self-esteem, these studies were devised to extend existing literature on the moderating effect of body weight contingent self-worth on the impact of interpersonal rejection on women’s body image evaluations. Two experimental studies were conducted. Study 1 was designed to assess the prediction that women with elevated body weight contingent self-worth would defensively self- enhance within the domain of body image in response to rejection. After completing an online survey comprised of covariate and moderator measures, female undergraduates (N = 159) attended the laboratory and were assigned to either a peer …

A Voting Algorithm For Dynamic Object Identification And Pose Estimation, Chandini Ravindranathan Nair

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While object identification enables autonomous vehicles to detect and recognize objects from real-time images, pose estimation further enhances their capability of navigating in a dynamically changing environment. This thesis proposes an approach which makes use of keypoint features from 3D object models for recognition and pose estimation of dynamic objects in the context of self-driving vehicles. A voting technique is developed to vote out a suitable model from the repository of 3D models that offers the best match with the dynamic objects in the input image. The matching is done based on the identified keypoints on the image and the …

Performance Evaluation Of Max-Min Ant System Algorithm For Robot Path Planning In Grid Environment, Satya Shree Sankini

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Path planning is an essential task for the robot to navigate and control its motion in any environment. The optimal path needs to be rerouted each time a new obstacle appears in front of the robot in a dynamic environment. This research focuses on the MAX-MIN Ant System Algorithm(MMAS) which is an Ant Colony Algorithm derived from Ant System(AS) and is different from it in terms of the pheromone deposition. The effectiveness of this algorithm to obtain a near optimal solution is illustrated by the means of experimental study. Using a greedier search than the Ant System algorithm is one …

Evaluating The Biogeochemistry And Microbial Function In The Athabasca Oil Sands Region: Understanding Natural Baselines For Reclamation End-Points, Thomas Reid

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Understanding the biogeochemical processes governed by the complex metabolic pathways of microbial communities is paramount in understanding overall ecosystem services. Their ability to adapt to the world’s harshest environments allows them to thrive in otherwise hostile environments. The Athabasca Oil Sands of Northern Alberta, Canada, constitutes one of the largest oil sands deposits in the world. This uniquely hydrocarbon-rich environment is a diverse and complex ecosystem governed by strong anthropogenic (i.e. industrial mine sites) and natural environmental gradients (i.e. substantial bitumen outcroppings). The economically significant oil sands deposit produces millions of barrels of bitumen daily, with waste materials (i.e. sands, …

It Takes A Lot Of Lights To Make A City, Ryan Michael Paterson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

“It Takes a Lot of Lights to Make a City” is a collection of short stories set in Halifax, Nova Scotia between 2010 and 2017, a period during which the city, long reliant on its heritage as the basis of its cultural identity, experienced a rapid shift toward modernization and urbanization. The characters of “It Takes a Lot of Light” experience forms of psychic displacement in response to the city’s socioeconomic transformation. These characters, including an unemployed university dropout, a social-climbing landscaper, and a middle-aged professional stifled by her retired husband, form a community of disparate individuals affected directly or …

Mechanisms Of Fibrosis In Regeneration Of Aged Skeletal Muscle, Fasih Ahmad Rahman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Skeletal muscle is a highly adaptive tissue that possesses the ability to regenerate following damage. Regenerative capacity of skeletal muscle declines as age advances, leading to restricted mobility and poor quality of life. The impairment of the regeneration process in aged muscle is partly due to the accumulation of structural proteins in the extracellular matrix (ECM), termed fibrosis. In this study, two important proteins regulating ECM remodeling, plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) and matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9), were investigated to determine their role in modulating changes in the ECM during aged muscle regeneration. The regeneration process was studied in young (3 month …

Fixed Cluster Based Cluster Head Selection Algorithm In Vehicular Adhoc Network, Muhammad Anwar Shahid

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The emergence of Vehicular Adhoc Networks (VANETs) is expected support variety of applications for driver assistance, traffic efficiency and road safety. For proper transmission of messages in VANET, one of the proposed solutions is dividing the network into clusters and then selecting a cluster head (CH) in each cluster. This can decrease the communication overhead between road side units (RSUs) and other components of VANETs, because instead of every node communicating with RSU, only CH communicates with RSU and relays relevant messages. In clustering, an important step is the selection of CH. In this thesis, we implemented vehicle to vehicle …

Microbial Community Dynamics Of Attached Biofilm Biocord Technology In Wastewater Treatment, Adam Skoyles

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Within this context, the data follows the lognormal and power law distribution, and a TS-IDS algorithm has been proposed in the literature and demonstrated to outperform both the greedy and IDS algorithm. We have evaluated the performance of various greedy approaches to the set covering problem, including the TS-IDS, using open source dataset in the context of resource management. The data are sampled from a given roadmap with different coverage radius.

