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2021 — A Dynamic Predictive Analysis on Gas Pipeline Failure Consequence Using Bayesian NetworkRésumé
Nowadays, due to the economical, environmental, and social concerns which are the three pillars of sustainable development objectives, natural gas is considered as one of the most important and critical energies. Natural gas pipeline failure and related losses is a kind of devastating disaster because the threats of natural gas failure consequences may provide a huge extension that can simply lead to cascading disasters. Therefore, maintenance and repair of the deteriorating infrastructure like buried gas pipelines have been considered significant considerations amongst stakeholders and researchers in recent years. In this thesis, a dynamic Bayesian network (BN) was used to investigate … Lire la suite
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2021 — Metamemory and Lineup Selection: Can Children’s Metacognitive Beliefs Influence Lineup Selection?Résumé
Child eyewitnesses pose a continuous challenge for the criminal justice system. Researchers have made repeated attempts to combat children’s problematic over-choosing from a photographic lineup (e.g., Pozzulo & Lindsay, 1999), but difficulties remain. Although there have been multiple hypotheses put forth that attempt to explain why children struggle with correctly rejecting target-absent lineups (i.e., saying the perpetrator is not there when s/he is not), none have fully explained the reason for children’s error patterns (Dunlevy & Cherryman, 2013; Pozzulo & Lindsay, 1997). One possibility is that children overestimate the accuracy of their own memory. Children often exhibit similar levels of … Lire la suite
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2021 — Panafricanisme et développement en Afrique : Un regard philosophiqueRésumé
After roughly six decades of independence, the continent of Africa continues to face numerous challenges due to its unstable political climate, and perhaps as a result of the complexity of the political and economic structures on which African states were built. African scholars and philosophers have identified various factors that impede Africa’s development. There is a vast literature indicting European imperialism and its damaging effects on Africa’s economy and its people for the problems that the continent continues to battle with in the 21st century. Yet, there are other endogenous conditions that sustain Africa’s dependency on the West, and perpetuate … Lire la suite
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2021 — L’étude du Français comme matière dans un contexte anglophone : Le cas de trois Établissements postsecondaires au GhanaRésumé
The French language is the fifth most spoken language in the world and the fourth most used language on the Internet, with over 300 million speakers in the world and 132 million French learners. In addition to this, Africa is home to 59 % of daily French speakers, according to the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. However, the existing teaching methods for learning French do not always satisfy the linguistic needs of students, making it oftentimes difficult for graduates on the continent to meet language demands in their various fields of study and profession. By means of Ghana’s recent membership … Lire la suite
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2021 — Estimation of Near Wellbore Thermal Properties Using Distributed Temperature and Flow Rate Data During ProductionRésumé
Thermal properties of the underground formation govern the downhole thermal processes such as geothermal energy utilization and thermal enhanced oil recovery. In order to design and monitor the subsurface thermal processes, accurate values of the thermal properties are needed. Unless perfect descriptions of the formation and fluids are given, the results of measuring the thermal properties of formation and fluid-formation systems are of limited value. However, calculation of such properties is effortful, costly and time consuming. Therefore, a need exists to propose models of predicting thermal properties from other more effortlessly measurable properties. With technology development, in-situ measurements have gotten … Lire la suite
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2021 — One-Visibility Cops and Robber on TreesRésumé
Graph searching comes into the limelight of research topics since it provides mathematical models for many real-world problems. Cops and robber is one aspect of graph searching that has recently gained much interest. This thesis provides results on a graph searching model, one-visibility cops and robber model. The one-visibility cops and robber game is a variation of the zero-visibility cops and robber game, where one-visibility means that the robber is seen by a cop when the distance between them is at most one. Suppose that a robber is hiding on vertices of a graph. The focus of this thesis is … Lire la suite
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2021 — An Intelligent System Approach for Predicting Air Traffic Demand Based on Socio-Economic ParametersRésumé
