Digital Commons Network^™

Shock Interaction With Substrate In A Shock Induced Spray Process, Kevin Mrozinski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

To further the knowledge of the Shock Induced Spray Process (SISP), an experimental apparatus which simulates Centerline's Waverider thermal spray gun was created which uses an unsteady flow to propel solid particles onto a substrate by the use of a shock wave to produce a coating. Experiments were conducted at a variety of operating supply pressures, firing frequencies, and stand off distances. A qualitative analysis was done using a custom Schlieren system along with a high speed camera. Insight into the flow behaviour in the SISP was established with the definition of six distinct phases. The formation of a bow …

Development Of Novel Nano - Single Si Phase Cast Hypereutectic Al-Si Alloys, Peter Guba

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The research presented in this PhD dissertation renders a novel nano and ultra-fine structured cast industrial grade hypereutectic Al-Si-Cu engineering material and processing technologies capable of maximizing its functional characteristics. This development will allow for further engineering of exceptionally lightweight and near net-shape components for aerospace and transportation applications. The research outcomes offer the design and casting communities with new capabilities enabling gains in component properties, productivity, rapid component design and manufacturing procedures. These procedures include industrial melt chemical and physical treatments and an ultra rapid Solution and Artificial Aging Heat Treatments. These approaches were not feasible due to problems …

Adhesion Mechanisms Of Ti-6al-4v To Pvd Coatings, Liang Jin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The adhesion mechanisms of titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V to AISI 52100 steel and AlTiN, TiN and CrN nitride coating were studied. It was found that the transferred Ti-6Al-4V had a layered amorphous structure in which nanocrystalline and polycrystalline oxides were embedded. High resolution TEM (HRTEM), electron diffraction, and fast Fourier transform (FFT) investigations revealed the presence of nanocrystalline TiO (C2/m) at the steel/transfer layer and AlTiN/transfer layer interface. However only α-titanium (P63/mmc) was detected at the TiN/transfer layer interface and CrN/transfer layer. This observation explains that the coefficient of friction between TiN and Ti-6Al-4V as well as CrN and Ti-6Al-4V reached …

Feeling The Pressure: Differences In Blood Pressure Among Working Undergraduate Students, Robert Lee Dufour

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Studies have shown that being employed while pursuing post-secondary education may lead to higher levels of perceived stress and unhealthy behaviours. The current study involved a hierarchical regression model to analyze both perceived stress and blood pressure (BP) as a function of the number of hours worked per week (HW). Seventy-four undergraduate students from the from the University of Windsor completed measures of perceived stress, coping, physical activity, and daily hassles, and had their BP recorded after ten minutes of rest. There was a correlation between HW and systolic BP (r = .23, p = .04). Problem-focused coping was negatively …

Performance Evaluation Of A Reverse Logistics Enterprise - An Agent-Based Modelling Approach, Gowtham Pandia Rajan Ravi Sankara Pandian

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Reverse Logistics (RL) has been applied in many industries and sectors ever since its conception. Unlike Forward Logistics retracing consumer goods from the point of consumption to the point of inception is not a well-studied process. It involves many uncertainties such as time, quality and quantity of return. It is important to address these uncertainties to meet the economic, ecological and social challenges. The returned products can be remanufactured, can have parts harvested, or can be disposed safely. It is important to implement these activities in a cost-effective manner. The aim of this research is to measure the performance of …

Simulation Of A Regenerative Electromagnetic Vehicle Suspension, Fabio Tarantini

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the last two decades, legislation that regulates carbon dioxide emissions are getting more and more stringent. In order to meet these regulations, fuel efficiency must be increased. This can be possible using devices that recover otherwise wasted energy. In this study, an electromagnetic regenerative shock absorber is analyzed. The device is capable of converting the vibrational energy, usually wasted as heat in conventional dampers, into electrical energy. The objective of this work is to develop a Matlab® model of the system in order to evaluate the gain in terms of harvested energy. The dynamic performance of the selected regenerative …

Volcanic Stratigraphy And Lithogeochemistry Of The Northern Section Of The Lynn Lake Greenstone Belt: Implications For Regional Geodynamics And Metallogenesis, Michael W.P. Glendenning

