Liste complète
La lecture de ces thèses nécessite une redirection vers le site du dépôt institutionnel.
-
2023 — Performance evaluation of BioPET detector for plant-imagingRésumé
Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging for plants has the potential to advance our understanding of plant physiology and metabolism, leading to the more efficient and sustainable agricultural practices. However, conventional clinical and preclinical PET systems are not fully suitable to plant studies due to requirement of a very good spatial resolution in order to distinguish plant tissues of small size. Additionally, a proper axial and transaxial Field of View (FOV) is needed to adapt plants of different sizes in a vertical alignment before imaging. In order to overcome these technical constraints, BioPET, a plant-imaging instrument was designed and developed. The … Lire la suite
-
2017 — Common Nighthawk (Chordeiles minor) Habitat Associations and Activity Patterns in the Northern Boreal ForestRésumé
Understanding how organisms interact with their environment is key to developing effective management strategies. Due to population declines detected in the southern part of their range, Common Nighthawks (Chordeiles minor) are listed as Threatened in Canada. Despite the northern boreal forest representing a significant portion of their breeding distribution, populations in these areas remain virtually un-studied and thus their numbers and biology are poorly understood. My study is one of the first to examine both temporal and spatial aspects of habitat associations for breeding nighthawks in the northern boreal forest. In the boreal region, fires create open habitats in an … Lire la suite
-
2023 — Investigations in plasmid biology at the levels of the gene, community, and ecosystemRésumé
Bacteria are diverse microorganisms that interact with and impact human life in myriad ways. Their genomes are typically comprised of a single chromosome on which core genes are encoded, and additional genetic structures that carry additional, accessory loci. Plasmids are one type of accessory genetic element that have a capacity to jump horizontally between bacteria, and in doing so, provide genes and associated functions to new hosts. Plasmids have established impacts on bacterial physiology and evolution, but many ques- tions remain about how plasmids persist, spread, and change in nature. Furthermore, since plas- mids evade standard sequencing and assembly approaches, … Lire la suite
-
2019 — Effects of Exercise Training on Heart Failure Measured Using SeismocardiographyRésumé
Heart failure has become a growing health concern across most of the Western world and will soon become a global health focus. The nature of the disease presents with a very high mortality rate. In Canada alone, the average mortality rate is approximately 50% within the first five years of diagnosis [1]. Exercise has now become a common treatment modality for many chronic disease conditions including heart failure. As heart failure advances, the myocardium goes through a remodeling phase that alters the contractility of the heart and its pumping efficiency. Exercise is known to lead to a positive remodeling of … Lire la suite
-
2025 — Community-based programming for families and children with disabilitiesRésumé
Leisure and recreation are known to positively impact families and children with disabilities. Leisure is defined as an activity that participants take part in when they are free from the demands of other responsibilities. However, opportunities for individuals with disabilities to take part in leisure activities in the community can be limited. The purpose of this research is to explore the experiences of families and children with disabilities in community recreation programming. To obtain participants’ perspectives the study was done using a constructivist viewpoint, and a qualitative descriptive design. Data were collected from four families using both one-on-one interviewing and … Lire la suite
-
2021 — Doubly Fed Induction Generator Control Using Artificial Neural Network for Wind Generation SystemRésumé
Due to the electricity demand and environmental concerns, alternative clean forms of energy have been widely researched in recent years, in which wind energy is in evidence. To convert the mechanical energy generated by the wind turbines, the wind generation system needs generators. The doubly fed induction generator is the most commonly used due to its high energy transfer efficiency, reliability, and low maintenance cost. The control of DFIG parameters is crucial to the dynamic performance of the wind generation system. This thesis aims to develop an artificial neural network (ANN) controller for the doubly fed induction generator in wind … Lire la suite
-
2012 — Discovering Group Differences from Qualitative and Quantitative Attributes Using Contrast Set Mining with Discretization and Measures of InterestingnessRésumé
Identifying differences between groups is a fundamental problem in many disciplines. Groups are defined by a selected property that distinguishes one group from the other. For example, gender (male and female students) or year of admission (students admitted from 2001 to 2010). The group differences sought are novel, indicating that they are not obvious or intuitive, potentially useful, suggesting that they can aid in decision-making, and understandable, implying that they are presented in a format easily understood by human beings. Contrast set mining has been developed as a data mining task which aims to efficiently identify differences between groups from … Lire la suite
-
2020 — Protein Classification Based on Compressed Amino Acid SequencesRésumé
Classification is a core task in data science and decision-making processes. Ma- chine learning algorithms can be applied to sets of already classified data items in order to train a classi er that can then predict class labels for new data items. With an increase in data volume and complexity, it might be favourable, in some application domains, to apply both the machine learning algorithms and the resulting classifiers on data in compressed form rather than their original form. The central question addressed in this thesis is whether the performance quality of machine-learned classifiers is affected by training and applying … Lire la suite
