Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Using Spatial Methods To Analyse Anthropogenic Predation Risk And Movement Ecology Of White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus Virginianus), Rhiannon D. Kirton

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Hunting has been used as a central tool by wildlife managers to maintain populations of game species, however, we still lack a good understanding of exactly how hunting influences deer biology. Technological advances in GPS data over the last two decades now enable us to perform more detailed analysis on the effects of human hunters on wildlife populations. This research explores the spatial ecology of hunters and White-tailed deer in the Cross Timbers ecoregion of Oklahoma. Using new statistical methodologies to analyse simultaneous GPS tracking data on deer and hunters to study their spatial interactions. The results show how new …

How Can Local Transitional Justice Mechanisms Work Towards Measures Of Non-Recurrence?, Isaac Bayor

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation examines questions of local agency and inclusion. It develops a conceptual understanding of whether, and if so how, local customary justice mechanisms could serve as guarantees of non-recurrence. It looks at how grassroots practices of “justice” could be utilized at the community level to deter the commission of future abuses and prevent the repetition of violent conflict, especially where the state has been completely absent. It specifically explores Acholi indigenous and customary practices of peacemaking and justice in Northern Uganda to understand how local practices could secure a lasting peace and cement communities’ commitment to peaceful coexistence.

While …

Alighting: A Phenomenology And Ethics Of Sight And Touch In The Videocall, Liam Morantz

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis investigates from a phenomenological perspective how it is that I am able to share a space with my brother, Kyle, by way of the videocalling application FaceTime. While the thesis uses the personal as a starting point, it then draws on Merleau-Ponty, the tradition of critical phenomenology, and Media Studies to argue that the one and the other can share a ‘space’ through the screen, despite that they ostensibly only have mutual access to their auditory and visual environments. Drawing heavily on Merleau-Ponty and other contemporary phenomenologists, the thesis takes space and communication to be two different sides …

Improving Developing Countries’ Health Information Systems Capacity For Infectious Disease Pandemic Responses: A Case Study Of The Ebola Virus Disease And The Coronavirus Disease Pandemics, Uche Ikenyei

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

There is increasing evidence to demonstrate that current information system theoretical models meant to assess the success of the health information systems (HIS) lack the applicable theoretical underpinning suitable for developing countries. This stems partly from a theory-evidence gap where theoretical models developed in the West are applied in developing country contexts but lack tailoring to localized, contextual realities. Therefore, this study addresses this gap by enhancing the DeLeon and McLean's information system success model with six contextual factors peculiar to the infectious disease HISs in a developing country context.

This study took place in two developing countries, Liberia and …

Essays In Financial Asset Pricing, Dillon Ross Huddleston

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Three essays in financial asset pricing are given; one concerning the partial differential equation (PDE) pricing and hedging of a class of continuous/generalized power mean Asian options, via their (optimal) Lie point symmetry groups, leading to practical pricing formulas. The second presents high-frequency predictions of S&P 500 returns via several machine learning models, statistically significantly demonstrating short-horizon market predictability and economically significantly profitable (beyond transaction costs) trading strategies. The third compares profitability between these [(mean) ensemble] strategies and Asian option Δ-hedging, using results of the first. Interpreting bounds on arithmetic Asian option prices as ask and bid values, hedging profitability …

Bed Particle Dispersion And Scour In The San Juan (Pacheedaht) River, Meghan Sauro

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

As part of a larger river restoration project, bed particle dispersion was tracked at pool tailouts where salmon spawning is known to occur in the San Juan (Pacheedaht) River, B.C. Mobility and pathlengths of surface and sub-surface radio-tagged particles was characterized in three reaches over two deployment years in relation to annual channel change, flow magnitude, bar morphology and particle size. Surface particle mobility was high, with results from subsurface tracers indicating high spatial variation of scour at both the reach and local scale. Results also suggest scour can occur up to depths of 0.3m at some locations, even during …