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The MacLellan Au-Ag deposit, located in the Paleoproterozoic Lynn Lake greenstone belt of the Trans-Hudson Orogen, Manitoba, is hosted by a package of plagioclase-amphibole, chlorite-amphibole, and quartz-plagioclase-biotite schists that are considered to be representative of the geodynamic evolution of the northern section of the Lynn Lake greenstone belt. A combination of field and petrographic observations and high-precision trace element chemistry have identified the protoliths to the host rock sequence as transitional aluminous basalt with subordinate picrite and biotite-altered aluminous basalt, respectively. The Th-Nb-La-REE systematics of these rocks are consistent with a rifted continental margin environment. Volcanic rocks with similar Th-Nb-La-REE …

Maternal Effects On Egg Quality In Hatchery, Wild, And Farmed Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus Tshawytscha), Michaela Whitney Haring

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Maternal effects have received considerable attention within the literature, however our knowledge on environmental and genetic maternal effects on egg quality in fish still remains limited. I examined both environmental and genetic maternal effects on egg quality traits in hatchery, wild and farmed Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha). I found that environmental differences during early life altered certain aspects of the reproductive biology in hatchery- and wild- salmon, namely gonad and egg development, while other important components of egg quality, fatty acid profile, were not affected. By using quantitative genetic models and breeding designs, I determined that egg size was strongly …

Fuzzy Computational Model For Emotion Regulation Based On Affect Control Theory, Ahmad Soleimani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Emotion modeling is a multi-disciplinary problem that has managed to attract a great deal of research work spanned to a wide spectrum of scholarly areas starting at humanistic science fields passing through applied sciences and engineering and arriving at health care and wellbeing. Emotion research under the umbrella of IT and Computer Science was extensively successful with a handful of achievements especially in the last two decades. Affective Computing is an IT originated systematic research area that strives to best model emotions in a way that fits the needs for computer applications enriched with affective component. A comprehensive Affective Computing …

Navigating Curricular Change In The Visual Arts In Ontario, Peter Jonathon Bates

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Every 7 years or so, the Ontario Ministry of Education publishes revised curriculum documents for a number of grades and disciplines. The purpose of this study was to explore the process of implementing The Ontario Curriculum, The Arts, Revised, 2010 in Ontario secondary schools. This work explored 20 teachers' perceptions and assessed the impact of a change in policy on their practice. Teacher agency provided the theoretical perspective that guided the construction, execution, and evaluation of the project. This study looked for a central phenomenon using grounded theory and involved 3 phases of data collection: survey, autoethnography, and interviews. Findings …

Inhibitory Effects Of Securinine And Related Compounds On Toxoplasma Gondii And Mechanistic Insights Into Transcript-Specific Translational Repression In The Bradyzoite Developmental Stage, Michael James Holmes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Toxoplasma gondii is an intracellular protozoan parasite that infects warm blooded animals the world over. In the host, the parasite exists as either rapidly growing tachyzoites or immunologically protected slowly dividing bradyzoites. While tachyzoites are generally cleared by the host's immune system, bradyzoites persist for life. If the immune system becomes compromised, bradyzoites reconvert to tachyzoites and cause severe illness. Bradyzoites develop in response to stressful stimuli, therefore discovering factors that modulate bradyzoite conversion as well as determining how Toxoplasma's stress response pathways operate are essential to understanding parasite disease. In this work, the plant alkaloid securinine as well as …

The Effect Of An Isometric Strength Training Protocol On Valgus Angle During A Drop-Jump Landing In Elite Female Volleyball Players, Kaitlin Jackson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purposes of this study were to a) strengthen the gluteal and hamstring muscles of 14 elite female volleyball players via a six week isometric strength training program to b) determine changes in peak knee valgus angle, c) determine any changes in tibial acceleration, and d) determine changes in vertical ground reaction forces at peak valgus angle during a drop-jump landing task. Significant strength increases were seen in hip extension (20.5%), abduction (27.5%), and knee flexion (23.5%) in the training group. No significant group changes were observed for knee valgus angle, tibial acceleration, or ground reaction forces. Notable significant individual …

