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An Investigation on Modifiable Risk Factors and Grey Matter Volume in Healthy Older Women
No full textIt is projected that the global population of adults above age 60 years will surpass 2 billion by 2050. Age related cognitive decline represents a prevalent issue and research has demonstrated that women are at greater risk than men. Therefore, it is imperative to identify modifiable risk factors for aging women. Changes in cognitive function with age are influenced by many factors, some of which are modifiable such as physical activity and social interaction. Another factor that impacts women is the transition to menopause, which is characterized by hormonal changes. These hormonal changes are associated with a decline in grey matter volume, which has been linked to Alzheimer’s Disease. However, some studies have demonstrated that the use of hormone therapy may mitigate some of the effects of cognitive decline. Structural neuroimaging allows us to examine grey matter volume directly, in vivo. The current study will use magnetic resonance imaging to examine the relationship between grey matter volume and physical activity, social interaction, and hormone therapy in healthy older women. It is hypothesized that women with greater reported physical activity, social interaction, and who have used hormone therapy will demonstrate greater grey matter volume. The participants of this study are healthy women over the age of 60 years and are part of an existing longitudinal Australian study, the Women’s Healthy Ageing Project. Participants have structural magnetic resonance imaging data, self-reported questionnaires on physical activity and social interaction, and have been assessed for menopausal stage and use of hormone therapy. These measures were correlated to the participant’s grey matter volume using an MRI analysis technique known as voxel-based morphometry. Results demonstrated significant negative corrections between grey matter volume and physical activity composite scores (IPAQ). There were no significant corrections between whole brain grey matter volume and social activity (SF-36) or hormone therapy use. However, there was a trend towards a positive correction for both of the aforementioned correlations and a significant positive correlation between cerebellar grey matter volume and social activity (p<0.05, corrected). As the aging population continues to grow globally, it is essential to better understand the variables that influence trajectories of again; especially for women, who are particularly at risk for age-related cognitive decline.Graduate2025-04-2
Illuminating Al Purdy: The process of archival selection
No full textIn 2016, my supervising professor Dr. Nicholas Bradley travelled to Ontario to visit the home of late Canadian poet Al Purdy and access his fonds at the respective archives at Queen’s University and the University of Toronto. During this trip, he photographed hundreds of letters, manuscripts, worksheets, rare and inscribed books, and other archival documents belonging to the poet. I was tasked to select from among these photographs those which served notable biographical or scholarly function. I read a variety of Purdy’s poetry and prose as well as literary criticism in order to develop background knowledge on his life and poetics. I then annotated my selections and organised them into a WordPress website which will hopefully serve as grounds for future exploration of underrepresented works and epistolary relationships, and assist Dr. Bradley in his own ongoing research.Valerie Kuehne Undergraduate Research Awards (VKURA)UndergraduateReviewe
Cloud-based zero-trust and data quality management context aware system
Get PDFThe complex nature of modern healthcare systems and the widespread distribution of healthcare infrastructure made the interoperability within healthcare information system challenging. This could poses security risks, missing data, miscommunication , in addition to the human and technical-based errors. This dissertation focuses on utilizing an advanced AI system to overcome the challenges of clinical analysis, data confidentiality, availability, and integrity.
There are three main contributions of this research. First, implement TongueTransUNet, which is a well-managed architecture that utilizes a vision transformer, UNet encoder-decoder convolutional neural network, contrastive loss and quality control process supported with human-reinforcement feedback to extract tongue fingerprint. Second, design ZTCloudGuard for access control within the telehealth cloud-based eco-system between. The architecture manage users, devices, and output attributes by deriving a score to assess the mutual relationship considering semantic and syntactic analysis. Third, utilize hybrid qualitative and quantitative evaluation metrics and conduct comparative analysis to other related research. The main applications to this research are minimizing medical errors, protecting healthcare practitioners, detecting unrelated input and undesired output.
