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2021 — “Just Like Math”: Parents’ Perspectives on Sexuality Education in Primary ClassroomsAbstract
The purpose of this study is to develop a deeper understanding of parents’ perceptions of sexuality education in primary school. The study was guided by the following questions: 1) How do parents understand sexuality education in schools for primary-aged children? 2) What do parents believe children need to learn? 3) What role does the school curriculum have in contributing to healthy sexuality in young children? The data collection involved semi-structured interviews with seven parents whose children were in kindergarten to grade three. Using grounded theory to analyze and code the data, four themes emerged. The first theme, Sexuality Positive Parents, … Read more
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2022 — Reconciliation and the role of the journalist : Indigenous peoples, truth, stories, and public policyAbstract
The role mainstream media plays in public policy agenda-setting is discussed in a number of books and papers, and takes up considerable space in the agenda-setting literature. This study examines the role mainstream media played in both shaping and sharing narratives about Indigenous peoples. It looks at the frequency with which the media discussed specific stories and policy alternatives, the venues it connected these policies to, and how frequently each was shared. It also identifies key policy actors and how each capitalized on the windows of opportunity media created to advocate for their policy alternatives to move from the public … Read more
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2017 — We Love Them With All Our Heart: The Lived Experience of Fostering a Child with ADHD Where the Placement Breaks DownAbstract
This study used an interpretative phenomenological analysis methodology to understand the lived experience of foster families providing care for children with a diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) where the foster placement broke down. The data was collected through a semi-standardized interview process with foster parents representing five foster families. The essence was found to be a deep and enduring love between the families and their foster children. Four key themes emerged to express the foster families’ lived experience. Behaviours was the first theme representing the ever-present, persistent, overwhelming, and ultimately defeating behaviours participants experienced. The second theme was … Read more
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2024 — Rooted in place: The intersection of healing and learning within Indigenous mental healthAbstract
This dissertation offers a comparative exploration of the role of place in influencing healing and learning within Indigenous contexts, contributing to the expanding literature on place as a determinant of health. Through an in-depth examination of three distinct sites — Prairie Sky School, the nato' we ho win program, and Queen City Wellness Pharmacy — this research provides a unique lens through which to view the process of decolonization and highlights place as an active determinant of well-being. Viewed through the Decolonized Theory of Place, this research unveils the intricate interplay between place and well-being and provides a holistic framework … Read more
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2017 — Teachers' Perceptions of Mental illness: Predicting Factors in the Stigma of Mental IllnessAbstract
Developing an understanding of teachers’ perceptions toward those with mental health challenges will be helpful in working to promote more positive attitudes about mental health and in reducing the development of stigmatizing attitudes in children. The present study primarily explored teachers’ stigmatizing attitudes toward those with mental illness and examined the predictive potential of three main factors (i.e., level of previous contact with someone with mental illness, previous education about mental illness, and teachers’ beliefs about the causes of mental illness). Using a cross-sectional, web-based survey design, 237 Saskatchewan teachers participated in the study. As expected, significant associations were found … Read more
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2022 — Paradigm shifts and English language learning: A study of LINC student experience of PBLAAbstract
This thesis explores the experiences of four students in a Language Instruction for Newcomers Canada (LINC) program in a technical training institution in Canada. Specifically, this study focuses on their experiences of Portfolio Based Language Assessment (PBLA), an approach which has been used nationwide in Canada. This relatively new assessment method has not yet been researched well enough to understand how students feel about this new approach to assessment and leaning. In light of these changes to the Canadian LINC program, this qualitative study explores students’ experiences with PBLA. The data for this study was collected from interviews with four … Read more
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2014 — The Origin of Adakites in the Garibaldi Volcanic Complex, Southwestern British Columbia, CanadaAbstract