Fatigue Crack Growth Of Nps20 Steel Oil Pipe At Varied Orientations, Craig G. L. Taylor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Very few studies concerning fatigue of oil pipe have been conducted using full-scale tests. Further, no research is found in open literature concerning fatigue cracks in the longitudinal direction of pipes, despite being deemed more critical. Fatigue crack growth was investigated in NPS 20, API 5L X-70 grade, straight-seam steel oil pipes in the base metal and at the welded joint for various orientations. Specifically, the effect of the welded joint and crack orientation on the fatigue crack growth behaviour relative to a longitudinal crack in the base metal was determined. The fatigue crack growth behaviour of a longitudinal crack …

Daisy Chain Ligands For The Control Of Layering In Pillared Metal-Organic Frameworks, Joseph Nicolas Sbrocca

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mechanically interlocked molecules (MIMs) have been studied extensively due to their ability to function as molecular motors, machines, and molecular muscles in solution. Unfortunately, these systems lack organization in solution and the motions exhibited are incoherent. This has stimulated interest towards installing MIMs as ligands into metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) to improve the molecular organization and coherency of these systems. The material presented in this thesis describes the synthesis of two benzimidazole-crown ether (24C6) based cyclic daisy chain dimers for the first time. Upon further functionalization, one of the cyclic daisy chain dimers has the potential to be used as a …

The Effect Of A 10 Week Isometric Handgrip Training Protocol On Blood Pressure (Resting And Ambulatory) And Cardiovascular Reactivity In Young, Normotensive Individuals, Yasina Begum Somani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study was to test the hypotheses that in young, normotensive men and women, 10 weeks of isometric handgrip (IHG) training (3X/ week) would 1) elicit reductions in ambulatory blood pressure (BP), concomitant to reductions in resting BP, and 2) these reductions would be predicted by cardiovascular reactivity to standard laboratory stress tasks (e.g. IHG task, IHGT; a 2 minute sustained isometric contraction). Reductions in 24-hour, daytime, and nighttime systolic ambulatory BP were observed following IHG training in both men (n=13) and women (n=11, P0.05), were associated with pre-training systolic BP reactivity to the IHGT (P

Power Generation Using Lock-In Vortex Shedding Frequencies From Quasi-Constant Airflow, Abhishek Nayyar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents a coupled mechanical device that generates power by a direct conversion of the airflow into mechanical vibrations. The mechanism experiences a fluid force that changes with its orientation causing vibrations. The device consists of two tightly coupled parts: a mechanical resonator that produces high-frequency mechanical oscillations from quasi-steady airflow resulting in large amplitude vibrations and a piezoelectric power generator harvesting the energy from the resonator's motion. Instantaneous velocity interactions were studied using numerical modeling and experimental tests. The proposed energy harvester allows for locking up the device's lowest natural frequency to the vortex-shedding resonant frequency induced by …

New Materials And Methods For The Fabrication Of Large-Area Stretchable Electronics, Heather Lynn Filiatrault,

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation addresses three main challenges towards the fabrication of large-area stretchable electronic devices. First, we replaced expensive photolithography techniques with low-cost methods to achieve highly stretchable gold films on elastomers. Second, we enabled the fabrication of large-area stretchable pixels through the incorporation of stretchable elastomers in the emissive layer of light-emitting devices. Third, we made progress towards theinception of air-stable large-area stretchable electronics by developing methods to deposit conductive metal films on new highly impermeable stretchablesubstrates.

