Digital Commons Network^™

The Effects Of Maternal Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol And Cannabidiol Exposure On Fetal Heart Development In Mice, Gregory Robinson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Up to 22.6% of pregnant women consume cannabis during pregnancy despite the uncertainty of teratogenicity of the main ingredients in cannabis, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). This study tested the hypothesis that gestational THC and CBD exposure leads to heart abnormalities. Daily, oral THC exposure induced heart abnormalities in 68% of offspring with three main phenotypes including thickened semilunar valves, ventricular myocardial hypertrophy and hypoplastic coronary arteries in fetuses, and postnatal cardiac dysfunction. Altered gene expression of key cardiogenic regulators, increased proliferation, and reduced epicardial epithelial-to-mesenchymal-transition were demonstrated implicating potential mechanisms responsible for these abnormalities. Also, maternal CBD exposure resulted …

Protecting Health Data In A Pandemic: A Systematic Adversarial Threat Analysis Of Contact Tracing Apps, Leah Krehling

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In this thesis centralized, decentralized, Bluetooth, and GPS based applications of digital contact tracing were reviewed and assessed. Using privacy principles created by a contingent of security and privacy experts from across Canada, a metric of assessing an application’s privacy was created. An attack tree was built to assess the security of the contact tracing applications. Eighteen attacks were theorized against contact tracing applications currently in use. An application’s vulnerability to the attacks was measured using a scoring system developed for this purpose. The results of the security scores were used to create a metric for assessing the security of …

Impact Of Extremely Low-Frequency Magnetic And Electric Stimuli On Vestibular-Driven Outcomes, Nicolas Bouisset

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The vestibular system is extremely sensitive to electric fields (E-fields). Indeed, vestibular hair cells are graded potential cells and this property makes them very susceptible to small membrane potential modulations. Studies show that extremely low-frequency magnetic fields (ELF-MF) induced E-fields impact postural control in which the vestibular system plays an important role. However, the knowledge of whether this is indeed a vestibular specific effect is still pending.

Considering its crucial role and the specific neurophysiological characteristics of its hair cells, the vestibular system emerges as an ELF-MF likely target

The three studies presented in this thesis aimed to further address …

Bridging Thermochemical And Biochemical Conversion: Impact Of Biochar Addition On The Anaerobic Digestion Of Aqueous Pyrolysis Condensate, Neha Batta

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Profitable treatment of low value waste biomass is one of the biggest challenges of the industry. Where most of the current treatment strategies, such as pyrolysis, are efficient in complete breakdown of hard to synthesize, low value waste biomass such as lignocellulosic wastes, it leads to the generation of secondary waste thereby compromising its efficiency. The aim of this research is to utilize the aqueous pyrolysis condensate as a feedstock for anaerobic digestion, previously adapting the microbial consortia to the acidity and other potential organic inhibitors present in the APC, to produce energy in the form of biogas following the …

Effects Of City Growth On Tall Building Cladding Fatigue, Hang You

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

As city develops there will be changes in the aerodynamic characteristics due to varying building surrounding and topology. For example, the city growth around a tall building can cause an increase in wind load due to venturi or wake effects or decrease due to sheltering effects depending on the type of surrounding. The densification of cities will also increase the turbulence level due to wake effects. In the present study, the implication of these changes on the aerodynamic forces on cladding connections is investigated. With increased fluctuations in the wind loads, the cladding connections will also experience stress fluctuations, which …

Investigating The Impact Of Environmentally Relevant Imidazole Concentrations On The Antifungal Susceptibility And Community Composition Of Soil Fungi, Farhaan Kanji

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Miconazole and clotrimazole are environmentally-persistent drugs that are entrained into crop soils through the application of biosolids. There is concern that environmental exposure to such azole antifungals, which inhibit fungal growth by disrupting the production of the fungal cell membrane component ergosterol, promotes resistance in clinically or agriculturally relevant fungi. Thus, either environmentally-relevant or excessive levels of these drugs were applied to microplots over ten years and compared with drug-free plots. Overall, ergosterol quantification, plates counts, and identification of >250 fungal isolates showed lower fungal counts and species richness in plots receiving excessive drug amounts. In addition, fungi from treated …

