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2015 — Torsion Units of Integral Group Rings and Scheme RingsAbstract
We study torsion units of algebras over the ring of integers Z with nice bases. These include integral group rings, integral adjacency algebras of association schemes and integral C-algebras. Torsion units of group rings have been studied extensively since the 1960’s. Much of the attention has been devoted to the Zassenhaus conjecture for normalized torsion units of ZG, which says that they should be rationally conjugate (i.e. in QG) to elements of the groupG. In recent years several new restrictions on integral partial augmentations for torsion units of ZG have been introduced that have improved the e ectiveness of the … Read more
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2015 — SaskTel: How Ownership Impacts Behaviour in a Competitive MarketAbstract
How much of a role does ownership play when a public enterprise moves from a natural monopoly to a competitive market? Through comparing the market performance of SaskTel and Manitoba Telecom Services (MTS) from 1995 to 2012 it will be possible to answer this question. The eighteen year time frame makes it possible to measure the ramifications of privatization because MTS operated as a public enterprise until its privatization in late 1996. The question of ownership and the corresponding analysis make it possible to isolate any unique advantages or significant consequences of operating a public enterprise within the competitive, market … Read more
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2015 — Experimental Studies on Polymer and Alkaline-Surfactant-Polymer Flooding to Improve Heavy Oil RecoveryAbstract
Polymer flooding is considered a non-thermal secondary/tertiary oil recovery method. Polymer flooding is intended to reach the goal of improving mobility ratio by injecting long chain polymer molecules with high molecular weights in order to increase the viscosity of displacing water. Viscous water assists by having a piston like displacement of heavy oil, which mitigates fingering phenomena to some extent. This work aims to investigate the potential of highly concentrated polymer solutions from different polymers, with respect to enhancing heavy oil recovery. This work also validates the feasibility of combining alkaline-surfactant-based solutions and polymer flooding, called Alkaline-Surfactant-Polymer (ASP) flooding, to … Read more
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2015 — Bridging the Gap Between Students’ Cultural Norms and the Cultural Norms of Science: A Self-Study on Students’ Perceptions of Inquiry Activities and Culturally Relevant LessonsAbstract
Relevant literature recommends good teaching practices to help students bridge the gap between their personal cultural norms and the cultural norms of secondary science teaching. Some students’ cultural practices encourage developing a strong ability to memorize and students use their strong ability to maintain good grades in their secondary science courses. However, good teaching practices may not effectively enable students to move from rote learning to meaningful knowledge construction. The purpose of the self-study is to critically examine the use of inquiry and culturally relevant lessons to enable students to meaningfully construct knowledge in their secondary physics and chemistry classes. … Read more
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2015 — Sedimentology, Diagenesis (Including Dolomitization) of the Bakken Formation, Southeastern Saskatchewan, CanadaAbstract
The Famennian to Tournaisian (Late Devonian to Early Mississippian) Bakken Formation is a prolific oil producer within the southeastern portion of Saskatchewan. An understanding of the distribution of facies, mineralogy and controls on diagenesis, especially dolomitization, is important to plan enhanced oil recovery and to explore for smaller digenetic- and stratigraphic-bound hydrocarbon accumulations. The Bakken formation facies architecture is complex and formed by heterogeneous and interbedded carbonate and siliciclastic marine deposits that contain complex mineralogical compositions. A total of seven, regionally correlative facies associations have been identified within southeastern Saskatchewan. These facies associations are composed of fifteen distinct facies which … Read more
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2015 — Thermal Stress and the Heat Shock Response in Embryonic and Young of the Year Juvenile Lake Whitefish (Coregonus Clupeaformis)Abstract
I investigated the effects of thermal stress associated with changing environments and industrial thermal pollution by characterizing the kinetics of the heat shock response (HSR) throughout Lake Whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis) development. Lake Whitefish are a cold water species that spawn in the late fall to early winter. Their embryos develop at 0.5 – 6 °C, usually under the cover of ice. The HSR is a universal response to thermal and other types of stressors that offer protection at the cellular level. This response is characterized by the synthesis of a group of highly conserved proteins called the heat shock proteins … Read more