Over the last five years, emerging countries around the world have advanced slowly but gradually towards greater economic independence. Aviation sector has had a significant impact on this contribution for the last ten years. That is why it is indispensable to forecast potential need for air travel to enable a long-term commitment to the economies of emerging countries. In history, the most commonly employed and suggested tool for the supply of passenger demand was the multiple linear regression-based modelling techniques. In recent years, however, a wide variety of disciplines have been subject to the latest artificial intelligence-based forecast approaches, including … Lire la suite
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2021 — Automatic Summarization of Financial ReportsRésumé
The field of Natural Language Processing (NLP) has witnessed substantial advancements due to both the development of new algorithms and the increase of computational capacities. As a result, novel NLP techniques have been successfully applied in various fields such as medicine, law, and finance. Companies and corporations publish several financial reports and disclosures every year to meet the requirements and needs of law enforcement entities, analysts, customers, and stakeholders. Processing these materials requires a tremendous amount of time and manual labor, especially with the unwieldy volume of data accumulated throughout the years. This thesis attempts to exploit the potential of … Lire la suite
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2021 — Hate and Offensive Speech Detection on Arabic Social MediaRésumé
We are witnessing a proliferation of hate speech on social media targeting individuals for their protected characteristics, including ethnicity, religion, gender, and nationality. Our research focuses on devising effective Arabic hate and offensive speech detection frameworks to address this serious issue. In the first part of the thesis, we aim to improve Arabic hate speech detection systems and present our efforts at building binary and multi-class (3-class and 6-class) hate and offensive speech datasets using four robust extraction strategies that we implement based on the four types of hate: religion, ethnicity, nationality, and gender. Next, we develop several 2-class, 3-class, … Lire la suite
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2021 — Role of Nudix-Hydrolase ASMTL in Modulating Mitochondrial Biogenesis of Cancer CellsRésumé
Cancer cells have enhanced DNA biosynthesis, rendering them susceptible to nucleotide modifications that enter the cellular nucleotide pool during repair or DNA degradation. These modified nucleotides can then be incorporated into newly synthesized DNA, resulting in random mutations or, when overwhelming into DNA damage, culminating into apoptosis, which is the desired effect of anti-cancer chemotherapy. Human cells contain nucleotide sanitation enzymes like ASMTL, which prevent incorporating the non-canonical nucleotides into newly synthesized DNA by removing them from the nucleotide pool, thereby relieving cancer cells from proliferative stress-induced mutations and apoptosis, representing an attractive target for anti-cancer chemotherapy. To identify ASMTL … Lire la suite
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2021 — Amine and Catalyst Stability Studies in the Catalyst-Aided CO2 Capture ProcessRésumé
The application of sol id base and sol id acid catalysts to improve CO2 capture has been one of the most notable technological advancements in amine-based post -combust ion capture. Despite the inherent benefits of the catalysts, the amine solvent is st i l l prone to degradation, which is a major operational problem associated with the capture process. The nature of solvent degradation in catalyst -aided CO2 capture has not been reported before, and thus, the effect of catalyst on solvent or vice versa is unknown. This work evaluates the effect of catalyst on solvent degradation and vice versa … Lire la suite
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2021 — Fireinform: An Approach to Predict Hourly Forest Fire Occurrences using Multivariate Time Series ClassificationRésumé
Every year, thousands of forest fires occur in Canada; these fires pose risks to people's lives, health, and property and incur huge fire suppression costs. Accurate prediction of fire occurrences at finer temporal and spatial resolutions could aid in deploying fire-fighting resources efficiently. Timely deployment of resources at precise locations could help control fires at an earlier stage, which would reduce damage. We propose an approach to predicting forest fire occurrences at hourly intervals in small rectangular regions across Saskatchewan. To make these predictions, we pre- pared a suitable dataset, trained three machine learning classification models, namely Decision Tree, K-Nearest … Lire la suite
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2021 — Performance Studies of Novel Amine Blends in a Catalyst-Aided CO2 Capture ProcessRésumé