Emotion Regulation And Social Competence In Middle Childhood: The Role Of Parental Emotional Competence, Personality, And Emotion Socialization Beliefs, Attitudes, And Practices, Jennifer Leigh Scammell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Much of what children know about emotions is learned from their parents, so it is important to examine parental beliefs, attitudes, and practices that contribute to emotion socialization. Little is known about how parents’ own emotional competence skills and personality contribute to these beliefs, attitudes, and practices. The purpose of this study was to examine the relations among parent emotional competence (i.e., positive expression, negative expression, empathy, reappraisal, and mature defense mechanisms), parent personality (i.e., openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism), emotion-related parenting style (i.e., emotion coaching) and practices (i.e., supportive reactions to children’s negative emotions), and parent-reported …

Simulations And Modelling For Biological Invasions, Ryan D. Scott

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Biological invasions are characterized by the movement of organisms from their native geographic region to new, distinct regions in which they may have significant impacts. Biological invasions pose one of the most serious threats to global biodiversity, and hence significant resources are invested in predicting, preventing, and managing them. Biological systems and processes are typically large, complex, and inherently difficult to study naturally because of their immense scale and complexity. Hence, computational modelling and simulation approaches can be taken to study them. In this dissertation, I applied computer simulations to address two important problems in invasion biology. First, in invasion …

Examining The Influence Of Muscle Fatigue On Knee Joint Mechanics During An Athletic Cutting Task, Sara Olivia Santos

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the current study was to examine the influence of lower limb muscle fatigue on the mechanics of the knee joint during an athletic cutting task. A biomechanical methodology was utilized to examine 12 recreationally active females, who cycled through a fatigue-inducing protocol, using a slideboard, followed by the performance of five maximal cuts, until fatigue resulted in trial termination. 3D motion capture was utilized to capture full body movements and changing joint angles of the hip, knee and ankle during the weight acceptance of the cutting maneuver. A force plate was used to record the ground reaction …

Petrographic And Geochemical Attributes Of Silurian And Devonian Dolomitized Formations In The Huron Domain, Michigan Basin, Marco Tortola

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study provides a thorough examination of dolomitization and other related diagenetic processes in Silurian and Devonian carbonates of the eastern side of the Michigan Basin. Core samples from multiple deep boreholes were analyzed for petrographic, stable and Sr isotopes, fluid inclusions microthermometry and major, trace and rare-earth elements (REE) to characterize the nature of dolomitizing fluids, the paragegenesis of different types of dolomite, and the evolution of diagenetic pore fluids. Petrographic analysis indicates that both age groups are characterized by the presence of a pervasive replacive fine-crystalline (50-100µm) dolomite matrix (RD2 and RD3, respectively). In addition to these types, …

An Improved Approach Of Intention Discovery With Machine Learning For Pomdp-Based Dialogue Management, Ruturaj Rajendrakumar Raval

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

An Embodied Conversational Agent (ECA) is an intelligent agent that works as the front end of software applications to interact with users through verbal/nonverbal expressions and to provide online assistance without the limits of time, location, and language. To help to improve the experience of human-computer interaction, there is an increasing need to empower ECA with not only the realistic look of its human counterparts but also a higher level of intelligence. This thesis first highlights the main topics related to the construction of ECA, including different approaches of dialogue management, and then discusses existing techniques of trend analysis for …

Variation In Greedy Approach To Set Covering Problem, Shreeya Naval Singhania

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The weighted set covering problem is to choose a number of subsets to cover all the elements in a universal set at the lowest cost. It is a well-studied classical problem with applications in various fields like machine learning, planning, information retrieval, facility allocation, etc. Deep web crawling refers to the process of gathering documents that have been structured into a data source and can be retrieved through a search interface. Its query selection process calls for an efficient solution to the set covering problem.

Effect Of Male Age And Hormone Induction On Sperm Quality In The Critically Endangered Mississippi Gopher Frog (Lithobates Sevosus), Ashley Michelle Watt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Zoos can play a key role in ex-situ conservation, focused on the management of imperiled species whose survival is dependent on conservation programs to effectively breed and reintroduce individuals back into the wild. Consequently, captive bred populations rarely become self-sustained and zoos often become limited by small, ageing populations with reproductively exhausted individuals. To overcome reproductive challenges, zoos can employ exogenous hormones to induce gamete production for artificial fertilizations. Using the critically endangered Mississippi gopher frog (Lithobates sevosus), our research focused on these two aspects of reproduction in captivity. First, we examined the effects of age on sperm quality through …

