Digital Commons Network^™

Photophysical And Optical Properties Of Semiconducting Polymer Nanoparticles Prepared From Hyaluronic Acid And Polysorbate 80, Adam Langlois, Gage T. Mason, Michael H.L. Nguyen, Mehdi Rezapour, Paul Ludovic Karsenti, Drew Marquardt, Simon Rondeau-Gagné

Chemistry and Biochemistry Publications

Copyright © 2019 American Chemical Society. A nanoprecipitation procedure was utilized to prepare novel diketopyrrolopyrrole-based semiconducting polymer nanoparticles (SPNs) with hyaluronic acid (HA) and polysorbate 80. The nanoprecipitation led to the formation of spherical nanoparticles with average diameters ranging from 100 to 200 nm, and a careful control over the structure of the parent conjugated polymers was performed to probe the influence of π-conjugation on the final photophysical and thermal stability of the resulting SPNs. Upon generation of a series of novel SPNs, the optical and photophysical properties of the new nanomaterials were probed in solution using various techniques including …

Studies Of Cells Within Three Chemosensory Structures In The Sea Lamprey (Petromyzon Marinus), Zeenat Aurangzeb

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Chemosensory systems play an important role in any organism collecting and processing information to regulate behaviours such as feeding, homing, avoidance and reproduction. In this thesis, I investigated the cells within the olfactory system and the diffuse chemosensory system of the sea lamprey. Calcium imaging of olfactory epithelial cellular responses to the polyamine odorants spermine and spermidine showed that separate cells responded to these odorants. The secondary goal of this thesis was focused on the loading of cells in the accessory olfactory organ (AOO) with neural activity indicators to examine the odorant response profiles of these cells. Multiple in vivo …

Power Management And Protection In Mt-Hvdc Systems With The Integration Of High-Voltage Charging Stations, Fazel Mohammadi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Due to the significant increase of the long-distance electricity demand, effective use of Distributed Generations (DGs) in power system, and the challenges in the expansion of new transmission lines to improve the reliability of power system reliability, utilizing Multi-Terminal HVDC (MT-HVDC) technology is an applicable, reliable, and cost-effective solution in hybrid AC/DC grids. MT-HVDC systems have flexibility in terms of independent active and reactive power flow (reversible control) and voltage control. Interconnecting two AC grids with different frequencies and transmitting electricity for the long-distance with low power-losses, which leads to less operation and maintenance costs, can be done through the …

Help-Seeking In Young Adults: Emotion Regulation And Attachment Style As Predictors, Marni Michelle Oldershaw

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to investigate predictors of both formal and informal help-seeking behaviour in young adults. In particular, the present study sought to examine predictors of help-seeking behaviours using various predictors suggested in the literature (i.e., help-seeking intentions, attachment style, emotion regulation, temperament, and distress disclosure) within the same model. Two hundred and seventeen undergraduate university students, ranging from 17 to 25 years (26 males, 191 females), completed an online survey of questionnaires assessing their attachment style, difficulties in emotion regulation, tendency to self-disclose distress to others, temperament, symptomology, and help-seeking intentions and behaviours from informal …

Canada's Role As A Clean Technology Innovator: A Governmental Proposal, Charlie Connell

Major Papers

Clean technology innovation and development can play a critical role in climate change mitigation strategies. Targeted at the Canadian government, this paper outlines the important role clean technology can play in achieving Canada’s 2030 emissions reduction targets and recommends strategies to establish the country as an international force in clean technology innovation. This paper evaluates the successes of international leaders in clean technology innovation, identifies hindrances to the progression of clean technology in Canada, and proposes multi-level strategies to overcome the obstacles hampering the Canadian clean technology industry. Lastly, this paper concludes with a call to action for continued research …

Insight Into The Molecular Mechanisms For Microcystin Biodegradation In Lake Erie And Lake Taihu, Lauren E. Krausfeldt, Morgan M. Steffen, Robert M. Mckay, George S. Bullerjahn, Gregory L. Boyer, Steven W. Wilhelm

Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research Publications

Microcystins are potent hepatotoxins that are frequently detected in fresh water lakes plagued by toxic cyanobacteria. Microbial biodegradation has been referred to as the most important avenue for removal of microcystin from aquatic environments. The biochemical pathway most commonly associated with the degradation of microcystin is encoded by the mlrABCD (mlr) cassette. The ecological significance of this pathway remains unclear as no studies have examined the expression of these genes in natural environments. Six metatranscriptomes were generated from microcystin-producing Microcystis blooms and analyzed to assess the activity of this pathway in environmental samples. Seventy-eight samples were collected from Lake Erie, …

A Translational Zebrafish Model To Study Breast Cancer Inflammation And Metastasis, Janice Tubman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Though modern medicine has greatly improved detection and treatment of breast cancer and overall survival rates are around 85%, this disease is still the second most fatal cancer in Canada. Once the cancer becomes metastatic, it is considered incurable and treatment strategies are directed towards maintenance of the disease rather than curing it. Another hurdle to breast cancer treatment is the severity of side effects from chemotherapeutics, for example cardiotoxicity and hepatotoxicity, that are sometimes fatal. Dexamethasone (Dex) is a synthetic glucocorticoid (GC) that has been shown to be effective at reducing the less severe side effects of chemotherapeutics, such …

Comparative Brain Morphology Of The Greenland And Pacific Sleeper Sharks And Its Functional Implications, Kara E. Yopak, Bailey C. Mcmeans, Christopher G. Mull, Kirk W. Feindel, Kit M. Kovacs, Christian Lydersen, Aaron T. Fisk, Shaun P. Collin

Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research Publications

In cartilaginous fishes, variability in the size of the brain and its major regions is often associated with primary habitat and/or specific behavior patterns, which may allow for predictions on the relative importance of different sensory modalities. The Greenland (Somniosus microcephalus) and Pacific sleeper (S. pacificus) sharks are the only non-lamnid shark species found in the Arctic and are among the longest living vertebrates ever described. Despite a presumed visual impairment caused by the regular presence of parasitic ocular lesions, coupled with the fact that locomotory muscle power is often depressed at cold temperatures, these sharks remain capable of capturing …

Self-Represented Litigants & Legal Doctrines Of “Vexatiousness” - An Interim Report From The National Self-Represented Litigants Project, Julie Macfarlane, Megan Campbell

National Self Represented Litigants Project

The Self-Represented Litigants Case Law Database Project (the “CLD” Project) is a research initiative of the National-Self-Represented Litigants Project and as such, an extension of Director Julie Macfarlane’s original 2013 Study on Self-Represented Litigants (“SRLs”). The CLD tracks emerging jurisprudence across Canada which affects SRLs. The development of the CLD was driven by the fact that no other organization in Canada was systematically tracking and analyzing case decisions on SRLs. To date, NSRLP researchers have identified more than 600 important cases that fall within our parameters (below) and over 360 Canadian decisions have been analyzed and entered into the database. …

A Hierarchical Machine Learning Model To Discover Gleason Grade-Specific Biomarkers In Prostate Cancer, Osama Hamzeh, Abedalrhman Alkhateeb, Julia Zhuoran Zheng, Srinath Kandalam, Crystal Leung, Govindaraja Atikukke, Dora Cavallo-Medved, Nallasivam Palanisamy, Luis Rueda

Biomedical Publications

(1) Background:One of the most common cancers that affect North American men and men worldwide is prostate cancer. The Gleason score is a pathological grading system to examine the potential aggressiveness of the disease in the prostate tissue. Advancements in computing and next-generation sequencing technology now allow us to study the genomic profiles of patients in association with their different Gleason scores more accurately and effectively. (2) Methods: In this study, we used a novel machine learning method to analyse gene expression of prostate tumours with different Gleason scores, and identify potential genetic biomarkers for each Gleason group. We obtained …