This study focused on utilizing the combined effect between solvent development and the application of solid catalysis to enhance the reactive absorption-based CO2 capture process. First, the CO2 removal performance of three formulated amine bi-blends were evaluated using a semi-batch screening setup. The performance of each blend in terms of specific parameters such as linear absorption and desorption rates, CO2 equilibrium loading, cyclic capacity and solvent regeneration heat duty were compared with the activity of the standard 4M BEA/AMP blend. The bi-blends developed included 2M HMDA/PEI (1.85M: 0.15M), 2M AMP/PEI (1.7M: 0.3M) and 4M DMAE/AMP (2M: 2M). The screening results … Lire la suite
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2021 — Children and the Law: How Does Early Contact with Law Enforcement Predict Severity and Frequency of Offending Later in Life?Résumé
Based on observations recorded through police contact, this study examined the influence of individual and environmental factors on predicting involvement in offence type categories (Non-Violent; Violent; Sexual) in samples of children before and after the age of criminal responsibility (age 12). The sample comprised 2,862 Canadians (1,732; 61% male and 1,123; 39% female) between the ages of 0 and 18, with law enforcement contact prior to the age of 12. A larger proportion of males in both the under 12 and over 12 samples were in the Non-Violent Offence type than the other two offence types. However, more females over … Lire la suite
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2021 — A New Machine Learning Algorithm for Detection of Stray ClaysRésumé
This paper discusses various machine learning algorithms utilized with Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) for differentiating between clay seam number 414 and stray clays in potash mines to evaluate mine-room safety. Although different strategies have been used to find and recognize anomalies from GPR data through machine learning frameworks, but the frameworks which provide precise execution are still under investigation. In this research, we propose difference-of-gradients (DOG) method for detecting the presence of stray clays from the simulated and the actual GPR data, which is based on gated recurrent units (GRU) in neural networks. The combination of DOG and GRU methods … Lire la suite
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2021 — Real-time Visualization, Numerical Simulation and Mathematical Calculation of Two-Phase Fluid Flow from the Microscopic PerspectiveRésumé
This research combines real-time visualization, numerical simulation and mathematical calculation to explore the gas snap-off condition in the liquid-gas twophase fluid flow from the microscopic perspective. In the first phase of the research, the artificial glass micromodels are used for water film imbibition experiments. The experiment at this stage focuses on the real-time visualization to discuss the patterns of liquid film extension and gas phase break-up during the liquid infiltration process. The experimental results prove that the gas snap-off is more tend to happen in gasliquid coexisting surface with larger dynamic contact angle. At the same time, it is found … Lire la suite
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2021 — Analysis of Strobilurin Fungicides, Neonicotinoid Insecticides and Degradation Products in Atmospheric ParticlesRésumé
In this study, a liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method has been developed for the simultaneous detection of concentration of 8 neonicotinoid insecticides with 5 degradation products of neonicotinoid insecticides and 7 strobilurin fungicides in the particle phase of atmospheric samples. Detection limits ranged from 0.5 to 3 ng/mL and the recovery percent ranged between 83.5% to 108.3% with relative standard deviation <13% for all analytes. The sampling site was located in Omak, WA within the Okanogan County agricultural region where vineyards and apple orchards are the dominant crops. Matrix effect was determined to evaluate the performance of the developed sample clean-up procedure to remove the matrix. The determined matrix effect revealed that the highest exhibited matrix effects were for metabolites of neonicotinoids, while strobilurin fungicides showed soft to moderate matrix effects in >75% of samples. Neonicotinoids that were detected included imidacloprid, clothianidin, acetamiprid, and thiamethoxam. The highest detection frequency in 2016 was shown for imidacloprid (47%), while in 2018 acetamiprid had the highest detection frequency (67%). This is the first time …</13%> Lire la suite
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2021 — Kinetic Study of CO2 Absorption in Aqueous Amine Solutions of MEA-AMP: Experiment and Numerical ModelingRésumé
Capturing Carbon dioxide (CO2) from the flue gas has attained considerable attention to mitigate greenhouse Gas Emission. The mitigation was one of the main pillars of the United Nations Framework Convention signed in Paris in 2016. This kinetic study was performed to capture CO2 in an aqueous amine blend of MEA and AMP to study the rate of capture. Main objective of this work was to calculate overall rate constant(kov) and determine the paramters that affects kov. Mixing ratio of Primary amine MEA with the sterically Hindered Amine AMP was studied to find out the ratio that offers best absorption … Lire la suite