Life In Between: Prehispanic Settlement Patterns Of The Carabamba Valley, Northern Peru, Amedeo Sghinolfi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation is an archaeological study of the Carabamba Valley (ca. 150 - 3,500 m.a.s.l.) in Northern Peru, which aims to reconstruct settlement patterns through the longue durée (ca. 1800 B.C. - A.D. 1532). This study also documents the relations occupants of this frontier zone maintained with neighboring polities on the Peruvian North Coast (Virú Valley) and in the Northern Highlands. The valley features the resource-rich ecological niche called chaupiyunga, fed by rainwater that flows towards the Pacific Ocean and by a number of springs, where crops like coca, fruits, and vegetables can be easily grown. The Carabamba Valley also …

The Need For Purpose: The Desire For Meaningful Direction As A Fundamental Human Motivation, Jose A. Espinoza Mogollon

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The present research investigated the hypothesis that humans have an innate and fundamental need for purpose. This need is defined as a pervasive drive for a sense of meaningful direction and the experience of progress toward associated objectives. First, theoretical development of the need for purpose is presented, along with a review of the existing research literature covering evidence for the need for purpose’s fulfillment of well-established criteria for evaluating needs. This review is followed by three empirical studies developing a measure assessing satisfaction and frustration of purpose, examining an initial nomological network of the construct, and testing whether purpose …

The Development, Short-Term Efficacy, And Pilot Implementation Of An E-Learning Course In Physical Activity And Sedentary Behaviour For Pre-Service Early Childhood Educators, Brianne Bruijns

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The overarching purpose of this dissertation was to develop an e-Learning course in physical activity and sedentary behaviour and test its short-term efficacy and implementation among pre- and in-service early childhood educators (ECEs). The Delphi approach was adopted for Study 1, wherein a panel of international experts in physical activity and sedentary behaviour suggested topics for the course and, together with a panel of ECE experts, rated their importance. Study 2 employed a pre-post design to explore the changes in pre- and in-service ECEs’ physical activity and sedentary behaviour-related knowledge, self-efficacy, behavioural intention, and perceived behavioural control following course completion. …

Intra-Field Nitrogen Estimation For Wheat And Corn Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle-Based And Satellite Multispectral Imagery, Plant Biophysical Variables, Field Properties, And Machine Learning Methods, Jody Seymon Yu

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Management of nitrogen (N) fertilizers is an important agricultural practice and field of research to increase productivity, minimize environmental impacts and the cost of production. To apply N fertilizer at the right rate, time, and place depends on the crop type, desired yield, and field conditions. The objective of this study is to use Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) multispectral imagery, PlanetScope satellite imagery, vegetation indices (VI), crop height, leaf area index (LAI), field topographic metrics, and soil properties to predict canopy nitrogen weight (g/m²) of corn and wheat fields in southwestern Ontario, Canada. Random Forests (RF) and Support …

The Attitudinal And Motivational Consequences Of Personality Differences In Teams, Kyle A. Cameron

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In our team-based world of work, understanding the effects of team member differences is critical. This research examined the effects of personality congruence (i.e., (dis)similarity) on individual team members’ satisfaction with the team and autonomous motivation. The potential role of psychological need fulfillment as a mediator of the relation between personality congruence and these outcomes was also considered.

Multilevel polynomial regression with response surface analysis provided no evidence for a congruence pattern relating any of the HEXACO model of personality’s six domains to individual satisfaction with the team, autonomous motivation, or any of the psychological needs. Supplemental analyses revealed a …

Ridge Pine 3: A Late Archaic Site In The Southern Lake Huron Basin, Jessica Russell

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The Ridge Pine 3 site is about 1.3 km inland from Lake Huron on the eastern edge of the Grand Bend community in the Ausable Valley. The site was originally dated to the Late Archaic Small Point complex (ca. 4100 cal BP [3800 RCYBP] to 3200 cal BP [3000 RCYBP]), but a reassessment of the projectile point typology and radiocarbon dating have led to a different conclusion. The primary occupation of Ridge Pine 3 occurred during the Late Archaic Narrow Point complex (ca. 5000 cal BP [4500 RCYBP] to 4100 cal BP [3800 RCYBP]), but there is evidence of multiple …