Modeling And Simulation Of Concentric And Eccentric Tube Continuum Robots, Lexuan Wang

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Unlike conventional manipulators where the robot is actuated at discrete joints, continuum robots are actuated continuously in smooth curves. These robots are often dexterous and compact, allowing them to operate in constrained environments during minimally invasive medical interventions. Since the unconventional robot structure often consists of elastic or flexible materials, the corresponding kinematics formulation is significantly more challenging to derive and simulate. This thesis introduces two different but related continuum robot designs: the concentric tube robot (CTR) and the eccentric tube robot (ETR). These designs utilize multiple pre-curved and superelastic nitinol tubes to actuate the robot. This mechanism also leads …

The Genetic Determinants Of Complex Lipid And Lipoprotein Phenotypes, Jacqueline S. Dron

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the primary cause of death globally and is estimated to cause one-third of deaths in Canada. Each year, millions of Canadians are affected by CVD despite ongoing efforts to reduce risk through lifestyle modifications and pharmacological therapies. With the expected rise in CVD prevalence due to the obesity epidemic, we need to better understand the genetic basis of heritable, modifiable risk factors, including levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and triglyceride, for insights into future therapeutic treatments and risk prediction. Through the use of a targeted next-generation sequencing panel designed specifically to study lipid and metabolic …

Hemithioindigo-Based Photoswitchable Self- Complementary Hydrogen Bond Arrays, Suendues Noori

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Hydrogen bonded materials are slowly conquering grounds in the literature because of their dynamic features which stem from their reversible interactions. Incorporating the ability for light to chemically modify these interactions provides a unique template for innovative, efficient and self-healing materials. This thesis explores the design, synthesis, and characterization of nine derivatives of a well-known organic compound – hemithioindigo – with dual function; as a photoswitch and a novel self-complementary hydrogen bond array. The supramolecular complexes formed moderate to strong associations (63 M^-1 to 1100 M^-1) with spontaneous Gibbs free energy values (-10.3 kJ/mol to -17.3 kJ/mol) …

Digital Literacies And Competencies: Examining Teacher Candidates’ Achievement, Engagement, Attitudes, And Personalized Learning In Technology Enhanced Environments, Stefano Vacca

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Teachers and students are increasingly operating in classrooms where the presence of digital technology impacts both parties across numerous facets related to teaching and learning. In an attempt to comprehend this dynamic, the current research aimed to understand the relationship from the perspective of the educator, acknowledging that today’s teachers are tasked with guiding students to become global, 21st century citizens who are capable of appropriately engaging with the opportunities and challenges put forth by digital technology. Therefore, this research aimed to examine teacher candidates’ (TCs’) a) attitudes towards digital technology, b) ability to manifest personalized learning experiences, and c) …

Immigrant’S Personal Network In The Integration Process: A Case Study Of Ghanaian Immigrants’ In The Toronto Census Metropolitan Area, Emmanuel Kojo Kyeremeh

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation focuses on the integration of recent immigrants in receiving societies by analyzing their personal networks' contribution to this process. Although migration studies have stressed the importance of relationships or im/migrant networks in different spatial contexts, gaps exist in understanding this phenomenon. Specifically, studies on immigrants' networks' structure and composition that indicate their integration level in the host society is missing within the literature. This research, therefore, contributes to our understanding of personal networks. It considers the structure of immigrants’ network by examining the role of their migration project and context of reception towards developing ties in the host …

Characterization Of The Mechanical Performance Of The Ae44-2 And Ae44-4 High Pressure Die Cast Mg-Rare Earth Alloys, Bolin Fu

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis aims to study the local mechanical properties of high pressure die cast (HPDC) AE44-2 and AE44-4 alloys at 25˚C and 200˚C and their microstructures. The chemical composition of the precipitates and grain size, the effect of cooling rate on the grains, the relationship between the grain size and mechanical properties, and the creep resistance of these two HPDC alloys were studied and discussed.