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2021 — An Intelligent System Model for Diagnostic of Human Pancreatic CancerRésumé
Pancreatic Cancer is one of the lethal cancers in the world with vague symptoms and low survival rates. It is the seventh leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the world and will become the second within 2030 in USA. The five (5) years survival rate for all stages diagnosed is estimated to be 9%. More than 60% of Pancreatic Cancer patients are diagnosed at an advanced stage due to a lack of highly sensitive and specific screening tests. However, surgical resection is one of the best treatments for Pancreatic Cancer; but only 5% patients are eligible for this treatment. Early … Lire la suite
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2021 — (Re)Claiming Play: An Individual and Community Movement Towards PlayfulnessRésumé
This study aimed to closely examine what caregivers of children 9 years of age and younger perceive to be barriers affecting access to play. The current study is a lived inquiry (Dimitriadis, 2016) of my own experiences and of facilitated in-person conversations surrounding play, mostly with caregivers of children aged 9 years old and under. I also solicited hundreds of comments and submissions to a social media account surrounding this research. I used grounded theory methods to analyze the data, and founded a non-profit organization to aid in the application of some of the findings towards my own community. This … Lire la suite
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2021 — Heterogeneous Photocatalytic Degradation of N-Nitrosodiethylamine in Wash Water Unit of Carbon Capture Plants Using Tungsten Trioxide Based CatalystsRésumé
Post combustion carbon capture, a promising technology for capturing the superabundant CO2 produced by various industries has received much research and industrial attention. The use of amines for this capture process comes with its own disadvantage in that it degrades into other products some of which are harmful to the ecosystem upon its release into the environment. Chief of these degradation products are the mutagenic and carcinogenic nitrosamines which have received much research attention in both carbon capture processes and wastewater treatment plant processes. Several treatment methods such as biological methods, activated carbon, UV in conjunction with ozone or reverse … Lire la suite
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2021 — Heterogeneous Photocatalytic Treatment of Wastewater from Amine-based Carbon Capture PlantsRésumé
Amine-based Carbon Capture (ABCC) is the advanced, cost-effective technology used to control climate change by capturing CO! emissions. Although it has been demonstrated commercially, amine degradation poses a significant threat to humans and aquatic life. Amine degradation produces a wide variety of complex products. Some of them are carcinogenic and mutagenic such as nitrosamines and some organic acids that have demonstrated acute toxicity for laboratory animals. In order to mitigate the adverse impact of these compounds on human health and aquatic life, heterogenous photocatalysis, an advanced oxidation process, which can degrade a wide variety of chemical species with the potent … Lire la suite
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2021 — Policy Implications of Smartphone Usage and Holistic Wellbeing Among Youth in Urban Saskatchewan: A Smart Platform StudyRésumé
Background: Screen time on multiple digital devices has become an integral part of population behavior. Globally, populations have access to a variety of digital devices and engage in high levels of screen time activities starting in early childhood. It is well established that increased levels of screen time-based sedentary behaviours have significant negative impacts on health, however, the relationship between screen time behaviours, types of devices, and holistic wellbeing remains complicated and not well understood. In particular, smartphone technology has become increasingly popular and almost all age cohorts engage in smartphone usage for a wide variety of activities. Objectives: This … Lire la suite
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2021 — Observers' Misperception of Pain in Older Adults with DementiaRésumé
Undertreatment of pain in older adults with dementia is a serious concern. Though inadequate pain assessment in this population appears to underlie the problem, contributing factors remain unclear. It is unsurprising that communication interferes with understanding the experience of pain in individuals with dementia, as communicative ability decreases with dementia progression. This results in reliance on non-verbal cues to infer pain in individuals with dementia, particularly with severe dementia. The aim of this project was to determine the influence of patient non-verbal communicative changes related to advanced dementia (i.e., possible alterations in facial expressions during pain) and observer biases (i.e., … Lire la suite