Examining Public Health Risk Communication Via Social Media By Provincial And Local Health Authorities In Ontario During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Marc Resendes

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Risk communication campaigns are essential during public health crises to inform the public about ways to mitigate, alleviate and manage potential risks. The purpose of this study was to describe risk communication on social media by Ontarian health authorities amid COVID-19, in addition to examining the strategies that guided their social media use. This was completed through (a) a narrative review of risk communication literature; (b) a qualitative content analysis of select health authority Twitter messaging following three major COVID-19 milestones; and (c) key informant interviews with those coordinating social media responses to COVID-19. Information giving and news updates were …

Fórmulas De Tratamiento En Ocaña, Colombia, Liceth Bohorquez Leon

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The paradigm of forms of address has been a recurrent topic of study from a sociolinguistic perspective. Voseo, tuteo and ustedeo are the forms of address used in the Hispanic world. Voseo expreses confidence and familiarity, while tuteo same as voseo, denotes confidence and familiarity. Finally, ustedeo has a connotation of formality, respect and distance. This thesis aims to examine how forms of address are used in Ocaña, Colombia, and the relationship between their use and the social factors that affect the choice of pronoun. To achieve this aim, a sociolinguistic survey was applied to 88 participants. The …

Neuroimaging Depression Risk In A Sample Of Never-Depressed Children, Matthew R. J. Vandermeer

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Children of mothers with a history of depression are at significantly higher risk for developing depression themselves. Although numerous mechanisms explaining this relationship have been proposed (Goodman & Gotlib, 1999), relatively little is known about the neural substrates of never-depressed children’s depression risk. Of the few studies that have used neuroimaging techniques to characterize risk-based differences in children’s neural structure, function, and functional connectivity, most have used samples that include participants with a personal history of depression or older samples (i.e., past the typical age of onset for depressive disorders). These approaches limit what can be determined regarding whether findings …

Bridging The Gap: Building More Collaborative Psychoeducational Assessment Practices, Sarah E. Babcock

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The identification process of learning challenges in children is diverse and multifaceted, but typically involves standardized assessment with a psychologist. And while cognitive ability assessment is an integral and informative part of the process, one major concern is that the integration of teacher and parent observations into Canadian psychoeducational evaluation process has, thus far, not been a key source of information guiding diagnosis and intervention. Another concern is that formalized assessments often have long wait times, which delays support to the child. Therefore, evidence-based measures are needed to integrate teacher and parent observations and streamline the assessment process. The purpose …

Troubling Service User Involvement In Health Professional Education: Toward Epistemic Justice, Stephanie Leblanc-Omstead

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

It has become increasingly popular in health professional education to solicit the contributions and involvement of people who have firsthand or ‘lived’ experiences of using mental health services – a practice hereafter referred to as service user involvement (SUI). SUI is founded on the premise that service users ought to be involved in the development and evaluation of services and systems they experience, which includes the education of future health professionals. Despite the momentum this practice has gained in a range of international contexts, SUI is often conceptualized, organized, and implemented uncritically, and with tremendous inconsistency across health professional education …

Unmade And Unmanned Men: Reading Traumatized Masculinity In Late Nineteenth-Century British Adventure Fiction Through The Lens Of The Indian “Mutiny” Of 1857, Madison A. Bettle

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Unmade and Unmanned Men: Reading Traumatized Masculinity in Late Nineteenth-Century British Adventure Fiction through the Lens of the Indian “Mutiny” of 1857 examines the selected adventure fiction of George Alfred Henty, Rudyard Kipling, and Joseph Conrad through the historico-political context of India’s First War of Independence, known in Victorian Britain as the Indian “Mutiny” of 1857. Examining masculine trauma in adventure fiction reveals how British men, who were themselves colonized by the Empire’s expectations of them, sought not only to recover from the scars inflicted by imperialism, but also to expose the Empire for inflicting the psychologically damaging expectations that …