Automated Generation And Integration Of Autosar Ecu Configurations, Usha Sreeram

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Automotive Open System Architecture (AUTOSAR) is a system-level standard that is formed by the worldwide partnership of the automotive manufacturers and suppliers who are working together to develop a standardized Electrical and Electronic(E/E) framework and architecture for automobiles. The AUTOSAR methodology has two main activities: system configuration and the Electronic Control Unit (ECU) configuration. The system configuration is the mapping of the software components to the ECUs based on the system requirements. The ECU configuration process is an important part of the ECU software integration and generation. ECU specific information is extracted from the system configuration description and all the …

Exploring Equity Issues In Education: A Focus On The Rise Private Tutoring In Canada, Yang Xin

Major Papers

Canada has recently seen an explosion in the tutoring industry, in large part due to four key factors: increased immigration from countries where tutoring is popular, the expansion of tutoring franchises from America, parents’ lack of confidence in Canada’s public education, and an excess number of teaching professionals who struggle to find work in a crowded education field. Though the tutoring industry has helped to stimulate the economy, improve student outcomes, and support the transition of immigrants, international students, and refugees, many have concerns that it will widen an already problematic education gap. Thus, to understand the nuances of this …

Sixties Scoop, Historical Trauma, And Changing The Current Landscape About Indigenous People, Shandel Valiquette

Major Papers

Through analyzing current literature on the Sixties Scoop and how it frames it origins and causes, many describe it as primarily assimilatory, even while acknowledging the historical legacies that contributed to problems in Indigenous communities and families. This paper will analyze the various perspectives on the Sixties Scoop, and argue that it was a complex process, a result of historical trauma related to colonial efforts and not a single, unified policy focused on assimilating Indigenous people into mainstream culture.

In pulling the thread of historical trauma rather than assimilation, this paper traces the streams of the past which help to …

Using Tio2 To Optimize The Photocatalytic Degradation Of Kraft Black Liquor Using Response Surface Methodology, Zihan Wang

Major Papers

The Canadian pulp and paper industry has been concerned with reducing annual emissions of pollutants into water bodies, air and landfills. Black liquor is a major byproduct from pulp mills such as Kraft. Black liquor is utilized in boilers to produce steam and electricity. Black liquor is a low-value chemical and researchers have employed thermal and chemical processes to produce products such as oils, adhesives, and dispersants. In recent years, photocatalysis has become an alternative to degrade black liquor into short chain carbon chemicals.

This study aims to optimize the performance of black liquor photocatalytic degradation using the TiO_{2 …}

Facility Naming-Rights In Professional Sport: The Case Of Scotiabank Arena, Terence Eddy

Research Result Summaries

No abstract provided.

Ht-Umsa Physical Simulations Of Brake Rotor Metallurgical Processes, Adriana Domínguez Garcia

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The continuous demand from the automotive industry for enhanced properties in gray cast iron components, such as brake rotors, highlights the need for a faster development cycle for gray iron alloys. Current industrial practice involves producing a large quantity of the proposed composition for a full production run. It is an expensive undertaking due to the raw material and production time used. Physical simulation of the gray cast iron industrial process will decrease the time and cost for development of a new alloy. Current methodologies include thermal analysis and the extraction of mechanical-property samples, which were not developed for physical …

Vehicle Distance Detection Using Monocular Vision And Machine Learning, Maryam Samir Naguib Girgis Hanna

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With the development of new cutting-edge technology, autonomous vehicles (AVs) have become the main topic in the majority of the automotive industries. For an AV to be safely used on the public roads it needs to be able to perceive its surrounding environment and calculate decisions within real-time. A perfect AV still does not exist for the majority of public use, but advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) have been already integrated into everyday vehicles. It is predicted that these systems will evolve to work together to become a fully AV of the future. This thesis’ main focus is the combination …

Environmentally Conscious Machining Of Inconel 718: Surface Roughness, Tool Wear And Material Removal Rate Assessment, Sadaf Zahoor, Fahad Ameen, Walid Abdul-Kader