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2021 — Changes in the Root-Associated Microbial Communities of Peas and Lentils Throughout Aphanomyces euteiches InfectionRésumé
Canada is the largest global producer of peas and lentils, with the majority of production taking place in Saskatchewan. A major limitation to pea and lentil production is root rot caused by Aphanomyces euteiches. There are currently no effective chemical treatments nor resistant crops for controlling this pathogen. The microbes inhabiting the roots of plants have been shown to aid in overall plant health and disease suppression and plants will actively recruit beneficial microbes when experiencing disease. This thesis investigated the root-associated microbial communities of healthy and diseased peas (Pisum sativum) and lentils (Lens culinaris) grown with microbial communities derived … Lire la suite
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2021 — Exploring Adaptive Functioning and Sleep Quality in Children with Congenital Heart DiseaseRésumé
Congenital heart disease (CHD) is one of today’s leading birth anomalies (Reller et al., 2008). Children with CHD are at risk for neurodevelopmental and adaptive functioning challenges (Cassidy et al., 2018; Karsdorp et al., 2017; Marino et al., 2012). In turn, sleep difficulties are common in children with CHD; in fact, sleep disordered breathing (a common type of sleep dysfunction) is associated with increased mortality for infants with CHD (Combs et al., 2018). This study is the first to prospectively examine adaptive functioning and sleep quality in children aged 1-3 years with CHD compared to typically developing participants living in … Lire la suite
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2021 — A Novel Application of Computer Vision and Deep Learning for Assessing Mechanical Engineering DrawingsRésumé
Evaluating the recurrent mistakes in engineering drawings is a tedious and rather mundane task for a quality control team, but is necessary for creating professional drawings to improve products and customer satisfaction. This research examines the novel application of a transfer learning approach of an object detection model, YOLOv4, for assessing mechanical engineering drawings. Also, the model was trained to recognize unique features that were not in the initial training suite. Two modes of this supplemental training on the base model were assessed. The method that included new drawings with the original training suite improved error detection and minimized the … Lire la suite
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2021 — A Data Driven Based Comparison Study of Statistical and Deep Learning Based Time Series Forecasting Methods for Infectious Disease Modeling and Financial DataRésumé
In regard to human history, it isn’t that long since forecasting transitioned from the spiritual and mythical components into the scientific domain. In recent years, forecasting has become an integral part of the mathematical analysis. It has a wide range of significance in various domains and is critical in some life-saving applications. The crucial element in determining the suitable forecasting model is its accuracy. Most of the existing approaches are either based on the statistical or random analysis. One of the limitations of such models is the failure to capture the nonlinearities that are present in the data. Given the … Lire la suite
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2021 — Space Use by Piscivorous Birds, Fish, and Humans on a Multi-Use Lake in Southern SaskatchewanRésumé
On the Great Plains of North America, freshwater lakes are a critical resource in a dry landscape. Recreational development and use of lakes, as well as industrial and agricultural uses, may alter habitat and water quality. Consequently, it is important to understand how economically important fish species (walleye Sander vitreus; northern pike Esox Lucius; and burbot Lota lota) use lakes and identify key areas for protection and management efforts. Conflicts between humans and fish-eating birds over fisheries resources have also emerged and may be exacerbated by the limited availability of freshwater. In this context, the double-crested cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus) and … Lire la suite
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2021 — Acute Psychological Stress and Food Intake in Humans: A Scoping ReviewRésumé
In response to stress, stress-sensitive systems, including the sympathetic-adrenal-medullary (SAM) axis and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, are activated to enable the individual to engage in the fight-or-flight response resulting in catecholamine (e.g., epinephrine and norepinephrine) and cortisol release. Stress-induced cortisol secretion has been shown to elicit a decrease, increase, or no change in the homeostatic mechanisms of food intake (e.g., appetite, appetite hormones, food intake). However, homeostatic control can be overridden by hedonic (or pleasure-inducing) mechanisms. Stress can increase cravings of unhealthy palatable food causing alterations in food preference (e.g., sweet foods), enhancing the motivation for their acquisition (i.e., food … Lire la suite