The Role And Importance Of Social Support During Recovery Following Distal Radius Fracture, Ogheneruona Mi Idoghor Ikpen

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis explored how social support changes with time and differs across genders within 1-year post distal radius fracture (DRF). It also examines the effect of social support on the patient-rated wrist evaluation (PRWE) score and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of DRF patients at 3 months post-fracture. In this cohort study, patient-reported social support (emotional/informational, tangible, affectionate and positive social interaction) was measured using the Medical Outcomes Study (MOS) social support survey, and HRQoL was measured using the 36-Item Short-Form Survey (SF-36). Social support significantly decreased at 3 months in comparison to baseline, 6 months and 1 year (with …

Exploring The Role(S) Of Trait Emotional Intelligence & Personality In Help-Seeking Behaviour Among Undergraduate Students, Nikola Cuvalo

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Trait emotional intelligence (EI) and the Big Five personality factors represent promising constructs in the individual differences literature that have been investigated in relation to help-seeking behaviour. This quantitative work explores the relationship between individual differences in trait EI, personality, and attitudes toward – as well as future intentions to engage in – help-seeking behaviour among undergraduate students at Western University. Stepwise regression modelling was used to determine which dimensions of personality and trait EI best predicted help-seeking outcomes and whether attitudes toward help-seeking predicted intentions to seek help from university-provided mental health sources. Resultsindicated that several individual facets of …

Making Meaning About Reproductive Work: A Narrative Inquiry Into The Experiences Of Migrant Caregivers In Canada, Crystal Gaudet

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation examines how migrant caregivers ascribe meaning to the (re)productive labour that they provide within Canada’s Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP). Introduced in 1992, the LCP was a temporary foreign worker program that recruited women, primarily from the Philippines, to care for children, elderly people, and people with disabilities in the homes of their employers. Numerous studies have shown how the stipulations of the LCP produce precarious working conditions that render caregivers vulnerable to exploitation and abuse and that result in their deskilling and de-professionalization. The conditions engendered by the LCP reflect and reinforce the devalued status of care and …

Investigating The Role Of Targeted Memory Reactivation In Sleep Spindle Production, Justin W. Hopper

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In ‘targeted memory reactivation’ (TMR) paradigms, information learned during wakefulness is paired with a cue, and reactivated during sleep by presenting that same cue. TMR improves memory. In a prior study (Antony et al., 2012), participants learned two melodies. One melody was cued during a nap, and performance was better than for the uncued melody. The current study reanalyzed these data to characterize sleep spindle density during TMR cue-periods relative to non-cued periods, and whether spindle density correlated with performance. During TMR stimulation, spindle density was significantly higher than during non-stimulation in four time windows. Compared to the non-TMR group, …

The Expression Of Guilt, Chloe A. Stewart

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Though aversive, the experience and expression of guilt is important to healthy social functioning. Guilt is often described as visceral, and nonverbal guilt expressions are anecdotally observed, yet much remains unknown about how guilt is expressed. The present work aimed to explore the visceral experience of guilt via the autonomic nervous system (ANS), and the nonverbal display of guilt via facial, gestural, and postural expressions. Using a novel film paradigm, we explored ANS activity during guilt in healthy adults and adults with neurodegenerative disorders (NDs). We further explored the nonverbal behaviours associated with guilt in healthy adults. We hypothesized that, …

The Spatial Equity Of Dockless Micromobility Sharing Systems In Calgary, Canada, Vivian Kong

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Micromobility sharing systems, including bikes and e-scooters, are often promoted as solutions to urban transportation equity challenges. Dockless micromobility sharing systems however remain understudied due in part to their novelty. In particular, there has been limited research on the spatial equity of e-scooter sharing, which concerns whether systems are equally accessible across a city regardless of the relative advantage and disadvantage of urban areas.