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2015 — Altering the Pattern: Willing Self-Sacrifice as an Embodiment of Free Will in Guy Gavriel Kay’s The Fionavar TapestryAbstract
This study analyzes the role of willing self-sacrifice in Guy Gavriel Kay’s trilogy The Fionavar Tapestry. I begin by detailing anthropological studies about sacrifice which provide the critical framework for this thesis. I contrast Kay’s trilogy with J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy and claim that they have fundamentally different worldviews. Tolkien’s worldview is primarily providential where every act of free will only reinforces the plan. In Kay’s trilogy, free will is often counter to a divine plan and acts of free will can and do alter that plan for the better. I analyze the trilogy by focusing … Read more
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2015 — Active Nonlinear Vibration Control of Engineering Structures of Multiple DimensionsAbstract
An active nonlinear mechanical vibration control strategy is developed in the research of the author’s PhD program for the nonlinear vibration control of engineering structures of multiple dimensions. The proposed control strategy has been applied in several wildly applied typical engineering structures, including Euler-Bernoulli beams and axially moving structures. Nonlinear vibrations wildly exist in engineering structures, such as bridge, aircrafts, micro-electro-mechanical devices, and elevator cables. Comparing to linear vibrations, nonlinear vibrations may lead structure failures in short time, and chaotic vibrations among the nonlinear vibrations features unpredictability. Considering the damage and unpredictability of nonlinear vibrations, nonlinear vibrations is ought to … Read more
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2015 — Measuring Sustainability Performance of Supply Chain Management Practices Using Fuzzy InferenceAbstract
Supply Chain Management (SCM) is critical for manufacturing operations, to increase their efficiency, productivity and quality. The sustainability performance of a SCM practice involves measuring its impact with respect to the three dimensions of sustainability: economic, social and environmental. In this work, the sustainability performance of a SCM practice is measured using an Intelligent System (IS) technique with the aim of not only measuring the sustainability performance simultaneously with respect to the three dimensions; but also the capability to incorporate user’s experience and knowledge, as well as accommodate ambiguous or vague information. The introduced IS technique is a Fuzzy Inference … Read more
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2015 — Institutional Betrayal in the Medical System: Development, Realiability, and Validity of a Self-Report QuestionnaireAbstract
Betrayal trauma, a type of psychological trauma that occurs when the people or institutions a person depends on for survival violate that person’s trust (Freyd, 2008), has been shown to further intensify the negative effects of trauma (Martin, Cromer, DePrince, & Freyd, 2013). A recent extension of this concept, which can cause additional psychological harm to victims, is institutional betrayal (IB), an institutional failure to respond supportively to a traumatic event (Smith & Freyd, 2013). The medical system is an important, but as of yet unstudied institution with regard to betrayal. The frequency of medical errors, ineffectiveness of their disclosure, … Read more
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2015 — Exploring the Relationship Between Negative Social Experiences and Social AnxietyAbstract
Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a pattern of pronounced and enduring fear and anxiety about being scrutinized in social interactional, observational, or performance situations (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Negative social experiences (i.e., social traumas) have been implicated in etiological models of SAD (Kimbrel, 2008; Ollendick & Hirshfeld-Becker, 2002; Rapee & Spence, 2004). Research evidence links peer victimization with adolescent SAD symptoms and suggests the type of victimization may differentially influence symptom presentation (e.g., Storch, Brassard, & Masia-Warner, 2003; Storch & Masia-Warner, 2004). Preliminary evidence suggests that severity of reaction to social trauma may also influence the presentation of SAD symptoms … Read more
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2015 — Sparse Coding Tone-Like Structures in Sound Using Local Image FeaturesAbstract
A trend in machine learning has emphasized the use of features which are learned algorithmically, in contrast to the hand-engineered features traditionally used in classification tasks. Classical sparse coding is a robust feature learning paradigm which represents inputs as a sparse vector of coefficients applied to a dictionary of basis functions. While sparse coding has yielded state-of-the-art results in many application domains, computational challenges often make it impractical to use. This thesis examines the application of a local image feature based sparse coding algorithm (ScSPM) to the problem domain of audio classification. The convex optimization problems involved in dictionary learning … Read more
