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Pre-Session Pairing Impacts On Compliance, Britton Dallas

Research Papers

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a developmental disability with persistent deficits in communication, social interactions, and the occurrence of repetitive or restricted patterns of behavior. Individuals with ASD also commonly engage in challenging behaviors. Early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI), based on applied behavioral analysis (ABA), is a recommended treatment for children with ASD to address these deficits and excesses. Challenging behaviors in those with ASD have been derived by the presentation of instructions. To circumvent challenging behaviors during instruction periods, research has recommended that pre-session pairing should occur prior to initiating demands. In the present study, three children diagnosed with …

Still, We Thrive: Understanding How Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, And Other Men Who Have Sex With Men (Gbtmsm) Experience Structural Barriers & Facilitators To Wellness, Lucas Gergyek

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Historically and concurrently, structural violence has been a significant force influencing the sexual health and broader health of gay, bisexual, transgender and other men who have sex with men (GBTMSM). Yet to date, the majority of projects exploring the health inequities facing GBTMSM have focused on intrapsychic and behavioural factors as most related to poor health outcomes. As well, these studies are sometimes deficits focused, and fail to evaluate how GBTMSM continue to thrive, and maintain positive health. As a result, the ways in which systems and policies underlie and perpetuate health inequities facing GBTMSM have been somewhat obscured. Connectedly, …

I Am Queer And Asian: The Crossroad Of Race And Lgbtqia+ Identity Among Queer Asian Canadian Youth And The Impacts Of The Covid-19 Pandemic, Kenny Chee

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

LGBTQIA+ Asian youth face unique challenges due to their intersecting identities. Utilizing Asian Critical Race Theory and the Integration Model of Stress and Trauma in LGBTQIA+ Asians, LGBTQIA+ Asian youth are likely to experience detrimental mental health outcomes due to the stigmatization within their Asian culture and racial discrimination from the LGBTQIA+ communities. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated existing challenges because of the closure of community spaces and increased hate crimes against Asians. Nonetheless, research on the intersectional experiences of LGBTQIA+ Asians in Canada, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic is sparse. Thus, to address this gap, I …

Examining Foot And Lower Leg Muscular Activation During Slip Recovery, Keara Sutherland

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Slips during gait are the leading cause of falls and subsequent serious injury in young and older adults. Reactive balance responses generated by the lower limb muscles can restore balance and minimize the chance of experiencing a fall. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of the deep muscles in the lower leg and muscles within the foot during recovery from an unexpected slip perturbation. We hypothesized that lower leg musculature and intrinsic foot muscles would exhibit an earlier onset, longer duration, and increased magnitude during slips compared to level walking and that muscle activity would have …

Employees’ Reactions To Their Supervisors’ (Lack Of) Discretionary Adjustments In Performance Evaluations, Joanna Andrejkow

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The purpose of my dissertation is to investigate how employees react to their supervisors’ decisions not to use ex-post discretionary adjustments to mitigate the effects that negative unexpected events have on their bonuses. To address this objective, I pose the following research question: Will the level of interdependence inherent within the compensation of multiple employees (i.e., compensation interdependence) and the likelihood the event will reoccur (i.e., future event likelihood) affect employees’ reactions (future effort and workplace deviance) when they don’t receive ex-post discretionary adjustments to mitigate the effects of negative events?

I address my research question using an experiment where …

Disrupting And Expanding The Discourse: Palliative Care Clinicians' Experiences With Patients' Non-Physical Suffering, Maxxine Rattner

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

While one of the primary aims of palliative care is to prevent and relieve suffering, both physical and non-physical, research to date has been very limited re: clinicians’ experiences with patients’ non-physical suffering (e.g., suffering that may be psychological, emotional, social, spiritual and/or existential in nature); both how clinicians work with/respond to this kind of suffering in their day-to-day work, and the effect of this aspect of their work on clinicians themselves. No research to date has considered the impact of palliative care’s dominant non-physical suffering discourse — which presents the relief of non-physical suffering as falling along a binary …

Vapourized Cannabis Extract Administration Impairs Memory And Alters Neural Activity In Laboratory Rats, Megan Chladny