Mechanical, Automotive & Materials Engineering Publications

Flood cooling is a typical strategy used in the machining of difficult-to-cut materials where high temperatures are produced.Several environmental and health concerns are associated with the cutting fluids employed during this technique. Vegetable oil-based fluids appear to be the best substitute to conventional mineral/synthetic oils due to their environmentally friendly, biode-gradable, renewable, and less toxic properties. Therefore, this paper attempts to establish an environmentally conscious, flood-cooling alternative through replacing conventional fluids with a synthetic vegetable ester-based (Mecagreen 450) biodegradableoil to investigate the machinability aspects of Inconel 718. In addition to the cooling environment, cutting speed (vs), feed pertooth (fz), and …

Privacy-Preserving Statistical Analysis Of Health Data Using Paillier Homomorphic Encryption And Permissioned Blockchain, Mahdi Ghadamyari

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Blockchain is a decentralized and peer-to-peer ledger technology that adds transparency, traceability, and immutability to data. It has shown great promise in mitigating the interoperability problem and privacy concerns in the de facto electronic health record anagement systems and has recently received increasing attention from the healthcare industry. Several blockchain-based and decentralized health data management mechanisms have been proposed to improve the quality of care delivery to patients. Apart from care delivery, health data has other important applications, such as education, regulation, research, public health improvement, and policy sup- port. However, existing privacy acts prohibit health institutions and providers from …

Millimeter-Wave Cmos Digitally Controlled Oscillators For Automotive Radars, Iman Taha

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

All-Digital-Phase-Locked-Loops (ADPLLs) are ideal for integrated circuit implementations and effectively generate frequency chirps for Frequency-Modulated-Continuous-Wave (FMCW) radar. This dissertation discusses the design requirements for integrated ADPLL, which is used as chirp synthesizer for FMCW automotive radar and focuses on an analysis of the ADPLL performance based on the Digitally-Controlled-Oscillator (DCO) design parameters and the ADPLL configuration. The fundamental principles of the FMCW radar are reviewed and the importance of linear DCO for reliable operation of the synthesizer is discussed. A novel DCO, which achieves linear frequency tuning steps is designed by arranging the available minimum Metal-Oxide-Metal (MoM) capacitor in unique …

Attributed Graph Classification Via Deep Graph Convolutional Neural Networks, Susha Pozhampallan Suresh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

From social networks to biological networks, graphs are a natural way to represent a diverse set of real-world data. This research presents attributed graph convolutional neural network with a pooling layer (AGCP for short), a novel end-to-end deep neural network model which captures the higher-order latent attributes of weighted, labeled, undirected, attributed graphs of arbitrary size. The architecture of AGCP is an efficient variant of convolutional neural network (CNN) and has a linear filter function that convolves over the fixed topological structure of a graph to learn local and global attributes of the graph. Convolution is followed by a pooling …

Covalently Functionalized Sawdust For The Remediation Of Phosphate From Agricultural Wastewater, Daniel Meister, David Ure, Angela Awada, Jean-Claude Barrette, Joel Gagnon, Bluent Mutus, John F. Trant

Chemistry and Biochemistry Publications

Phosphate remediation from wastewater is rapidly becoming an ever more attractive process due to a combination of both the economic pressure of increasing phosphate scarcity and the environmental damage caused by untreated agricultural runoff. Ideally, remediated phosphate will be recoverable and would be able to be reused as fertilizer. Many different resins have been investigated, but due to the scale of the challenge, any feasible solution will involve the use of very inexpensive waste products as the solid support. Sawdust, functionalized with iron-binding ligands, is such a potential resin. Sawdust alone binds 0.3 g/kg of phosphate which is insufficient. Iron …

Exploring The Connections Between Streaming And Students' Self-Theories In An Ontario Elementary And Secondary Setting, Gregory John Driedger

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to explore the nature of the intersection between streaming and two self-theories or self-beliefs, namely Bandura’s (1997) concept of self-efficacy and Dweck’s (2006) theory of growth mindset. A sample of 178 elementary (Grade 6 to 8) students and 166 secondary students in both the academic and applied course pathways from the same Ontario community were selected to participate. Self-theories of participants were measured using Mindsetworks.com mindset survey and the Self-Efficacy Questionnaire for Children (SEQ-C) survey which was subdivided into measures of academic, social, emotional self-efficacy. SPSS software was used to analyze the results using …