An ablation study using synthetic healthcare information attributes and word2vec model was conducted to judge the model results. The outcomes showed robustness and enhancement by focusing on high-quality input and rejecting unacceptable data. If the automatic process fails or goes below a predefined threshold, an extra reinforcement verification layer is introduced to the algorithm to add manual and human feedback.Graduat
Illuminating the Shades of Grey in the Black and White World of Consent Education
No full textCurrent consent education often provides a binary understanding of sexual relations, which revolves around a legal understanding of a physical action. Notions such as “yes means yes” and “no means no” are the bare minimum level of understanding required to have ethical relations, but it is often here where the conversation ends. The focus of this research project is to illuminate the significant lack of consideration regarding the emotional tribulations and realities that exist around giving and receiving consent. This research takes the form of a literature review on post-secondary student's experiences of consent education, and an analysis of online survey data from UVIC undergraduate students. The findings of the literature review included four primary themes, these being the presence of misconceptions perpetuated through the current educational systems; the impact of binary frameworks; the call for 2SLGBTQIA+ informed teaching; and the disconnect between educational rhetoric and the nuances of reality. The UVIC study produced two primary themes regarding the male, heterocentric focus of education, and the lack of nuanced, trauma-informed teaching. Data from both of these inquiries points to a call for more research regarding larger-scale consent education attitudes in Western society, and the knowledge gaps within the UVIC community.Jamie Cassels Undergraduate Research Awards (JCURA)UndergraduateReviewe
Novel method for electrically tuning the resonant frequency of Piezoelectric Vibration Energy Harvester (PVEH) by using low power actuation
No full textAdvancements in electronics and MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems) technology have enabled the deployment of a large number of sensors and signal transmitters on structures at critical locations to extract vital data and avoid catastrophic failures. This approach leads to condition- based maintenance of structures. In this scenario, the critical requirement is an autonomous power source that can power the system. In most cases, wired connections to a central power unit are not feasible, resulting in the use of batteries to power the sensors and transmitters. In recent years a great deal of research has been focused on harvesting from solar, thermal, kinetic, and RF (Radio Frequency) energy available in the environment. Of all these ambient conditions, kinetic energy in the form of vibrations is more prevalent in many structures and machinery. This has resulted in an increased focus on effectively converting vibration energy to electrical energy. Among many methods adopted, the application of piezoelectric materials has led to promising results. A piezoelectric energy harvester in a cantilever design can generate high power output, only at its resonant frequency and much research has been focused on methods of tuning the harvester to match the ambient frequency of vibrations.
This dissertation details an active tuning methodology and design of a device, which has resulted in achieving a net power gain. The concept is to utilize a low power actuation mechanism integrated with the harvester to enable active tuning of the resonant frequency of the device. The approach was to make use of Ionic Polymer Metal Composites (IPMC) for the required actuation. IPMC is a smart material, whose actuation can be altered by varying the input voltage to the device.
The IPMC used here is perfluorinated Nafion films with noble metal coated on both sides as electrodes. When subjected to an applied voltage, the free cations in the membrane, tagged to the water molecules, move to the negative electrode. This phenomenon creates bending of the film. This is the actuation process associated with IPMC.
The actuator unit of two strips of IPMC, attached at the tips was powered by a very low voltage ranging from 1 to 4 V. The various levels of actuation generate corresponding block forces and functions as equivalent to tunable stiffness stoppers. This dissertation provides details of experiments carried out, theoretical analyses, and the applications of this novel device.Graduate2024-12-1
Review of ammonia production and utilization: Enabling clean energy transition and net-zero climate targets
No full textIn 2015, the Paris agreement was signed by 196 countries in attendance at COP21 that highlighted the need for rapid decarbonization and carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and sets ambitions to reach net zero emissions by mid-century. The production of ammonia can contribute to achieving net-zero emissions in several ways including energy storage, clean fuel, industrial applications and carbon capture and utilization (CCU) processes, if produced using renewable energy (RE) sources with very low greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions during production and utilization. This review study highlights the potential of green ammonia production pathways, utilization, ammonia storage and transport, ammonia infrastructure and economy, to serve various roles and provide potential benefits in decarbonizing industry and clean energy transitions to meet net-zero climate targets. Renewable ammonia cannot only help decarbonize existing ammonia markets by displacing fossil fuels, but can also help greening the industrial sector such as fertilizer and chemical industries and accelerate decarbonization in hard-to-abate industries, including retrofit of existing ammonia plants. Ammonia is also expected to be used in the stationary power sector as renewable fuel as the technology matures. It can also play an imperative role as a promising maritime fuel, owing to its zero-emission properties, high energy density and compliance with ever more stringent environmental regulations, transporting RE, in the shipping industry that is one of the largest GHG emitters. Moreover, as a hydrogen carrier, ammonia can deliver industrial feedstocks and enable lower-cost hydrogen imports as compared with renewable hydrogen. Encouraging green ammonia production technologies and near-zero-emission technology progress can guide desirable future pathways for the ammonia industry, including handling important safety considerations of production, storage and end-use.The authors acknowledge support from the private donor funding.FacultyReviewe
Red cedar confessionals of the rich man's sport
No full textAn award-winning work of fiction with the theme of equity, diversity, and human rights created by undergraduate student Tessa Thevenot, selected by celebrity judge Thembelihle (Thembie) Moyo.2024 On the Verge Writing Contest first-place fiction winnerUndergraduat
Feeling person-able: Thinking with sex robots, therapy dogs and artificial friends
No full textI have long been interested in the stories we tell about the entities which/who, in any given time and place, emerge as favoured candidates for membership in one of Western law’s most hallowed categories: the legal person. The performances required for the political prize of personality – reason, language, consciousness or self-interest – are as pernicious as they are prevalent. Yet boundaries always presuppose boundary work. And beings are entangled; categories porous; stories, unruly.