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Although people have smoked cannabis for millennia, administration of cannabis by heating the dried plant material or distilled extracts to a temperature just below the combustion point (i.e., vapourization or "vaping") has rapidly increased over the past few years (Javadi-Payder, Cole, and Taffe, 2018; Manwell, Charchoglyan, Brewer, Matthews, Heipel, and Mallet, 2014). Conversely, most of the cannabinoid research using rodent models has used parenteral routes of administration to examine the effects of purified cannabis extracts such as ∆⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), making it difficult to directly compare laboratory research to human drug use. Building on previous studies showing that THC …

Winter Dynamics Of Storm Water Management Ponds And Winter Tolerance In Three Aquatic Plant Species, Patrick Strzalkowski

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The vast majority of the research into the performance of stormwater management ponds (SWMPs) has been performed in warm regions or during the warmer seasons in temperate regions. It is presumed that SWMPs are inactive in the winter as any potential stormwater is trapped in snow and ice. The main goal of this thesis was to test this presumption and to study the dynamics and performance of three SWMPs during the winter. Remote water level loggers were installed into the three SWMPs and daily grab samples from the influents and effluents were taken and analyzed for total phosphorus (TP), chloride, …

Assessment Of Stream Metabolism And Associated Environmental Drivers In The Greiner Lake Watershed, Nunavut, Canada, Nicole Gotkowski

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Stream metabolism is an ecological process that can be monitored to assess carbon cycling and productivity within a stream ecosystem. GPP (gross primary productivity) is measured as oxygen produced by autotrophs and ER (ecosystem respiration), which is measured by oxygen depleted by all living organisms. Complications arise when estimating GPP and ER in the Arctic because most methods require a period of darkness when GPP ceases, however, summer regimes of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) do not reach zero. Furthermore, natural diffusion of oxygen from the atmosphere (k) must be accounted for but this requires extensive field work, thus posing problems …

Assessing The Biocatalytic Promiscuity Of Pep- Transformations For Geminal-Difluorination, Eloy Jose Torres Garcia

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Fluorine is the most electronegative chemical element and can drastically change molecular properties, such as drug pharmacokinetics and agrochemical half-life. Although a great deal of progress is occurring in synthetic methods to access various organofluorines, these methods struggle with harsh conditions and limited substrate scope. Biocatalytic approaches offer the potential to access organofluorines that are difficult or impossible with the current methodology. Phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) is a central metabolite and biosynthetic precursor for diverse molecules. Phosphoenol pyruvate mutase (Ppm) catalyses the interconversion of Phosphonopyruvate (PnPy) to Phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP). This research successfully expressed and …

Contrasting Seasonal Cycling Of Arsenic In A Series Of Subarctic Shield Lakes With Different Morphometric Properties, Jeremy Harbinson

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The subarctic shield near Yellowknife, Northwest Territories (NWT), is populated with thousands of small lakes (<1.5 km²) and several large lakes. Historic mining activities in the region have left a legacy of environmental impacts and widespread arsenic (As) contamination in both aquatic and terrestrial environments. In particular, several small subarctic lakes near Yellowknife have been previously documented to be contaminated with high levels of As. Subarctic lakes are characterized by seasonal ice-cover that can persist for more than half of the year, yet little is known about the under-ice spatial and seasonal dynamics of As cycling. The objective of …

Distinctiveness And Similarity: How The Sub-Trait Facets Of The Big Five Self-Organize To Create Personality Types, Jonathan Thiessen

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The belief that people can be placed within a personality typology has persisted for millennia. At least as far back as Hippocrates (ca. 460 BCE–370 BCE) people were believed to be of a kind based on the four humors—blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. Since then, there have been many conceptions of personality typologies. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the Enneagram of Personality are likely the most well-known personality typologies among the general public. Despite their wide public usage, neither typology boasts strong empirical support. However, psychology continues to investigate personality for evidence of a typology of personality. In …

Differences In Drifting Invertebrate Communities Across Arctic Ecozones And The Influence On Potential Growth Of Grayling (Thymallus Arcticus), Charles Chanyi