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2021 — Cretaceous Amber: A New Source of Bird Remains and of Palaeoecological Information in Dinosaur BonebedsRésumé
In order to reconstruct Cretaceous ecology and environments, this thesis investigates amber deposits in Myanmar and Western Canada, through chemical analyses of amber and study of the inclusions. As part of this work, I described a bird foot and a large series of feather inclusions from the amber of Myanmar. In the bird specimen, a series of osteological features and the morphology of the claws, support a systematic placement among Enantiornithes. I was able to describe delicate integumentary structures associated with the foot. This included scutellate scale feathers, a type of feather that has only been documented in Burmese amber … Lire la suite
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2021 — An Investigation into Seeding the Solar System Via Terrestrial MeteoritesRésumé
An investigation into whether terrestrial meteorites could seed the solar system is the main purpose of this thesis. An estimate for the minimum amount of terrestrial material that finds its way into interplanetary space over the past 550 million years is made. From the characteristics of known terrestrial impact craters, it is found that at least 1013 kg of material, potentially containing microorganisms, has been ejected from the Earth’s surface into the inner solar system. This estimate is derived upon a reverseengineering approach which links the observed crater diameter to impactor size and then through a set of analytic equations … Lire la suite
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2021 — Indigenous Language Revitalization: Connecting Distant Cree Language Learners with Cree Language Speakers Using Video Chat TechnologyRésumé
aspin kakî-pî-mâci-kiskinwahamâkiyân nânitaw awasimî mitaht askiya nîtî athisitinîwikihci- kiskinwahamâtowikamikohk ka-kanâtâhk, ôma mân ôma kapî ka-kakwîcimikawiyân: tânitî ikwa na-itôtân kîspin ni-nohtî-pakaski-nihithawân? kapî nititwân nîtha: sîsâwî-pîkiskwî, miskaw awîna ka-nihithawît, kakwî-nakathâskâcikî îta mâna ka-pîkiskwâniwik ikwa mâci-wîcipîkiskwâs awîna ka- pakaski-nihithawît. ikwa mîna âtiht ôki okiskinwahamâkanak i-wî-nitawiwîkicik iskonikamihk nânitaw ita îta ka-nihithawâniwik, ikwa âtiht i-kakwe-miskâsocik, ikwa âtiht i-nohtî mosci-nihithawicik wîthwâw kici. ikwa ôm ôma nimasinahikîwin ikw ohci kakî-itohtamân osâm i-nohtî-kinwâpahtamân mahti isa mamâtâwi-âpacihcikan kakî-apatâk ikwa mahti i-wîcihimakâk nihithawîwipîkiskwîwinihk. mamâtâwi-âpacihcikan nâ âpatan ta-âsiwînamâk nihithawi-pîkiskwîwin ikwa asici nihithawi-isîcikîwina? ikwân îsa nikî-nitawi-âpacihtân ôma mamâtâwi-âpacihcikan inakiskawakwâw nihithawi-pîkiskwîwak kîwitnohk ohci ikwa asici nihithawikiskinwahamâkosak sâwanohk ohci ôta kisaskâciwanihk. nikî-mâwasakonîn kâkithaw kîkwâya … Lire la suite
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2021 — On The Automation of Agency in Algorithmic Music CompositionRésumé
This thesis, and the artworks that accompany it, are the products of my Special Case, Interdisciplinary PhD program. The program allowed me to develop artworks where programmable computers are granted agency over music structure, contrasting with my prior composing practice centred on digital audio workstations and linear scores. Here I seek bridges between my established practice of linear composition and those where algorithm-design facilitates interactivity, nonlinearity, and contact be- tween human agents through innovative computer-based interfaces. I establish three types of contribution: one third my contribution to computer science, one third the artworks which I developed, and one third my … Lire la suite
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2021 — DEEPVEG: Deep Learning for Multiclass Segmentation of Weed, Canola and Canola DamageRésumé
Farmers need to produce more food to feed the growing population. On top of that, pests (weeds and insects) pose a serious threat to crop production and we need to take steps to reduce the risk. Currently, the use of computer vision and deep neural networks have become a cornerstone in developing accurate methods of identifying and segmenting the damaged crops and weeds. Mostly the dataset taken under artifi- cial or controlled lighting conditions where foreground elements (i.e. weeds, crops) are easily distinguishable from the background (usually soil). However, real field datasets are collected under natural conditions. The lighting, shadows … Lire la suite
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2021 — An Empirical Test of the Relative State Model with Texas Holdem Poker ScenariosRésumé