The Garibaldi Volcanic Complex (GVC) is located in southwestern British Columbia, Canada. It comprises two volcanic fields: the Garibaldi Lake Volcanic Field (GLVF) in the north and the Mount Garibaldi Volcanic Field (MGVF) in the south. Petrographical and geochemical studies on volcanic rocks collected from the GVC have determined that they exhibit adakitic characteristics; these intermediate rocks range from basaltic andesite to dacite represented mainly by lava flows, domes and minor pyroclastic material. All the lavas exhibit evidence of magma mixing, which include sieve textured crystals, dehydration reaction textures, differently sized phenocryst populations, xenocrysts and xenoliths. The geochemistry of the … Read more
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2014 — “Just a Pepper in a Bunch of Salt”: Aboriginal Students’ Stories of SchoolAbstract
Mirroring national trends, the Saskatchewan education system is failing its Aboriginal students. The situation is urgent, evidenced by low rates of Aboriginal students transitioning through the grades, their lower results on provincial assessments, and the significant gap between Aboriginal students and their non-Aboriginal counterparts graduating from high school. In light of these issues, this research explores high-school aged Aboriginal students’ stories of school and in particular their stories of place, curriculum, teachers and administrators. The research recognizes schools as white spaces where dominant identities are affirmed through place, spaces, curriculum, and pedagogy. Data was collected through four semi-structured interviews with … Read more
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2023 — Sandwiched between best practice and morality policy: Harm reduction's pursuit for legitimacy on a contentious frontierAbstract
Canada is in the midst of a public health crisis. In 2020 and 2021, jurisdictions across Canada, including Saskatchewan, had a record number of deaths due to drug toxicity and overdose. In 2022, statistics are on pace to once again set records. The current system, including legislation and service delivery, is not working, and addressing substance use and the overdose crisis will require an innovative and comprehensive approach. The literature highlights the merit of harm reduction (HR) services for substance use both in mortality reduction and in treating substance use; yet, investment in and implementation of HR services remains stark. … Read more
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2013 — Investigating Sandhoff Disease in SaskatchewanAbstract
Sandhoff disease is an autosomal recessive lysosomal storage disease caused by mutations in the HEXB gene detrimentally affecting the enzyme β-hexosaminidase. A high incidence of Sandhoff disease has been reported in northern Saskatchewan. The variant of the disease present in the province causes the death of infants before 4 years of age. In order to ameliorate the impact of this disease on the families and communities where it occurs the following steps were taken. Initially, genetic analysis of the HEXB gene from affected patients revealed a common variant shared among 4 individuals. That genetic information was used to develop a … Read more
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2014 — Lineup Composition Effects on Eyewitness IdentificationAbstract
Whenever lineups are prepared for eyewitness identification, the investigator constructing the lineup must decide how to choose lineup members to appear in the lineup with the person under investigation. Accordingly, three research projects were conducted to inform lineup construction practices. The first project is a meta-analysis of lineup similarity effects. Results of the meta-analysis suggest that biased lineups yield the highest rate of suspect identifications, regardless of whether that person is guilty or innocent. When lineups with moderately similar members are compared with lineups containing highly similar members, increasing similarity reduces innocent suspect identifications and has only a small and … Read more
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2013 — The Impact of Patient Assessments on nurse Fears, Patient Falls, and Functional Ability in Seniors with DementiaAbstract
Falls are a highly prevalent problem and a leading cause of pain among older adults (Hawk, Hyland, Rupert, Colonvega, & Hall, 2006; Proctor & Hirdes, 2001). For some individuals, actual or potential pain and falls lead to the development of fear of pain and fear of falling. It has been suggested that fears regarding pain and falling increase the likelihood of experiencing a subsequent fall and related pain (Brummel-Smith, 1989). Fear-avoidance models of pain and falls suggest that individuals who are afraid of pain and falling are more likely to engage in avoidance behaviours, which may result in deconditioning. This … Read more
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2015 — Becoming a Critical Literacy Educator: A Self- Study of Unlearning and RelearningAbstract
The purpose of this research is to explore how critical literacy can be used as part of an anti-oppressive pedagogical approach. This paper will use self-study as the research methodology along with poststructural theory to analyze the roots of my understanding of critical literacy and how my positioning as a white, Christian, female, middle-class educator pushes against a critical orientation. Throughout the study, I will identify places of tension and resistance that come from resignifying my identity as an anti-oppressive educator within an education system rooted in rational, positivist ideologies and dominant practices. The research conducted focuses on dominant ideologies … Read more