In this thesis, the spherical micro-indentation, constant Berkovich indentation tests, and tensile tests were performed on the specimens at 25˚C and 200˚C to probe their stress-strain response and creep behavior. This study used a new …

Perspectives Of Canadian University Coaches On Integrating Sport Psychology And Mental Performance Consultants In Varsity Programs, Federico Cisneros Sánchez

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Recently, sport psychology has become a more popular resource for athletes and coaches when looking to increase performance. It is unknown how many Canadian universities utilize sport psychology services in their athletic programs. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with coaches of Canadian university varsity teams to learn about their opinions on sport psychology and mental performance consultants (MPCs). The research was approached from a pragmatic perspective. Results showed that MPCs are important to enhance performance and provide mental health resources. MPCs provide athletes with personal and leadership development, mental skills training, and mental health support. MPCs can also be a resource …

Automatically Classifying Non-Functional Requirements With Feature Extraction And Supervised Machine Learning Techniques, Mahtab Ezzatikarami

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Abstract. Context and Motivation: Non-functional requirements (NFRs) of a system need to be classified into different types such as usability, performance, etc. This would enable stakeholders to ensure the completeness of their work by extracting specific NFRs related to their expertise. Question/Problem: Because of the size and complexity of requirement specification documents, the manual classification of NFRs is time-consuming, labour-intensive, and error-prone. We thus need an automated solution that can provide a highly accurate and efficient categorization of NFRs. Principal ideas/results: In this investigation, using natural language processing and supervised machine learning (SML) techniques, we investigate with feature extraction techniques …

The Effect Of The Initial Structure On The System Relaxation Time In Langevin Dynamics, Omid Mozafar

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In recent decades, computer experiments have allowed an accurate and fundamental understanding of molecular mechanisms at the microscopic level, such as the process of relaxation at a stable physical state. However, computer simulations may sometimes produce non-physical results or relations due to the incompleteness of mathematical models describing physical systems. In this thesis, we have investigated whether the initial structure in a computer simulation affects the system relaxation time, which is denoted by τ_sys, in the Langevin NVT ensemble. We found that for an initial structure, which is inhomogeneous in the number density of atoms, the system relaxation …

One-Pot Synthesis Of Bicyclic Piperidines From Donor Acceptor Cyclopropanes, David G. Stephens

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The efficient synthesis of heterocyclic compounds is of great importance to organic chemistry. One method for achieving efficiency is through the use and development of one-pot reactions. This thesis describes the planning and development of an extension to the tandem cyclopropane opening Conia-ene reactivity previously reported. A search for a substrate capable of undergoing the reaction was undertaken and the reaction was optimized. The highest yielding conditions tested used catalytic Sc(OTf)₃ and superstoichiometric ZnBr₂, but other catalyst systems also worked. The optimized reaction conditions tolerated 6-membered rings well in addition to 7-membered rings in some rotationally restricted …

Apology And Reconciliation In Settler States, Nicholas B. Murphy

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation offers a normative account of how we should conceive of reconciliation between Indigenous people(s), states qua states, and their non-Indigenous citizens. It mines pre-theoretic understandings of reconciliation to determine appropriate governing norms for reconciled relationships, the normative expectations that attend these, and what processes or initiatives might be necessary to achieve them. In liberal democratic settler states like Canada, Australia, the United States and New Zealand the desirability of reconciliation is acknowledged by all parties. However, considerable ambiguity surrounds the concept ‘reconciliation.’ This is problematic because concepts influence social discourse, and the rhetoric of reconciliation not only guides …

Feasibility Of Twisted Coiled Polymer Actuators For Use In Upper Limb Wearable Rehabilitation Devices, Brandon P.R. Edmonds

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Throughout your lifetime, it is nearly impossible to avoid at least one musculoskeletal condition that requires rehabilitation, and for a world containing billions of people, the costs associated with these conditions have become a huge economic burden. Nevertheless, the scientific community has become increasingly aware of the growing potential for wearable mechatronic systems to assist with upper-limb musculoskeletal rehabilitation; however, one limiting factor to their clinical acceptance lies in the development of actuation solutions. Conventional actuators are rigid and cylindrical in nature, requiring additional features to provide the proper forces, torques, and motion direction, required for human interaction. Another type …