This study empirically tested predictions from a new evolutionary model of risky decision-making, the relative state model (RSM), using Texas holdem poker scenarios. The RSM suggests that risk taking is a product of one of two interacting pathways—need (desperation) and ability (affordance). According the RSM, decisions are made based on an assessment of one’s relative state, attributable to the interaction of embodied and situational factors within the environment of competition. Embodied factors are inherent physical or psychological capabilities of the decision-maker; situational factors determine how those capabilities compare relative to others in an environment. In the present study, I tested … Lire la suite
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2021 — Segmentation of Ultrasound Images Using Deep Neural NetworksRésumé
During brachytherapy sessions, medical specialists record ultrasound images of prostate cancer patients and segment these images manually. In the process of analyzing patient records, it is a fundamental task to localize the catheters (needles) in the recorded ultrasound images. Due to the signi cant amount of noise in ultrasound images, localizing multiple catheter positions in ultrasound images is more challenging than similar image segmentation tasks for MRI and CT images. The manual segmentation process is very time-consuming and relies on experienced clinicians. Hence, a tool for the automatic localization of catheters in ultrasound images is highly desirable. In the medical … Lire la suite
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2021 — Modeling of Solid Particle Transport in Fractures and Its Applications to Proppant Placement During Hydraulic Fracturing OperationsRésumé
In addition to conventional enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technologies, extensive efforts have been made to explore new approaches to sustain the increasing global oil and gas consumption while lowering the operational costs. In recent decades, nanoparticles (NPs) have seen their promising potentials in recovering hydrocarbons from numerous laboratory experiments and field pilots. Also, hydraulic fracturing techniques have unlocked a significant quantity of hydrocarbon resources from unconventional reservoirs. Solid particle transport including NP transport, dispersion, and distribution in hydrocarbon reservoirs, proppant placement within hydraulic fractures, and sand production is critical to the efficient and effective hydrocarbon exploitation. Considering the petrophysical complexity … Lire la suite
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2021 — Analysis of Changes Based on Three-Way DecisionRésumé
Three-way decision has been applied in the data analysis domain since it was pro- posed by Yao in 2010. Three-way classi cation and three-way clustering are typical combinations of traditional processing methods of data analysis and three-way deci- sion. They mainly focus on data classi cation with the three-way decision. According to data features, the methods divide all objects into three regions. Most of the time, three-way classi cation and three-way clustering focus on data features to classify or aggregate data in regions. They ignore the information that changes may lead to results or patterns of data in di erent … Lire la suite
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2021 — Privacy-Preserving Generation of Textual Healthcare DataRésumé
Technological advancements in data science have offered us affordable storage and efficient algorithms to query a large volume of data. Our health records are a significant part of this data, which is pivotal for healthcare providers and can be utilized in our well-being. The clinical note in Electronic Health Records (EHRs) is one such category that collects a patient's complete medical information during different timesteps of patient-care available in the form of free-texts. Thus, these unstructured textual notes contain events from a patient's admission to discharge, which can prove to be significant for future medical decisions. However, since these texts … Lire la suite
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2021 — A Randomized Controlled Trial of an Online Psychoeducation Course for Improving Knowledge and Access to Mental Health AccommodatonsRésumé
Available research on mental health accommodations within the workplace suggests that employees with mental health concerns require accommodations to improve work functioning. Unfortunately, only a fraction of employees requiring mental health accommodations will receive the accommodations they have requested. Reported barriers to receiving mental health accommodations include lack of knowledge about appropriate accommodations, concerns regarding stigma, and financial constraints of the employer. There is a paucity of research available on interventions aimed at improving accommodation knowledge and usage for mental health concerns. The primary goal of the current study was to assess the efficacy of a four-lesson, online, psychoeducational course … Lire la suite
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2021 — Multiband RF/Microwave Front-end Receiver Design for Multi-Standard ApplicationsRésumé