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2019 — Modelling Outcomes in Canadian Professional Football via Generalized Bradley-Terry ModelsAbstract
An introduction into the mechanics of tackle football, and the factors that differentiate it from other sports, is provided in the context of the challenges these provide in terms of predicting game outcomes. Additional complicating factors specific to predicting outcomes of Canadian Football League (CFL) games are identified and discussed. The Bradley-Terry Model and various generalizations are presented as potentially useful for making such predictions, alongside derivations of well-known minorization-maximization (MM) algorithms and descriptions Artificial Neural Net- work (ANN) processes that can be leveraged to estimate such models' parameters. Various candidate models, parameterized by regular-season CFL game outcomes from 2004-2017, … Read more
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2013 — The View From Here: Agricultural Policy, Climate Change, and the Future of Farm Women in SaskatchewanAbstract
There are few things that affect agricultural production more than changes in public policy and weather. Agricultural policy and climate change are macro-level phenomena; they are “big” problems that are often seen to be outside farmers’ control, yet they have dramatic effects on both farm livelihoods and food production in general. It can be difficult to trace the everyday, lived effects of major changes in agricultural policy and climate, and even more difficult to understand the gendered dimensions of these changes. In this research project, I explored the interaction between public policy, climate change, and gender in Saskatchewan. I used … Read more
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2020 — Numerical Evaluation of Various Well Control Methods with Emphasis on Application in Managed Pressure Drilling OperationAbstract
Managed Pressure Drilling (MPD) is a modified drilling process designed to accurately manage the annular pressures of the wellbore with a combination of surface back pressure (SBP), flow rate and drilling mud density. MPD is designed to identify and circulate out kicks (uncontrolled flow of formation fluids into the wellbore) that possess blowout risk. Since MPD allows fast changes in the bottom hole pressure, the reaction to an undesirable inflow is not automatically to shut in the well and increase the density of the mud which is the well control procedure in conventional drilling. This feature of MPD can aid … Read more
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2021 — Photoproduction of the b1(1235) Meson off the proton at Egamma - 6-12 GeVAbstract
The GlueX Experiment at Jefferson Lab directs a linearly polarized photon beam on a liquid hydrogen target surrounded by an almost hermetic detector. The experiment aims to study the meson spectrum in the light-quark sector and search for exotic spin-parity states predicted by lattice QCD calculations. The lightest exotic candidate is the π1 meson, which is predicted to decay dominantly to b1π. In this thesis, we present efforts to characterize the ωπ decay channel of the b1 meson as precursor to an analysis of the sought-after π1 exotic state. We present an introduction to the physics involved and an overview … Read more
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2022 — Relative state and decision making under riskAbstract
The recently developed (and mathematically formalized) relative state model of risk-taking suggests that individuals are motivated by two non-independent pathways to risk-taking: a need-based pathway, wherein risk-taking is the preferable course of action because a non-risky decision fails to meet an individual’s needs; and an ability-based pathway, wherein risk-taking is the preferable course of action because individuals are in such a good state that taking risks offers a higher expected value than non-risky alternatives. I tested the predictive value of the relative state model using a modified version of the Ecological Decision Task (ECO Task; Mishra & Lalumière, 2010), which … Read more
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2018 — Habitat Use by Common Nighthawks (Chordeiles minor) in Canada's Boreal ForestAbstract
Diurnal aerial insectivores, a guild of birds related by foraging behaviour, are declining rapidly across North America but the reasons for the decline are unknown. One of these guild members, the Common Nighthawk (Chordeiles minor), may have substantial but undocumented populations in Canada’s boreal forest. Any differences between Common Nighthawk population trends in the boreal forest compared to more southern populations may help determine why aerial insectivore populations in general are declining. Wildland fires, common in the boreal forest, transform closed habitat into the open habitat Common Nighthawks prefer. Therefore, I assessed nighthawk abundance in northwestern Ontario in recently burned … Read more
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2012 — Stressors and Coping Strategies of Older Adults as Caregivers in the Era of HIV/AIDS: A Case Study of BotswanaAbstract