Radiometric Correction Of Multispectral Cameras Using Photosensor Irradiance For Agronomy Applications, Nicholas S. Mitchell

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Cloud coverage has a significant impact on the reflectance maps generated by multispectral cameras mounted on UAV's in small farm settings. The current approach is to calibrate the camera once before every flight and use the radiometric calibration map for the entire flight. In this work we have designed and built a downwelling and upwelling photosensor to work in sync with our custom multispectral camera. A dual reflectance panel implementation for the time dependent radiometric calibration of the multispectral camera is completed. The solar spectral irradiance curve is approximated using the current measurements from the downwelling photosensor and the ground …

Biodegradability Of Cellulose And Its Impact On Oxygen Transfer Efficiency And Biological Nutrients Removal, Ahmed Shawki Ahmed

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Cellulose from toilet paper is a significant fraction of particulate organics, which is recoverable. For the first time, comprehensive mapping and tracking the fate of cellulose across various unit processes at full-scale in two water resource recovery facilities located in North America and Europe was undertaken. The influent cellulose content accounted for approximately one-third of the total suspended solids (TSS). More than 80% of the raw wastewater cellulose was captured in primary treatment. The high cellulose content of the primary sludge accounting for 17%-35% of the TSS facilitates cellulose recovery. Cellulose biodegradation efficiency varied between 70%-90% of the primary effluent, …

Regional Integration: Physician Perceptions On Electronic Medical Record Use And Impact In South West Ontario, Sadiq Raji

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Regional initiatives in the health care context in Canada are typically organized and administered along geographic boundaries or operational units. Regional integration of Electronic Medical Records (EMR) has been continuing across Canadian provinces in recent years, yet the use and impact of regionally integrated EMRs are not routinely assessed and questions remain about their impact on and use in physicians’ practices. Are stated goals of simplifying connections and sharing of electronic health information collected and managed by many health services providers being met? What are physicians’ perspectives on the use and impact of regionally integrated EMR? In this thesis, I …

(End)Zones And (Out)Fields Of Production: Contemporary Conditions Of Labor And Artistic Critique, Stephanie G. Anderson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In a 2013 exhibition publication titled It’s the Political Economy, Stupid!, John Roberts made the observation that “Over the last ten years we have become witness to an extraordinary assimilation of art theory and practice into the categories of labor and production.” Whereas once art claimed for itself a critical capacity in relation to the larger system of capitalist domination by its status as a putatively ‘autonomous’ sphere of production from which it leveraged its difference and critique, today it is largely acknowledged that there is no longer any such ‘outside’ to be aspired to. If, in the recent …

Intensification Of Clostridium Pasteurianum Fermentation Producing N-Butanol From Glycerol Using Microfiltration Cell Recycle, Colin W. Couper

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This work demonstrates lab scale intensification of the fermentation of glycerol to 1-butanol using Clostridum pasteurianum, starting with simulation and comparison of different cell recycle arrangements, development of a cell recycle apparatus with an existing bioreactor, and demonstration of fermentation with the final system. Fermentations performed with the completed system showed that the cell recycle system was not significantly inhibitory to fermentation, and achieved a maximum apparent cell dry weight of 3.14g/L and a maximum butanol productivity of 1.16g/Lh.

Applying Front End Compiler Process To Parse Polynomials In Parallel, Amha W. Tsegaye

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Parsing large expressions, in particular large polynomial expressions, is an important task for computer algebra systems. Despite of the apparent simplicity of the problem, its efficient software implementation brings various challenges. Among them is the fact that this is a memory bound application for which a multi-threaded implementation is necessarily limited by the characteristics of the memory organization of supporting hardware.