This thesis reports on two related analyses of the spatial equity of e-scooter sharing in Calgary, Alberta, Canada using an open dataset of three months worth of trip data (July – September, 2019): a gravity model …

Teacher Professionalism, Embodiment, And Surveillance: An Autoethnographic Study, Melanie Cloutier-Bordeleau

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This autoethnographic study entails using my own situated knowledge and experience as a white bisexual secondary school teacher from a low socioeconomic background as a basis for data generation and analysis. Attention is given to examining the current enforcement of specific norms governing behavioural and physical conduct, and the role these norms play in constructing and reinforcing hierarchical structures of identity related to race, gender, socioeconomic status and sexuality. The main question the study explores is: How does the performativity and performance of educator “professionalism” contribute to constructing/reinforcing hierarchies of identity with respect to gender, sexuality, social class and race? …

An Epidemic Amidst A Pandemic: A Critical Policy Analysis Of Supervised Consumption Sites, Vanisa Ezukuse

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study's primary purpose is to critically appraise current federal and provincial policies regarding supervised consumption sites (SCS), noting intended and unintended consequences; and how these policies could impact SCS users. This study's secondary goal is to compare current policies related to SCS in Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec to provide critical insight and suggestions for ongoing policy development. Carol Bacchi’s (2009) “What is the Problem Represented to Be?” framework was applied to the Canadian policy document with a focus on SCS. Four themes are proposed: Public Health versus Criminality, Presumptions versus Assumptions, Policy Unaccountability, and Policy Duality. It …

Evaluating Cranial Nonmetric Traits In Mummies From Pachacamac, Peru: The Utility Of Semi-Automated Image Segmentation In Paleoradiology, Cameron J. Beason

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Anthropologists employ biodistance analysis to understand past population interactions and relatedness. The objectives of this thesis are twofold: to determine whether a sample of five mummies from the pilgrimage centre, Pachacamac, on the Central Coast of Peru comprised local or non-local individuals through an analysis of cranial nonmetric traits using comparative samples from the North and Central Coasts of Peru and Chile; and to test the utility of machine-learning-based image segmentation in the image analysis software, Dragonfly, to automatically segment CT scans of the mummies such that the cranial nonmetric traits are visible. Results show that while fully automated segmentation …

Evidence-Based Programming For Vulnerable Youth: Successes And Challenges Of Implementing Healthy Relationships Programs In Diverse Settings, Rachelle M. Graham

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In recent years a variety of evidence-based programs have been developed to promote mental health and reduce violence among youth, including those considered to be the most at risk. However, simply providing evidence-based programming to settings that serve vulnerable youth does not ensure the efficacy of these programs because of the unique contextual factors, strengths, and needs of those youth and settings. There is often a disparity between the efficacy of a program identified in a research context and the effectiveness of a program in its application in real world settings. The purpose of this study was to explore this …

Neural Markers Of Musical Memory In Young And Older Adults, Avital Sternin

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Memory for music can be preserved in the presence of neurodegenerative disorders even when other memories are forgotten. However, understanding how the brain remembers music has proven difficult despite decades of research. The central goal of this thesis was to elucidate the neural correlates of musical memory by exploring how the presence of language and music information affect the way young and older adults remember music. To that end, I 1) used a controlled training paradigm to familiarize participants with novel stimuli that manipulated the presence of language and music, and 2) collected functional magnetic resonance imaging data to compare …

Empathic Processing In Patients With Mild-To-Moderate Stroke, Hilary Dagg

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Recent lesion studies have indicated that regions of the human prefrontal cortex play a critical role in empathy; however, these lesion studies often include patients with severe head injuries. The present study utilizes a cohort of 84 patients with cerebrovascular disease with mild-to-moderate strokes to examine the neural regions involved in empathy. We hypothesized that dissociable areas of the prefrontal cortex are involved in empathy. We predicted that lesions to the inferior prefrontal cortex would result in deficits in empathy compared to superior prefrontal lesions, non-prefrontal lesions, and those with no detectable lesions. To measure empathy, caregiver ratings were obtained …