-
2015 — Torsion Units of Integral Group Rings and Scheme RingsRésumé
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 … Lire la suite
-
2024 — A robust intrusion detection system utilizing uncertain reasoning techniques in artificial intelligenceRésumé
Network Intrusion Detection Systems (NIDS) are essential components in cybersecurity, but they face several challenges, including uncertainty and a significant computational overhead. Network attacks and unauthorized access to remote computers can be detected by NIDS. Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques have been used to automate the intrusion detection process and reduce human intervention, thereby enhancing intrusion detection systems (IDS) performance. AI techniques, such as fuzzy logic, neural networks, and evolutionary computing can also be used in IDS. One proposed application of AI is to utilize evidential reasoning to handle uncertainty in NIDS. This approach leads to more efficient abnormality detection in … Lire la suite
-
2022 — Cardiac cycle timing intervals in acute COVID-19 and recovered COVID-19 with sustained symptomsRésumé
Research is available to show that COVID-19 can result in both acute and sustained cardiac damage. Acute cardiac damage may be due to elevated inflammatory responses and can result in ischemia, which can lead to impairments in the cardiac cycle timing events. The purpose of this project was threefold: 1) to characterise cardiac cycle timing intervals in patients with COVID-19, 2) to understand the mechanisms that compromise cardiac function in post-acute COVID-19 syndrome (PACS)/long COVID, and 3) to identify unique cardiac dysfunction which can occur due to COVID-19 as compared to cardiac and respiratory disease. First, case studies showed that … Lire la suite
-
2019 — Neuroprotective Effects of Cannabidiol Following Concussion: A Case StudyRésumé
Mild traumatic brain injury, such as concussion, can lead to physiological impairments. Although these changes in physiology are not always characterized by symptoms, they can be reflective of how the body is attempting to adjust and adapt to these consequences. Cannabidiol can aid with some of the physiological and symptomatic changes due to concussion, and the therapeutic properties of cannabidiol can be enhanced when administered with other cannabinoids, specifically, tetrahydrocannabinol. These cannabinoids can work together on the endogenous cannabinoid system within an individual, thereby influencing their effects on cerebrovascular and cardiovascular physiology. Specifically, the psychoactivity of the cannabinoids can regulate … Lire la suite
-
2016 — A Walk Test Simulator for Cellular Phone NetworksRésumé
Telecommunications is a technology that allows two distinct individuals/units to communicate effectively using voice and data signals. In the past two decades, telecommunications have grown into a comprehensive industry with billions of people using their services on a daily basis. With the increase in number of telecommunication companies, the competition to provide the best services at the lowest cost has become stiff. To attract more and more customers, telecommunications companies are spending millions of dollars to expand their networks and also to improve the quality of their service. In this thesis, work is focused on one aspect of telecommunications the … Lire la suite
-
2022 — Pneumonia Detection with Game-Theoretic Rough SetsRésumé
Pneumonia causes severe repercussions if not acted upon at the right time. Machine learning has been applied to classify chest X-ray images into pneumonia-positive and pneumonia-negative classes to allow an early diagnosis and support medical experts’ decisions about pneumonia. Nonetheless, the previous attempt focus on binary classification that may not consider the possibility of the presence of uncertain information in chest X-ray images. This method forces the system to have definite and unreliable decision on suspicious cases of pneumonia. The three-way classification can overcome the shortcoming of binary classification by classifying X-ray images into three classes, pneumonia-positive class to categorize … Lire la suite
-
2020 — Modeling Material Properties of Natural Fiber-Polymer (Grain Bags) CompositesRésumé
The current generation is under extreme pressure to find an effective way for disposal of existing plastic and a suitable, sustainable alternatives for plastic. During the recent past, natural fiber reinforced recycled plastic composites (NFCs) have emerged as a lucrative option to not only increase the life cycle of waste plastic but also provide a market for agriculture waste by utilizing fibers from crops as a reinforcement for these composites. Changing weather conditions, varied geographical locations and different harvesting techniques results in inherently inconsistent mechanical properties of natural fibers resulting in varied mechanical properties for NFCs. The main focus presented … Lire la suite
-
2015 — SaskTel: How Ownership Impacts Behaviour in a Competitive MarketRésumé
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 … Lire la suite
-
2020 — Long-term Effects of Concussions on Cerebral Autoregulatory Mechanisms in Retired Contact Sport AthletesRésumé
Increase in public awareness of the immediate effects of concussions has fueled researchers to better understand the injury from both a clinical and physiological standpoint in hopes to improve preventative and rehabilitation practices. However, there is very little information regarding the long-term change in the physiological systems in individuals with a history of previous concussions. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis was to explore how multiple concussions effected cerebral haemodynamics in the three major cerebral autoregulatory mechanisms in retired contact sport athletes. Specifically, three studies were conducted to focus on the different cerebral autoregulatory control mechanism. Study one (Chapter 3) … Lire la suite
-
2020 — Development of a Collaborative Decision-Making Framework to Improve the Patients’ Service Quality in the Intensive Care Unit During the COVID-19 PandemicRésumé