Fpga-Based Acceleration Of The Self-Organizing Map (Som) Algorithm Using High-Level Synthesis, Mohammad Abdul Moin Oninda

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

One of the fastest growing and the most demanding areas of computer science is Machine Learning (ML). Self-Organizing Map (SOM), categorized as unsupervised ML, is a popular data-mining algorithm widely used in Artificial Neural Network (ANN) for mapping high dimensional data into low dimensional feature maps. SOM, being computationally intensive, requires high computational time and power when dealing with large datasets. Acceleration of many computationally intensive algorithms can be achieved using Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) but it requires extensive hardware knowledge and longer development time when employing traditional Hardware Description Language (HDL) based design methodology. Open Computing Language (OpenCL) is …

Stalin’S Foreign Policy “Shift”: Cautious Expansionism, Ussr-Dprk Relations 1945 – 1950 And The Origins Of The Korean War, Jacob Shuster

Major Papers

Despite initially denying Kim IL Sung’s requests for a military reunification in 1949, Josef Stalin decided to support an invasion of South Korea in 1950. This paper explores the origins of the Korean War and the roles of both the Soviet Civil Administration and Kim IL Sung in convincing Stalin that the invasion was necessary, and that it would be neither prolonged, nor involve American interference. Throughout the initial occupation of North Korea, Stalin preferred to maintain the status quo on the peninsula, as he was open to, but deeply suspicious of plans for reunification and restrained Kim’s ambitions. However, …

Energy Supply Chain Of Co-Firing System To Generate Electricity, Abinash Panda

Major Papers

The problem of air pollution on the streets of the national capital of India, New Delhi is a major concern. Majority of the pollutants are generally originated from either the vehicles on the roads or the burning of crops from the neighbouring states of the National Capital Region (NCR). To improve the condition of the air quality by the vehicles, implementation of the Electric Vehicles (EVs) in an energy supply chain is a suitable plan. The objective of this paper is to plan a supply chain of generation of electricity by the process of co-firing that prompts benefits both in …

‘Go Out Museums!’ Museums’ Political Relevance Within The Current Media Environment, Carolina Betancur Botero Ms.

Major Papers

At their best, museums are institutions that create transformative experiences for their visitors. Therefore, many scholars and museum professionals have advocated for museums that do not only display narratives through their exhibitions but also take part in social change. This task becomes even more relevant when digital platforms and social media, today’s predominant sources of information as well as prime providers of spaces for social and political interactions, have proven to have negative effects for society. Despite their beneficial outcomes, new media technologies promote commoditization, ephemerality, immediacy and individualism, effects that disturb the sense of solidarity, empathy and sense of …

The Concept Of The Global Subject In Adorno, Sebastian Kanally

Major Papers

Theodor W. Adorno makes the following claim in his 1962 essay “Progress”: “The possibility of progress, of averting the most extreme, total disaster, has migrated to this global subject alone. Everything else involving progress must crystalize around it.” While this is Adorno’s most explicit articulation of the importance of a global subject, it is not the only one. In multiple places across his work he makes reference to mankind’s current lack of a global subject, and the need for a global subject to develop and intervene. This paper weaves together the first systematic analysis of a “global subject [Gesamtsubjekt]” as …

Lukácsian Reification In The Twenty-First Century, Dominic Kenneth Mario Pizzolitto

Major Papers

This paper examines Lukácsian reification in order to assess its relevance for contemporary critical theory.

Chinese International Graduate Students’ Perspectives Of Individual Writing Consultations, Zhiqian Guo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

When entering graduate school, many Chinese international graduate students, particularly those in education programs, struggle to meet the new academic expectations they encounter (Huang & Klinger, 2006), particularly with respect to writing assignments as they are writing in an additional language at an academic level for the first time. To support these students, many universities offer writing support in the form of writing centres that offer one-on-one consultations. These programs are critical to give students the support they need to improve their academic outcomes and achieve their potential. However, these services face a number of issues, ranging from a lack …