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Invertebrate drift is a key process that potentially affects multiple levels of food web organization within stream environments. However, our understanding of the mechanistic drivers of drift in high latitude streams and subsequent bottom-up control that drift may have on fish predators in these environments remains understudied. This project aimed to gain the baseline knowledge of how drift functions across two major high latitude ecozones, the boreal forest and tundra, and how those possible differences in drifting community characteristics may impact drift-feeding Arctic grayling (Thymallus arcticus). These objectives were accomplished by characterizing stream environments across both ecozones, sampling …

The Design And Characterization Of Gold Nanoclusters As Elementary Building Blocks, Heather Gaebler

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Gold nanoclusters with diameters in the quantum size regime (< ~2 nm) are promising building blocks for the design of novel nanomaterials as they exhibit unique size-dependent properties that can be altered and fine-tuned. The research outlined in this PhD thesis employs density functional theory to construct and analyze small ligand-protected cage and rod-shaped nanoclusters. Chapter 2 reports stable halide-protected gold nanocages that were engineered to have a closed-shell valence electron count of 18. This study finds that nanocages comprised of 19 and 20 gold atoms can be converted into stable magic number species containing 18 valence electrons by modifying their charged states via adsorption of halide ligands to the cage’s surface. Chapter 3 reports stable ligand-protected gold nanoclusters with a tetrahedral Au₄ core that were engineered to have a closed-shell valence electron count of 2. This study investigates the structural and electronic effects of halide and alkoxy ligands on the tetrahedral nanocluster and concludes that the results support the broader conclusion that it’s possible to fine-tune the stability and electronic properties of small gold nanoclusters using appropriate ligands. Chapter 4 reports stable gold nanorods that have diameters in the quantum regime that were constructed from elementary building blocks that contain “halide-staples”. This study presents different orientations of the “halide-staple” motifs on …

Exploring The Effectiveness Of Ecological Momentary Assessment And Video At Eliciting The Impact Of Park Features On Human Health And Well-Being In A Protected Area Context, Katelyn O'Bright

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

It is increasingly recognized that contact with nature in parks and other forms of protected areas provides benefits to visitors’ physical, mental, social, spiritual, and intellectual health and well-being. However, the methods used to assess these outcomes, including the influence of different environmental features that lead to these benefits, is under-researched. To address this gap, this study used a mixed methods design to explore the effectiveness of using Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) and video to assess the impact of various park features on the self-perceived (subjective) health and well-being of visitors. Participants were prompted by a mobile application on their …

An Exploration Of The Link Between Vertebral Endplate Fracture, Velocity, And Health Of The Intervertebral Disc., John Mcmorran

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The capacity for fractures to manifest in the growth cartilage of the adolescent human spine is well documented, but much of the knowledge available regarding such fractures remains retrospective and is largely composed of small case series made up of relatively few participants. In-vitro tissue testing has demonstrated that pressurization of the intervertebral disc’s nucleus pulposus significantly contributes to the generation of growth plate fractures. However, a comprehensive biomechanical investigation of the mechanical consequences for the intervertebral disc when exposed to ring apophyseal (growth plate) fractures at different velocities remains to be demonstrated.

The first two experiments of the present …

Nitrogen: Both A Potential Stimulator And Suppressor Of Cyanobacterial Blooms In Temperate Lakes, Catherine Goltz

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Cyanobacterial blooms are complex phenomenon that are impacted and controlled by various factors such as lake depth, air temperature, wind, and nutrient loading. Nutrients such as phosphorus, nitrogen and iron all have very differing effects on cyanobacterial blooms. While phosphorus and iron are known to drive cyanobacterial biomass, nitrogen has been observed to have a direct impact on toxin synthesis. Nitrogen exists in the environment in many different forms such as atmospheric N₂, in inorganic forms such as nitrate and ammonium as well as in organic forms such as urea which can all affect cyanobacterial bloom development differently. …

Exploring The Membrane Protein And Peptide Interactions Of Mitochondrial And Bacterial Lipid Systems, George Saudan

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This study aims to expand the understanding of interactions between membrane lipids and proteins, and relate it to their biological functions in two experimental systems. The first system focuses on the interaction and conformation of a membrane protein Uncoupling Protein 4 (UCP4) in mitochondrial inner membrane lipids, in the absence and presence of cardiolipin; a lipid specific to mitochondrial inner membranes. The second system considers the interaction and conformation of a cell penetrating peptide, Penetratin, which can interact with both mammalian and bacterial cells. A N- and C-termini protected form of this 16-meric peptide (Pen2) was used to explore its …