Healthcare is one of the biggest and complex service sectors, where decisions need to be made quickly, accurately and efficiently including multiple stake-holders. Especially during this COVID-19 pandemic, service improvement decisions in Intensive Care Units (ICU) are considered to be a critical factor. Many implemented solutions in the healthcare sector become unsustainable in the long term due to a lack of consensus among the stake-holders. In this thesis, a collaborative decision-making framework is developed to improve the Patients’ Service Quality in the ICU including multiple stake-holders. The key criteria, alternatives that can advance the service quality in the ICU are … Lire la suite
-
2018 — Japanese Photographic Documentation of Jewish Refugees in Kobe in 1941 in the Context of 1930s Social Documentary PhotographyRésumé
The photo-reportage ‘Displaced Jews’ (1941) is a rare representation of Japanese views on Jewish refugees at a time of great historical change. The project was carried out by six members of the Osaka-based Tampei Shashin Kurabu (Tampei Photography Club), led by Yasui Nakaji. My thesis addresses how these photographs can be read in the context of 1930’s social documentary photography and how they are innovative in terms of the representation of refugees. It explores these matters through comparison of ‘Displaced Jews’ with other period photos of refugees, in particular early 20th century photojournalistic depictions of European refugees, U.S. Farm Security … Lire la suite
-
2020 — Reimagining Recreation Spaces to Establish BelongingRésumé
There are six paradigms which have framed the supports and services available to people living with disability over the last 100 years. These paradigms (facilities-, services-, supports-, empowerment, resistance-based, and personal coherence) have composed people’s lives in institutions, schools, workshops, and community. Each paradigm, defined by practice and policy, is rooted in a particular view, or way of thinking, that is shared by society. This way of thinking, has either empowered or created dependency for people that experience disability. The literature presents the paradigms as mutually exclusive, each seamlessly transitioning into the next, leaving antiquated infrastructure, social policy, and ‘best … Lire la suite
-
2018 — Organ Donation Regulation and Reimbursement Programming Through A Policy Coherence PerspectiveRésumé
There is a substantial unmet need for donor organs for transplantation purposes throughout Canada (Blood, Organ and Tissue Donation 2016). Each of the provinces and territories has legislation governing organ donation, and each of these pieces of legislation contains a prohibition on the exchange of organs for what is officially termed ‘valuable consideration’. These prohibitions operate alongside public programs intended to encourage organ donation through the use of incentives. Programs reimbursing costs associated with being an organ donor are a common type of incentive to donate. The common prohibition on the exchange of organs for valuable consideration draws attention for … Lire la suite
-
2018 — Identifying Pantoea Genetic Factors Involved in Host Association by Integrating Comparative Genomics with a Dictyostelium discoideum Grazing Resistance ModelRésumé
Pantoea is a genus of Gram-negative bacteria within the Enterobacterales. Much of what is known about Pantoea has been determined through studies focused on its phytopathogenicity and epiphytic associations. Limited research has been conducted on Pantoea to characterize its capacity for opportunism in humans, despite numerous reports of clinical infections. This thesis aims to identify genetic factors that could contribute to host association and thus, opportunistic infections by Pantoea. Chapter 1 provides a broad literature review of Pantoea, opportunism and virulence, model systems to assess virulence, and the field of genomics. Chapter 2 describes the adaptation of a model system … Lire la suite
-
2017 — Teachers' Perceptions of Project of Heart, An Indian Residential School Education ProjectRésumé
The purpose of this study was to gain insight into how settler teachers took up an arts and activist-based Indian Residential School Commemoration Project called Project of Heart. More specifically, it sought to assess whether or not the research participants were led to transformation, demonstrated through disrupting “common sense” (racist) behaviours of teachers and students as well as through their engagement in social justice work that Project of Heart espouses. Since 2007 Ontario school boards have been required by Ministry policy to to teach the “Aboriginal perspective” in their high school courses, yet at the time of the study (2010) … Lire la suite
-
2014 — An Unsettling Journey: White Settler Women Teaching Treaty in SaskatchewanRésumé
In 2008, Treaty education was mandated in every grade and every subject in Saskatchewan; this was done in an effort to increase understanding of the significance of the numbered treaties and honouring the promises made. Despite this mandate, many teachers remain ignorant to the monumental role that treaties played in the foundation of Canada and the importance of treaty education. Using Indigenous and narrative methodologies as a theoretical framework for my research, I conducted a multiple case study, including myself as a participant, which explores the experiences of white settler women who are engaged with learning and teaching about treaties. … Lire la suite
-
2024 — Crushed: Climate anxiety and grief support through ceramic artRésumé
“Crushed: Climate Anxiety and Grief Support through Ceramic Art” is the support paper that accompanies my Master of Fine Arts graduating thesis exhibition, Crushed, an installation held at the Fifth Parallel Gallery from August 19-28, 2024. This paper delineates the exhibition its background, development, context, methodology, and artistic influence. It describes components of this project that extend beyond the gallery, and anticipants audience participation and reception. Crushed is an expression of my climate change anxiety and grief. With a floor scattered with super fragile ceramic vessels and a text about my fear and sadness on the walls, Crushed shows participants … Lire la suite