Chapter 2 describes the deposition of a low-cost, microstructured glue interlayer on an elastomeric substrate to enable the fabrication of gold films with …

Chipless Radio Frequency Identification (Rfid) Tag Utilizing Beamforming Technique, Ali Attaran

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This work is a paper based dissertation which presents a new method to design low cost chipless radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags using MEMS technology. The proposed chipless tag can be batch-fabricated using a basic MEMS fabrication process. The chipless tag can operate over a wide range of frequencies including the conventional UHF band for RFID applications. The elimination of the chip can reduces the tag price to the extent that it becomes an alternative solution to barcode labels. A prototype of the tag is implemented using a basic fabrication process and measurements are performed to validate its functionality. For the …

Examining The Process Of The Development Of Multicultural Counselling Competencies In Therapist-Trainees, Beatriz R. Rubio Rodriguez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Canada admits between 22,000 - 24,000 refugees each year (Beiser, 2005). Immigrants and visible minorities tend to underutilize mental health services. However, ensuring new settlers' physical and mental health is not only humane, but also crucial to enable them to achieve their social and economic potential in the host country. Fundamentally, the need for Multicultural Counselling Competencies (MCC) is due to diverging notions of mental health and healing between clients and therapists who are culturally different from each other. There is ample literature on Multicultural Counselling Competencies. However most of this body of research has been conducted using quantitative approaches. …

Investigation On Di Cng Technologies And Related Development For The Mixture Formation, Biagio Logaldo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The increasingly stringent requirement to reduce fuel consumption and emissions is pushing carmakers to investigate new and more challenging alternatives. In this rushing scenario, the Direct Injection of Compressed Natural Gas has emerged as a high potential strategy to improve SI engine performance. Since the direct injection of natural gas is an emerging technology, the research of the optimal setup, looking at the injection parameters and at the design of the combustion chamber, is still a relevant issue. This thesis has the goal of realizing and validating a model of a DI CNG injector. After this first step, the mentioned …

Environmental Effects On Spatial Biogeography Of Microbial Communities And Examination Of Trophic Impacts Through Analysis Of Gut Microbiome In Fish, Dilraj Sanghera

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Freshwater estuaries throughout the Great Lakes region receive nutrient loadings and trace metals from agricultural runoffs and urban centers. Such anthropogenic stressors have been previous demonstrated to affect the microbial community composition in polluted ecosystems. This thesis explores the microbial biogeography of 18 tributaries to understand the relationship between the microbial community structure and habitat profiles, and the impacts of these microbial communities on fish microbiomes. Partial Mantel test showed a significant correlation (R2 =0.16) between environment and bacterial community structure while controlling for spatial distance. Canonical correspondence analysis demonstrated distinct clusters corresponding with specific environmental drivers’ characteristic of specific …

States Of Exception And Unlawful Combatants: Biopolitical Monstrosities Or The Return Of The Sovereign?, David Tyler Dunford

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes the widespread transgressions of U.S. constitutional, international and military law post-9/11. My aim is to illustrate how the tripartite problematizations of terrorism, national security and increased presidential authority constituted the dual emergence of the medieval sovereign and unlawful combatants as governmental subjects/objects. This thesis uses archaeological and genealogical discourse analysis in illustrating how post-9/11 texts transformed modalities of thought and deployments of executive power against newly constituted threats. I use Giorgio Agamben and Michel Foucault as intellectual reference points in explicating the formation of new political/legal discourses and practices that violate existing legal standards. I argue that …

Investigating Potential Combinations Of Visual Features Towards Improvement Of Full-Reference And No-Reference Image Quality Assessment, Ashirbani Saha

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Objective assessment of image quality is the process of automatic assignment of a scalar score to an image such that the rating or score corresponds to the score provided by the Human Visual System (HVS). Despite extensive studies since the last two decades, it remains a challenging problem in image processing due to the presence of different types of distortions and limited knowledge of the HVS. Existing approaches for assessing the perceptual quality of images have relied on a number of methodologies that directly apply known properties of the HVS, construct hypotheses considering the HVS as a blackbox and use …

Burst Strength Of Nps30 Steel Pipes With Dent-Crack Defect, Hossein Ghaednia

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Pipeline is the common mode for transporting oil, gas, and various petroleum products. Structural integrity of oil and gas transmission pipelines is often threatened by damages such as dent, corrosion, crack, gouge, or any combination of these damages. Such a damage may lead to structural failure in a field pipeline. One of combined defects is dent-crack defect which is a dent defect that contains a crack defect within the dent. Hence, the pipeline operator becomes concerned about the performance and safety of the linepipe if a pipe wall is subject to a dent-crack defect. Research work using full-scale tests and …