A Closer Look At The Role Of Precipitation And Air-Sea Gas Exchange Of Circumpolar Waters In The Eastern Amundsen Sea, Antarctica, Virginia Cousens

Open Access Master's Theses

Pine Island Glacier in the remote Amundsen Sea has exhibited some of the most pronounced thinning and retreat in Western Antarctica in recent decades, resulting in significant influx of freshwater to the region. These dynamic changes are caused by climate sensitive processes from warming ocean currents to changing air temperature. Glacial melt in this region has been thought to dominate the freshwater budget, but meltwater tracers suggest precipitation may also be significant in terms of freshwater flux. Here, we take a closer look at the magnitude of precipitation derived from oxygen-18 and noble gases as freshwater tracers and seek to …

Exploratory Analyses Of American Lobster Habitat Preferences And Catchability In Ventless Trap Surveys, Annabelle Leahy

Open Access Master's Theses

Numerous factors must be considered in efforts to rebuild sustainable stock levels of the Southern New England (SNE) lobster stock including changing uses of marine space, such as the growth of the offshore wind industry, and stressors such as rising ocean temperatures. These factors may change the species’ habitat use and could further impact the ability of the region to support a healthy lobster population. This work uses data from pre-wind farm construction ventless trap surveys to further characterize the suitable habitat of the SNE lobster stock and to examine the effects of survey design, namely trap position and trap …

A Case Study Of White Shark Tourism In Cape Cod: Conservation And Management Considerations For A Growing Industry, Letty Cass

Open Access Master's Theses

In the past ten years, Cape Cod, Massachusetts has become a notable hot spot for white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) aggregation, which can be attributed to an increase of their food source, the gray seal. This increase in white sharks has had many positive and negative impacts on the community. In recent years, some businesses have taken advantage of the increased white shark presence by offering shark viewing tours directly off the coast of Cape Cod. This study investigated the growth and development of the shark tourism industry by conducting eleven semi-structured interviews with members of the shark tourism …

Environmental Drivers Of Phytoplankton Abundance And Community Size Composition Across Thermal Regimes In The U.S. Northeast Continental Shelf Ecosystem, Rowan Murphy Cirivello

Open Access Master's Theses

Phytoplankton are a diverse group of photosynthetic microorganisms and are critical components of global biogeochemical processes. Rapid changes in the U.S. Northeast Shelf (NES), a region where multiple marine heatwaves have occurred and is warming faster than the global ocean, may have far-reaching effects on ecosystems and biogeochemical processes; this study seeks to describe how these changes impact the drivers of phytoplankton abundance and community size composition within this region. Environmental drivers were characterized using multivariate modeling via partial least squares regression (PLSR) and the importance of each predictor variable was determined via variable influence on projection (VIP) scores. To …

The Response Of Benthic Communities In Narragansett Bay To Changing Nitrogen Input And Temperature, Shaina Harkins

Open Access Master's Theses

Marine ecosystem changes are often driven by different forces simultaneously, making it challenging to evaluate the individual contributions of each force. In Narragansett Bay, nitrogen input from wastewater treatment facilities (WWTF) was successfully decreased by 50% from 2005 to 2013. In the last 50 years, surface water temperature in the Bay has also increased by 1.6°C. The response of the benthic community to either of these changes has yet to be determined. We replicated the historical methodology of diver collected cores for infaunal macrofauna, organisms living in sediment, and included beam trawl sampling to catch larger, more mobile epifauna, organisms …

Developing A Low-Cost Stereo Imaging System For Quantitative Visual Modeling Of Marine Environments, Alexandra T. Runyan

Open Access Master's Theses

Structure-from-Motion (SfM) photogrammetry has become an increasingly useful tool in recent years for underwater surveys of seafloor environments. The resulting digital 3D reconstructions from SfM provide rich information for quantifying changes in benthic communities and allow for more effective long-term monitoring and conservation efforts. In coastal waters, the current method involves divers placing physical ground control points (GCPs) and scale-bars on the substrate, swimming in a boustrophedon pattern over the substrate, and taking several overlapping images with high-cost digital cameras. The necessity of GCPs and divers when using a single camera greatly limits the depths in which spatially rectified SfM …