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2015 — Effects of Oil Development on Grassland Songbirds and Their Avian Predators in Southeastern SaskatchewanAbstract
The quantity and quality of Saskatchewan’s remaining grassland may be threatened by energy development such as oil extraction. Grassland songbird populations are declining and increased oil development may be contributing to their declines through habitat loss and degradation. More quantitative research is needed to inform our understanding of how grassland songbirds are affected by oil development. I examined grassland songbird abundance, vegetation structure, habitat type (native and planted grasslands), and avian predator occurrence across a gradient of oil disturbance to determine the extent to which oil well proximity, density, and cumulative habitat disturbance influences the abundance of grassland songbirds and … Read more
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2015 — Walking the Walk: Exploring the Utility of a Computerized Gait Method in Feigned Symptom DetectionAbstract
Malingering represents a significant concern in clinical settings. It is defined as intentionally producing or exaggerating symptoms to obtain external and/or personal gain. Common detection approaches utilize consistency testing, whereby tests are administered multiple times and deviations across these occasions are calculated; high variability of scores is considered indicative malingering (feigning) may be taking place. Current feigning assessment techniques have high rates of false positives in part due to inherent subjective elements, making them suboptimal. No research has been conducted using computerized assessments of gait parameters in feigning detection. Computerized methods allow(s) for a precise examination of multiple gait parameters. … Read more
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2015 — Factorial Probabilistic Methodologies for Water Resources and Hydrologic Systems Analysis Under Interactive UncertaintiesAbstract
Water resources issues have become increasingly prominent worldwide. Optimization and simulation techniques are recognized as powerful tools to deal with water resources issues in an effective and efficient way. Nevertheless, various uncertainties and complexities exist in water resources and hydrologic systems, posing significant challenges to water resources planning and hydrologic predictions. Advanced optimization and simulation methodologies are thus desired to address the challenges involved in solving complex water resources problems. In this dissertation research, a set of factorial probabilistic methods have been developed, which mainly deal with two types of problems: one is the inexact optimization for water resources planning … Read more
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2015 — High-Resolution Regional Climate Downscaling and Probabilistic Projection for Impact Assessment – A Canadian Case StudyAbstract
Human-induced climate change has been regarded as one of the most pressing issues around the world because it often leads to severe, widespread, and irreversible consequences. Assessing the potential impacts of climate change is essential and critical for developing appropriate mitigation and adaptation strategies against the changing climate. In this research, a series of approaches and methodologies have been proposed for dealing with the challenges in climate change impact assessment due to the lack of highresolution climate projections and the difficulty in quantifying the uncertainties associated with future climate projections. The proposed approaches and methodologies have been applied to the … Read more
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2015 — Optimal Residential Demand Response under Dynamic Pricing in a Multi-Agent FrameworkAbstract
Demand response (DR) is a recent effort to improve efficiency of the electricity market and the stability of the power system. A successful DR implementation relies on both appropriate policy design and enabling technology. Real-time pricing (RTP) and time of use (TOU) have been identified as two important DR policies to motivate residential customers to participate in DR programs. An efficient residential DR model should implement heterogeneous residential load forecasting, multi-criteria optimization (e.g., objectives for individual homes, utilities and aggregations of them) and intelligent distributed algorithms to evaluate the complex and large-scale power systems. This thesis presents a multi-agent system … Read more
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2015 — Rheology and Flow Behaviour of Non-Newtonian, Polymeric Fluids in Capillaric and Porous Media: Aspects Related to Polymer Flooding for Enchanced Recovery of Heavy OilAbstract
Heavy oil reservoirs under consideration for polymer flooding typically contain greater than 85% of the original oil in place (OOIP) after primary recovery and waterflooding. Many of these fields are operated at high producing water/oil ratios (WORs) only marginally above their economic limit due to additional production, handling, and treatment expenses that can average $3/m3 of water. Depending on timing of implementation, operators could achieve very high incremental recoveries approaching 20% OOIP and beyond, as suggested by the experiments conducted in this work. The main premise behind this thesis study is to develop fundamental knowledge of the rheology and flow … Read more