In this presentation, I examine some contemporary narratives featuring sex robots, therapy dogs and artificial friends drawn from a range of sites of legal culture. These tales reveal our anxieties and obsessions, our delusions and desires. They make visible a series of conceptual traps in Western thinking about the person, and at the same time, open up possibilities for impersonating differently. Embodiment, entanglement, touch and care all surface in these stories with powerful effects and affects.UVic Graduate Student Law & Society Research GroupFacultyUnreviewe
The study of Ruthenium(II) half-sandwich phosphido complexes containing Pentamethylcyclopentadienyl (Cp*) ligand
Get PDFThe catalyst Ru(η5-Cp*)(PPh2H)2(PPh2) was developed by the Rosenberg group for the hydrophosphination of activated alkenes with primary and secondary phosphines. Our group’s recent publication about this system described high activity of this catalyst and preliminary mechanistic studies indicated that the intramolecular proton transfer from the cis-coordinated PPh2H should be the turnover-limiting step for this system.
My work started with further investigating the alkene scope for this system to see the activity and generality of the Cp*Ru catalyst toward a variety of alkenes and to get evidence to support the proposed mechanism for a model hydrophosphination reaction catalyzed by the new catalyst. The activity of the catalyst toward electron-deficient alkenes supported that the mechanism includes the nucleophilic addition of the Ru-PPh2 at the alkene. This investigation also gave evidence that was consistent with the existence of an equilibrium in the proposed mechanism.
I did a kinetic study to obtain the experimental reaction order for substrates involved in the hydrophosphination of methyl methacrylate with PPh2H catalyzed by the Cp*Ru catalyst. The results from this study supported our proposal that the last substitution step is not the turnover-limiting step in this system as it was for the indenyl analogue. Also, an isotope labeling experiment was conducted to get evidence for the proposed turnover-limiting step in the proposed mechanism.
Since the Cp*Ru complexes used to catalyze the hydrophosphination reactions were challenging to isolate due to their high solubility and substitutional lability, they were generated in situ throughout all investigations. The presence of PPh3 ligand in the starting material led to the formation of an orthometallated product during the attempted isolation, so I replaced PPh3 with 1,5-cyclooctadiene (COD) to prevent the orthometallation process and was able to isolate this complex for R = Ph.Graduate2025-09-0
Instant identification of bacteria species using integration of colorimetric sensing arrays and deep learning (Mostafa – Akbari – Karan, MAK - 1)
Get PDFThe research delves into the integration of colorimetric sensors in detecting volatile organic compounds (VOCs) for rapid bacterial identification through advanced machine-learning algorithms. With the use of a colorimetric sensor array that detects any VOCs in the form of a chemical change, we were able to establish a methodology. The pattern was formed and further deep analysis of this pattern to produce homogeneity in results was the goal. This method uses optoelectronic arrays to process RGB data, allowing for highly specific bacterial sample separation. Artificial intelligence frameworks are used in the creation and testing to improve detection capabilities and increase accuracy even with little data. The final ANN model utilized for the image classification was able to produce 92% accuracy within 2 minutes after utilizing a training sample of 235 samples and testing it on 10% of data throughout the span of 2 months. The results of the findings extend to clinical diagnostics, where accurate detection might facilitate targeted treatments and expedite pathogen identification. The results indicate potential for practical application, providing a robust tool for non-invasive bacterial classification.Graduat