With the demand for the wireless communication system to support multiple frequency bands introduced by new standards, multi-standard transceivers with low cost, low power, and high integrity start to receive more attention in recent years. As the number of operating frequency bands increases, the number of external filters and low-noise amplifiers in a commonly used multi-standard receiver with parallel architecture increases. It leads to high power consumption and low feasibility for high integration design. Compared to the RF transmitter, the design of the RF receiver front end is considered to be more challenging due to the increased signal interference/noise in … Lire la suite
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2021 — “Just Like Math”: Parents’ Perspectives on Sexuality Education in Primary ClassroomsRésumé
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, … Lire la suite
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2021 — Photoproduction of the b1(1235) Meson off the proton at Egamma - 6-12 GeVRésumé
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 … Lire la suite
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2021 — Passion Among Crossfit Enthusiasts: A Mixed Method ApproachRésumé
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 … Lire la suite
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2021 — Facilitators and Barriers to Technology Adoption: An Automated Pain Detection System for Long-Term CareRésumé
Canada’s population is aging at an unprecedented rate. That is, older adults—defined as persons who are at least 65 years of age—make up a rapidly growing segment of the population. With age as one of the strongest risk factors for the development of chronic health conditions, the Canadian healthcare system will be met with increasingly complex challenges in providing care as its population ages. The co-occurrence of dementia and pain among long-term care (LTC) residents, for example, presents a significant challenge since residents with dementia are less likely able to self-report their pain. Furthermore, despite the increased prevalence of—and greater … Lire la suite
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2021 — Analysis, Modeling and Enhancement of LTE-A Heterogeneous Networks in a Real-World EnvironmentRésumé
During the past decades, cellular networks have been greatly developed. An increasing number of devices such as tablets and mobile phones are connected to cellular networks. The heterogeneous networks (HetNets) play an important role in serving users with different requirements and huge data demands. LTE-A HetNets have been extensively studied for many years. However, most research works have focused on theoretic studies of LTE-A HetNets. Only a few researchers have a chance to access and study the actual HetNets. A big gap exists between theories and actual applications for cellular networks. It is essential to understand the mechanism of HetNets … Lire la suite
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2021 — Hermeneutic Phenomenological Inquiry: Risk and Protective Factors for the Left-Behind Children in the Northern Shaanxi Province, China With Gender ComparisonRésumé
The rapid industrialization and uneven regional development of China over the past few decades have forced a large number of young and middle-aged people in rural areas and small towns to leave their hometown and undertake burdensome manual jobs in urban areas. Many of them have become parents. Moreover, limited by the Chinese national residency registration system and the higher cost of living, it is hardly possible for migrant children to be incorporated in urban public education. These facts contribute to the widespread Chinese left-behind children phenomenon. Shaanxi province as one of the impoverished provinces in China is no exception … Lire la suite
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2021 — Land and Colonization: A Nehinuw (Cree) PerspectiveRésumé
This dissertation is about land, colonization, and Indigenous people. While focusing broadly on Algonquian peoples, special attention is given to the Spruce Island Cree of Cumberland House in northeastern Saskatchewan. The use of the Nehinuw (Cree) language and cultural historical knowledge provides new factual information, and new conceptual understandings on the issue of land and adjoining matters that critique, reaffirm or challenge existing assumptions and misconceptions regarding Indigenous peoples, Algonquian peoples, and the people of Kaminstigominuhigoskak, Spruce Island (Cumberland House). This study begins with a review and critique of twentieth century scholarship on Algonquian land tenure which mainly arose as … Lire la suite
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2021 — Life, Death, and Life AgainRésumé
This paper is in support of the exhibition Propagation, my Master of Fine Arts graduating exhibition that was held at the Last Mountain Lake Cultural Centre from February 3rd – March 28th, 2021. The exhibition and paper explore my personal history with my childhood garden, the lineage of knowledge I came to carry, and the food I have grown as a result. Firstly, I describe the exhibition itself, and the logic behind the particulars of its installation. Next, I explore the development of the exhibition through the MFA program, and a few key moments where the work shifted. In the … Lire la suite