The HIV and AIDS pandemic in Botswana is having a devastating effect on families and disintegrating traditional family structures. The high HIV infection and AIDS related death rate among youth who are economically and socially the productive sector of the population, has forced older adults into the care of AIDS infected and affected family members. As a result, older adults are becoming the main caregivers instead of care receivers. The purpose of this study was to explore the stressors and coping strategies of these older adult caregivers in Botswana. The study adopted a case study methodology and used a purposive … Read more
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2018 — Moral Agency and Moral Distress Among Registered Nurses: Novice to ExpertAbstract
In everyday practice, nurses encounter moral dilemmas that can potentially impact patients’ quality of care. A nurse exercising moral agency makes ethical decisions based on core values and moral principles. Moral agency has roots in existential philosophy; it can significantly impact the organizational role of nurses, the healthcare system, and patients. The relationship between a moral agent and the institution in which they practice has been labeled the most challenging moral problem of our century. Moral distress can be precipitated by a diminished sense of moral agency. Understanding moral agency in a bureaucratic system like healthcare is necessary to comprehend … Read more
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2013 — Environmental Factors Affecting the Distribution and Abundance of Richardson’s Ground SquirrelsAbstract
Richardson's ground squirrels (RGS) (Urocitellus richardsonii) are an important species for the grassland ecosystem on the Northern Great Plains of North America. They are a main source of prey and burrows for many prairie species including several Species at Risk (SAR) of extinction. RGS are also maligned as agricultural pests and managed extensively via poisoning. Control programs have negative consequences for RGS and non-target species, including some SAR. Despite their ecological importance and agricultural pest status, little is actually known about their distribution on the landscape and habitat variables that influence their distribution and abundance. This lack of knowledge is … Read more
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2013 — BountyAbstract
Bounty is a collection of short stories that explores the lives of characters who have spent a significant portion of their lives in the fictional small town Bounty. The stories consider how small-town ideologies impede personal growth and impose a rigid social code onto its citizens. The accompanying introduction to the manuscript outlines the ways in which I have been influenced by four short story writers—Sherwood Anderson, Anton Chekhov, James Joyce, and Alice Munro. I offer brief criticism of their work, identifying features of their craft that have shaped my own collection: Anderson’s “Grotesques,” referring to those types of people … Read more
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2021 — Passion Among Crossfit Enthusiasts: A Mixed Method ApproachAbstract
Passion has historically been broken down into two distinct types: harmonious passion (HP) and obsessive passion (OP; Vallerand et al., 2003). The type of passion that a person may possess depends on how that person controls the internalization of that passion into their identity. HP has typically been associated with adaptive outcomes, while OP has been typically associated with more rigid outcomes. Historically, passion within sport has primarily been studied through a quantitative lens. The current research study used a mixed-methods approach that aimed to explore the lived experiences of those who hold a high level of HP or OP … Read more
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2017 — Solving the Facility Layout Problem Using Genetic and Progressive AlgorithmsAbstract
In modern markets, manufacturers and service systems are faced with the need to constantly respond to changing product mixes, consumer’s tastes and demands. Facility planning is a significant strategy used to achieve this goal. A well-planned facility minimizes the materials and personnel flow distances, inventory build-up and consequently improves the production lead time and operation cost. Therefore, this thesis explores two variations of the facility layout problem: the Equal Areas dynamic facility layout problem (EA-DFLP) and the unequal area facility layout problem (UA-FLP). The EA-DFLP involves arranging and rearranging a number of equal departments in a facility such that the … Read more
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2023 — Evaluating and optimizing the performance of single and blended amines based on their chemical structures for carbon dioxide capture from industrial gas streamsAbstract
With the well-known fact on negatively impact of the human activities and the tremendously growth of industrial sectors and the increase in the global energy demand, the increase of the Green House Gas (GHG) including CO2 is very central because almost all fossil fuel activities lead to generation of this environmentally harmful GHG which found to cause increasing on the average global temperature which causing several major issues such as extreme weather conditions, heat waves, sea level rise, wild fires, health problems and many more. Actions are required immediately to reduce the emission such as using alternative energy source with … Read more