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2015 — Oil and Gas Pipeline Risk Assessment Model by Fuzzy Inference Systems and Artificial Neural NetworkAbstract
Pipeline transportation has been widely used and recognized as the best way to transport oil and gas in energy industry, because of its excellent safety features and significant economic advantages. However, the failure accident of pipelines is one of the most frustrating issues, as its significant adverse impact on people, environment and public safety; it can also cause severe economic loss. Due to pipelines mostly being installed underground, information limitation and data uncertainties make it difficult to predict and assess failure risks by a single methodology based model. Intelligence Systems (IS), in particular Fuzzy Inference System (FIS) and Artificial Neural … Read more
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2015 — Support-Seeking and Quality of Life in Female Survivors of Intimate Partner ViolenceAbstract
Previous research suggests that women who experience intimate partner violence (IPV) report severe physical and mental health consequences, as well as poor quality of life. One approach to dealing with the negative effects of IPV is for women to seek support through informal support networks, such as family and friends, and formal support services, such as shelters, counselling programs, and social assistance. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the relationship between informal support, use of formal services, and quality of life, using a diverse sample of Canadian women who experienced IPV. Data analysis was conducted to explore … Read more
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2015 — Characteristics of Tight Reservoirs in the Oligocene Huagang Formation, Xihu Sag, East China Sea BasinAbstract
The Xihu Sag in the East China Sea Basin can be divided into five structural belts. From west to east, they are western slope belt, western sub-sag, central inversion tectonic belt, eastern sub-sag and eastern fault and fold belt. The petrographical, diagenetic and petrophysical properties of the Oligocene Huagang Formation were studied in terms of the structural belts. The Huagang Formation is characterized by the depositional facies of delta and lacustrine facies. The main rock types are feldspathic litharenite and lithic subarkose with low compositional and texture maturity. Based on the scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) and thin section observations, it … Read more
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2015 — Inexact Two-Stage Fuzzy Chance- Constrained Programming for Water Resource Management under UncertaintiesAbstract
Yongxin County is located in the west of Jiangxi Province, China, within the middle reaches of the Heshui River Basin. The Heshui River provides the primary water resource for local economic activities. In recent years, there has been an increase in water demand in Yongxin County due to rapid economic development and rapid population growth. Water quality management has also been a major concern for local governments, which is not only affecting economic development but also threatening the sustainability of water resources. The local area has encountered local economic development problems with environmental concerns about water shortages and pollution. This … Read more
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2015 — Analysis of Longitudinal Data With Missing Responses: A Study of Pain Control CostAbstract
Recent years have seen a major increase of interest in pain control cost studies. Due to rising costs of medical treatment, researchers study factors contributing to cost and appropriate ways to control or reduce the cost of pain control. The first data studied in this research is longitudinal data with cost values completely missing. We fill in the daily cost for minority observations based on the information provided by the price data, and then impute the daily cost for the remaining observations by applying multiple imputation. Multiple sets of complete imputed daily cost data are produced. A generalized estimating equations … Read more
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2015 — “Tawny Grammar”: Anne Simpson’s Exploration of the OtherAbstract
This study examines the poetry of Anne Simpson. Given that there has been no full-length study of her poetry, the thesis deals heavily in close readings of poems from all four collections: Light Falls Through You, Loop, Quick, and Is. Developing the term “tawny grammar,” used in her essays, I explore how this altered language requires Simpson’s poetry to develop “tawny” poetic forms and “tawny” movements of perspective. The shifting and unstable nature of the “tawny” allows Simpson’s poetry to address the Other, particularly the violent experiences of Others, in an ethical way. I suggest that Simpson’s punctuation, form, and … Read more