Power And Sample Size Calculations For Evaluating Spillover Effects In Networks With Non-Randomized Interventions, Ke Zhang

Open Access Master's Theses

Determining the appropriate sample size that is needed to achieve a desired level of statistical power is an integral aspect of study design, as it ensures that studies are adequately powered and that their results are reliable and meaningful. Adequate statistical power can also address some practical and ethical considerations. Various methodologies for power and sample size calculations have been developed for distinct types of studies. However, the implications for power when estimating spillover effects in sociometric network-based studies with non-randomized interventions (SNS-NRIs) remain inadequately explored. In this study, we first conducted a series of simulations to evaluate how the …

Recovering The Full Network Using A Sampling Bias Adjustment In Sampled Network, Ryan Humphreys

Open Access Master's Theses

This project aimed to investigate the differences in terms of network structural characteristics between full and sampled networks and to develop a new weighted generalized estimating equations model (WGEE) in order to mitigate the sampling bias and obtain less biased sample estimates for model coefficients and standard errors. The applications of such an approach are of interest in the field of network analysis and public health studies. The Transmission Reduction Intervention Project (TRIP) is an HIV study using risk networks and is a key motivator for this work. Two other motivating examples were constructed where it was found that sampled …

Analysis Of Turkey Reovirus Using Machine Learning, Maryam Kafikang

Open Access Master's Theses

Avian reoviruses continue to cause disease in turkeys with varied pathogenicity and tissue tropism. Turkey enteric reovirus (TERV) has been identified as a causative agent of enteritis or inapparent infections in turkeys. The new emerging variants of turkey reovirus tentatively named as turkey arthritis reovirus (TARV) and turkey hepatitis reovirus (THRV) are linked to tenosynovitis/arthritis and hepatitis, respectively. Turkey arthritis and hepatitis reoviruses are causing significant economic losses to the turkey industry. These infections can lead to poor weight gain, uneven growth, poor feed conversion, increased morbidity and mortality, and reduced marketability of commercial turkeys. To combat these issues, it …

On The Utility Of Multi-Species Foraminifera-Bound Δ15n Records For Subtropical Front Migration Analysis, Shalan Mcdonagh

Open Access Master's Theses

>The Subtropical front (STF) is an area of intense mixing between the cold Southern Ocean and the warm subtropical South Indian Ocean. On interglacial-glacial timescales the STF migrates, altering surface chemical and biological conditions as it moves. A recent study interpreted this migration through changes in the isotopic composition of nitrogen in the surface ocean during the Last Glacial Period by measuring the isotopic composition of nitrogen of foraminifera-bound nitrogen in a single species of foraminifera. Relying on a single species interpretation in this dynamic mixing zone may bias toward species-related ecological preferences. Here we explore the possibility that measuring …

Blue Carbon And Microplastic Sequestration In Coastal Habitats Of The Philippines, Emily Hall

Open Access Master's Theses

Climate change and human development pose significant threats to coastal ecosystems, and an understanding of the history of these ecosystems is necessary to assess potential climate mitigation and coastal resiliency strategies. The high-resolution histories in coastal vegetated habitats, enabled by high sedimentation rates, record long-term sequestration of below-ground carbon as well as the history of pollutants such as microplastics. Rates of sequestration, in addition to bulk storage estimates, are needed to inform future management decisions. This study documents organic carbon and microplastic concentrations and accumulation rates from five distinct sites in the southern Philippines. The carbon and plastic records are …

Early Life History Of American Lobsters (Homarus Americanus) In Coastal Southern New England Waters, Declan James Mccormick

Open Access Master's Theses

The Southern New England (SNE) American lobster (Homarus americanus) stock, previously one of the largest fisheries in the region, has suffered a significant decline since the early 2000s and is now severely depleted. The SNE lobster stock has struggled to recover and is currently experiencing recruitment failure, with a population bottleneck occurring between the spawner and recruit life stages. The objective of this project was to quantify the abundance and spatial distribution of larval and early benthic phase lobsters in coastal Rhode Island (RI) waters to investigate current recruitment processes. Field sampling for larval and juvenile lobsters occurred during the …