Charlotte Brontë'S Spiritual Vision, Andrew James Weiler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I explore the Victorian poet and novelist Charlotte Brontë’s remarkable understanding of scripture and powers of analysis. As a daughter of the notable reverend Patrick Brontë, Brontë’s dissenting feminist views of the Bible are particularly significant. Although Brontë demonstrated a lifelong belief in God, and in the individual’s right to develop and maintain a direct relationship to God, personal tragedies in her life shaped the ways in which she interpreted scripture and informed her ideas regarding the spiritual realm. As the number of personal tragedies increase, Brontë’s spiritual vision, which migrates from one novel to the next, …

Plasma Texturing For Enhanced Tribological Performance Of Cast Iron, Wei Zha

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cathodic plasma electrolysis (CPE) was used to create surface texturing on gray iron samples, which could reduce the friction and increase the wear resistance. During the treating process, cast iron sample served as a cathode where the plasma discharging occurred, increasing the surface hardness and leaving an irregular array of micro craters on the surface. Modified surface morphology was determined from scanning electron microscope (SEM) and surface profiler. Recessed and protruded surface textures were observed when the CPE was applied at low and high voltages, respectively. Pin-on-disk tribotests were conducted on CPE-treated samples and untextured sample. The friction of as-treated …

Prenatal Stress As A Potential Adaptive Modulator Of Offspring Survival, Phenotype, And Performance In Response To Elevated Temperatures, Theresa Renee Warriner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Climate change is increasing global water temperatures, and by altering temperatures, is subsequently impacting aquatic life, particularly ectothermic fish. When mothers encounter environmental stressors such as elevated temperatures during follicular recruitment (maternal stress), resultant offspring often have altered phenotypes. Recent studies suggest that this maternal stress signal may prepare offspring for a similarly stressful environment (environmental match). I applied the environmental match hypothesis to investigate whether a maternal stress signal can prepare offspring to cope in a stressful environment. Specifically, I exposed Lake Ontario Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) eggs to a biologically relevant maternal stress signal (1000ng/mL cortisol …

Experimental And Numerical Study Of A Synthetic Jet Ejector, Ziad Alaswad

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A traditional synthetic jet ejector is a combination of synthetic jet and mixing tube or shroud in which flow from the surroundings is entrained through the space between the jet and shroud and discharged from the end of a mixing tube. An objective of the current research is to evaluate the accuracy of a previous simplified numerical model using results from an improved numerical model and an experimental synthetic jet ejector water flow facility. The improved model gives a better representation of the primary jet velocity profile by accurately modeling the piston motion using the dynamic mesh option. Also, flow …

Composites Of Poly(Dimethylsiloxane) And Silica Nanoparticles As An Approach To Manipulating The Conductivity Of Stretchable Gold Films, Brittany Ives

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Stretchable conductors play a fundamental role in wearable electronics as device electrodes and interconnects. Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is conventionally used as the platform for stretchable conductors which are fabricated by depositing a thin layer of gold metal onto the surface. These gold films fail electrically under minimal strains (15-20% linear elongation) due to uncontrolled crack propagation through the metal film. Adding a rough microstructured polymer layer onto the PDMS surface preserves electrical conductivity in metal films to higher elongations of 60% due to the numerous sites for strain localization. However, such heterogeneous layered systems are vulnerable to delamination, leading to device …

Synthesis, Characterization, And Reactivity Of Chelating Ligand Complexes Of Group 13-15 Elements, Ala'aeddeen Swidan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

2,6-bis(benzimidazol-2-yl)pyridine derivative (G-BZIMPY, G = NBn, N(3,5-CF3)Bn, N-allyl and O) have been used as pincer ligands to coordinate and isolate various group 13-15 complexes. For Group 13, treatment of G-BZIMPY with two equivalents of GaCl3 results in the self-ionization products [G-BZIMPYGaCl2][GaCl4]. This Ga(III) complex can be reduced to a Ga(I) centre using K2[Fe(CO)4] as a reducing agent to result in the Ga(I) complex [(NBn-BZIMPY)(Cl)Ga–Fe(CO)4] (Chapter 2).

Group 14 complexes of G-BZIMPY have been synthesized in a similar fashion through the self-ionization reactions of G-BZIMPY with two equivalents of MCl2 (M = Ge, Sn) to yield [G-BZIMPYMCl][MCl3]. Attempts to reduce these …

Almost Periodic Functions On Topological Groups, Yihan Zhu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

We study the definition and properties of almost periodic functions on topological groups. We show the equivalence between Bochner’s and Bohr’s definitions of almost periodicity. We discuss Weil’s construction of Bohr compactification b(G) and study its properties. Using Peter-Weyl’s density theorem we show that a function f in Cb(G) is almost periodic if and only if it is the uniform limit of linear combinations of coefficients of the finite-dimensional irreducible unitary representations of G. We show the existence of a unique invariant mean on the space of almost periodic functions. We investigate the Fourier series of almost periodic functions, and …