In this thesis, we design, implement and experiment with a multi-threaded parser for large polynomial expressions. We extract parallelism by splitting the input character string, into meaningful sub-strings that can be parsed concurrently before being merged into a single …

Risk Stratification For Treatment Decisions In People At Ultra-High Risk For Psychosis: A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis, Olajumoke Marissa Ologundudu

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

People with psychotic disorders have long-term negative health outcomes and contribute large health system costs. Intervening among those at ultra-high risk (UHR) for psychosis may prevent or mitigate risk for psychotic disorder; however, it is unclear if we should treat all UHR individuals or only those above a certain risk threshold. The objectives were to systematically review the literature on the cost-effectiveness of UHR programs, and to conduct an economic evaluation of a risk stratification strategy, where treatment decisions are based on the probability of transitioning to psychotic disorder. Our systematic review found that UHR programs are potentially cost-effective. The …

Geo-Structural Analysis Of Integral Abutment Bridges, Biyi Li

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Integral abutment bridges are jointless bridges where bridge decks and girders are integrated with abutments. The longitudinal displacements and rotations of the bridge are partially accommodated by the soil-pile system wherein the soil surrounding the piles generates active and reactive lateral forces when the piles deflect due to the movement of the superstructure. Since the soil stress-strain responses are inherently nonlinear, the pile deflection and the soil stiffness are interdependent. Consequently, evaluating soil-pile interactions requires a detailed geo-structural analysis. There are two common approaches used to idealize the soil-pile interactions for laterally loaded piles: the p-y and continuum mechanics approaches …

Intelligent And Low Overhead Network Synchronization Over Large-Scale Industrial Internet Of Things Systems, Pengyi Jia

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

With the extensive development of information and communication technologies and vertical industry applications, industrial IoT (IIoT) systems are expected to enable a wide variety of applications, including advanced manufacturing, networked control, and smart supply chain, which all exclusively hinge on the efficient cooperation and coordination among the involved IIoT machines and infrastructures. The ubiquitous connection among IIoT entities and the associated exchange of collaborative information necessitate the achievement of accurate network synchronization, which can guarantee the temporal alignment of the critical information. To enhance the temporal correlation of heterogeneous devices in large-scale IIoT systems, this thesis aims at designing industry-oriented …

Hydrothermal Alteration Footprint Of The Monument Bay Project, Manitoba, Canada, Juliana Casali

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The Monument Bay (MB) project is a greenstone hosted gold deposit, located in NE Manitoba. Previous studies show significant gold grades in the area. This research aims to characterize and delineate the mineralogical and geochemical characteristics of the hydrothermal footprint and mineralization of MB. Combined synchrotron X-ray fluorescence, synchrotron X-ray diffraction, petrography, and electron microprobe techniques were used to support this study. Results indicate sericite and carbonate are the main hydrothermal alteration minerals with homogeneity in their mineralogical, textural, and geochemical characteristics across the deposit. Also, a strong relationship between Au, sericite alteration, and arsenopyrite grains is observed associating the …

Evolution And Flow Of Vapors In A Fluidized Bed, Hansen Mangaranap Silitonga

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Vaporization of injected liquid is a key process in many industrial fluidized beds. In Fluid Cokers, for example, quicker vaporization would increase liquid product yield and reduce fouling. A new experimental method was developed to measure the vaporization rate by injecting liquid for a certain duration to reach a constant vaporization rate while monitoring changes in pressure and vapor composition in the exhaust pipe of the fluidization column. Three processes can delay vaporization in a fluidized bed: heat flux from hot-dry particles to wet particles, vapor saturation, and wet agglomerate formation. Operating a spray nozzle at a very high atomization …

Development Of Multi-Functional Molecular Systems For Applications On Nanomaterial Surfaces, Jun Hyeong Park

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The glutathione-mediated, retro Michael-type addition reaction is demonstrated to take place at the interface of water-soluble, maleimide-functionalized gold nanoparticles (Maleimide-AuNP). The retro Michael-type addition can be blocked by hydrolyzing the Michael addition thioether adduct at the nanoparticle’s interface. This procedure “locks” the molecule of interest onto the Maleimide-AuNP template, ensuring no loss of the molecular cargo from the nanocarrier. On the other hand, the glutathione-mediated retro Michael-type addition reaction can be exploited for delivering a molecular payload. The Michael donor, 4-mercaptophenylacetic acid was modified with a terminal azide, allowing for addition of cargo through strain-promoted alkyne azide cycloadditions with various …