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2015 — Analytical Model for Fluid Flow Coupling With Heat Transfer Integrating Heat Conduction and Convection in Radial SystemAbstract
Enormous heavy oil resources has been found in western Canada. But some factors especially high viscosity limit their development. Thermal recovery methods which injecting heat into the reservoir or in-situ combustion, have been widely used to enhance heavy oil recovery. The viscosity of the crude oil has been lowered by raising the temperature of the reservoir, so temperature and pressure profiles are important factors for making operations and development plans in thermal recovery process. Understanding how heat transfer influences the fluids flow is the key knowledge for us to make the right decisions. In this study, a novel heat transfer … Read more
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2015 — Model Checking for Longitudinal Data: Root Mass StudyAbstract
A three-year completely randomized design experiment was implemented in Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan in 2007. It was conducted by the Department of Biology, University of Regina, to measure root mass expressed per soil volume (g root /m3). Root mass data depends on four main factors: temperature, precipitation, clipping, and depth. Temperature and precipitation show climate impact. Clipping indicates Human activities impact. Depth factor could be considered to be time level (t) so that we can consider root mass data as longitudinal data. My research interests are to find a reasonable model and some significant interaction terms among the main factors. … Read more
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2015 — Enhanced Physicochemical Processes for the Treatment of petroleum-Contaminated SystemsAbstract
In Canada, environmental issues caused by petroleum-contaminated sites are becoming a major concern. Therefore, effective physicochemical remediation technologies are desired for produced water treatment and groundwater remediation in oil fields. In this dissertation research, the feasibility of treating produced water using synthetic polymers combined with natural diatomite was evaluated. Using diatomite as an adsorbent and a coagulant aid, this study provided an economical and enhanced approach for utilizing diatomite in the clean-up of produced water. A pilot-scale electrocoagulation process was developed for enhanced removal of hardness, chemical oxygen demand, and turbidity to mitigate the scaling and fouling of Reverse Osmosis … Read more
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2015 — Development of Scaling Crieteria for Waterflooding and Immiscible CO2 Flooding in Unconventional ReservoirsAbstract
As conventional oil reserves are depleting, the rising energy demand as well as advancements in well drilling and stimulation technologies have attracted increasingly interests in exploiting the unconventional oil resources (e.g., tight oil and heavy oil). Tight oil resources in Canada are mainly located in Cardium and Viking pools in Alberta, Bakken formation in Saskatchewan, and Western Canada Shale plays, respectively. Also, tremendous heavy oil resources accounting for almost half of the total world heavy oil reserves are mainly found in Western Canada, though they are contained in thin and depleted reservoirs. Such unconventional oil resources either have been deposited … Read more
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2015 — Experimental Study on Foamy Oil Flow by Using Different heavy Oil-Solvent SystemsAbstract
Foamy oil flow that occurs in heavy oil reservoirs under solution gas drive in the primary production process, shows an anomalous production performance compared with that in conventional solution gas drive reservoirs [Maini, 2001]. Although several laboratory experimental studies have been carried out to research the mechanisms of foamy oil flow in physical models, and the production performance effects of pressure depletion rates on foamy oil flow have been studied, it remains difficult to understand the process clearly. Meanwhile, many oil samples used in previous studies were on heavy oil-methane systems or heavy oil-CO2 systems, rarely on heavy oil-propane systems. … Read more
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2015 — Numerical Simulation of pressure Transient Analysis in Tight Formation and Field Data Categorization and Typical Well Production Data AnalysisAbstract
Low to ultra-low permeability tight oil reservoirs have recently become a significant source of hydrocarbon supply in North America. Production and pressure transient analysis of tight oil reservoirs is one of the most difficult problems facing a reservoir researcher because of the extreme complexity inherent in tight formations, such as producing from multiple layers with effective permeability that is often enhanced by hydraulic fracturing. Unfortunately, limited productivity and unfavorable economics often prevent expenditures of money and time to collect the dynamic data needed for a comprehensive reservoir study. Horizontal well completion along with multi-stage hydraulic fracturing techniques has enabled economic … Read more