19614 research outputs found
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Leveraging Affect in the Wake of Disaster: From "Hell or High Water" to Resilient Calgary
Full text linkAffect and emotions are typically viewed as irrelevant factors within policymaking, with policy practitioners and theorists favouring the more positivist "rational model" of policymaking. However, in 2019, the City of Calgary released its Resilient Calgary strategy - an urban climate resilience strategy containing various affective remarks surrounding the 2013 Southern Alberta flood. Thus, the following questions were asked with the goal of bridging the gap between the affective and the political: what climate-derived affects were felt by Calgarians in the aftermath of the 2013 Southern Alberta flood, and to what extent were these climate-derived affects transposed into the City of Calgary’s Resilient Calgary strategy?
By conducting a thematic analysis of various media sources and the Resilient Calgary strategy, and by employing a deductive coding approach, four key findings came to the fore. First, affect is profoundly political; second, affective language can be leveraged to fulfil political objectives within particularly emotionally-charged contexts; third, affect can become embedded within climate-oriented policymaking, including urban climate resilience strategies, and; lastly, though affect can be employed for the betterment of the planet, affect can also be wielded within policy to maintain the status quo, effectively hindering or discouraging the transformative policymaking necessary to overcome climate change.Jamie Cassels Undergraduate Research Awards (JCURA)UndergraduateReviewe
International Climate-Affected Migrant Immigration Policy and Practices and their Applicability in the Canadian Context
Full text linkThis Master of Arts in Community Development research project explores international and Canadian climate-affected migration policies and frameworks, with a focus on emerging promising practices and their potential application in Canada. Currently, Canadian immigration policy does not account for individuals displaced due to climate change (Omeziri & Gore, 2014, p. 49; ibid., p. 45; Galloway, 2022, p. 28). As Andeva (2020) highlights, many existing systems for supporting environmentally displaced persons are designed to address short-term emergencies rather than long-term crises (p. 79). This research examines international frameworks and regional responses to climate-affected migration to assess their applicability in Canada. The research also considers the role of key stakeholders in shaping future Canadian immigration policy. Given the growing impact of climate change, it is critical that Canada prepares to support climate-affected migrants through inclusive and forward-thinking policies.Graduat
Butterfly PUFS: Securing FPGA Intellectual Property
Full text linkThis report delves into the creation, implementation, and assessment of the Butterfly Physical Unclonable Function (BPUF) in FPGA systems, with an aim to fortify hardware security. By exploiting natural circuit behavior variations, the BPUF generates unique, indeterminable cryptographic keys, offering solid protection against tampering and reverse engineering. The study initiates with an extensive review of current PUF technologies, emphasizing memory-based PUFs and their role in hardware security. During the implementation stage, the report outlines the configuration and results of both 1-bit and 8-bit BPUF settings. Experimental findings affirm the BPUF’s capability to produce distinctive, reproducible outputs, essential for dependable security implementations. Performance assessments employing Hamming distance metrics further evaluate the stability and uniqueness of BPUF outputs across different scenarios, highlighting their applicability in effective security systems. The report wraps up with considerations for future research, including the exploration of hybrid and more complex PUF designs to transcend existing barriers and augment security
measures. The study makes significant contributions to hardware security, suggesting novel strategies to shield digital infrastructures from advanced threats.Graduat
The Cultic Significance of Wheelmade Terracotta Figures in Late Helladic III C Eleon, Greece
Full text linkWithout written records, the evolution of religious practices can only be ascertained from
the evaluation of cultic objects. During the Late Bronze Age (1700-1050 BCE) in mainland
Greece, a significant shift in ritual practice occurred. With the decentralization of Greek society
after the so-called collapse near the end of the Late Bronze Age, it appears that rites previously
restricted to palatial centers were now executed at non-palatial areas. Recently discovered
artifacts consisting of wheelmade terracotta figures excavated at Eleon, a non-palatial site extant
during this period, were evaluated to determine not only their cultic significance but also if
distinct cultic spaces were located at this site. The findings were categorized using a novel
schema including ritual framing and semiotic analysis. Additionally, the objects were correlated
with comparanda from similar sites throughout Mainland Greece, Melos, and Crete to categorize
both their typology and ritual significance. Analysis of the data was performed through the lenses
of cultic continuity, cultic progression, and regional variation. The results reveal that ritual
practices were similar between Eleon and other sites, suggesting that this Post Palatial center had
both cultic objects and shrines.Graduat
End-of-the-world branes in AdS/BCFT
No full textWe investigate whether simplified models of anti-de Sitter space (AdS) terminated by an end-of-the-world (ETW) brane are a healthy dual to boundary conformal field theory (BCFT). Recent studies have shown that null trajectories starting from AdS boundary traveling to the ETW brane and back to AdS boundary can lead to singularities in the two-point function. Because such singularities do not exist on the BCFT side, they are detrimental to the
healthiness of AdS/BCFT duality. We note that these singularities in BCFT two-point functions are unphysical if light takes infinite time to travel from the AdS boundary to the ETW brane in the gravitational dual. Hence, we propose the condition for which the light crossing time between the AdS boundary and the ETW brane takes infinite time as a potential criterion to determine whether a bulk gravitational theory is a healthy dual to a BCFT.
In order to justify our proposal, we tested this criterion in several configurations. We first show that simplified models of empty AdS space terminated by an ETW brane do not satisfy this criterion. Then, we uncovered that adding matter in the form of a massive scalar field pushes light crossing time in the healthy direction. Next, the criterion is tested in a known stable solution of non-SUSY Janus to confirm that our criterion is in agreement. Lastly, we embedded ETW branes in three examples of AdS/CFT to see if such configurations could exist. We found a solution, but the ETW brane configurations were unstable, which is supported by our solution not satisfying the light crossing time criterion.Graduat
Does Ethnic Identity Salience Moderate Associations between Discrimination and Neuroticism Expression?
Full text linkChronic stress (CS) is a risk factor for depression and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The entorhinal cortex (EC) is the region first showing deterioration in AD. Reelin, which regulates synaptic plasticity, is dysregulated in the hippocampus following CS, in depression and AD, and in the EC following age-related cognitive decline. To examine the effect of CS on reelin+ cells in the EC, 36 rats underwent a cyclic CS model of recurring depression. A subset of rats received an injection of reelin on the last day to determine whether reelin treatment reverses depression-like behaviour and restores reelin in the EC. Reelin treatment reversed depression-like behaviour, but no effect of CS on EC reelin+ cell density was observed, suggesting that CS does not affect EC reelin as it does in other regions. Correlations were examined between reelin+ cell density, forced swim test immobility, and spatial memory. There was no relationship between reelin+ cell density and immobility time, however there was a significant correlation between spatial memory and reelin cell density in males. This correlation was disrupted with chronic stress but successfully recovered with a reelin injection, suggesting a relationship between spatial memory and reelin levels in the EC.Jamie Cassels Undergraduate Research Awards (JCURA)UndergraduateReviewe
Multi-channel source separation with video data
No full textThis research introduces a supervised multi-channel audio source separation system that integrates a video-based face detection system. The face detector identifies the nose position, aiding the multi-channel processing in isolating the primary speaker while suppressing environmental background noise and distracting secondary speakers. It is demonstrated that in far-field applications, multi-channel processing struggles with distracting secondary speakers when the primary speaker position is unknown. Utilizing video data provides valuable insights to identify the target speaker and assists the audio source separation system in directing its focus towards the target speaker. Furthermore, it is shown that multi-channel processing benefits from speaker position information to improve noise reduction in noisy reverberant environments.Graduat
The determination of on-water rowing stroke kinematics using an undecimated wavelet transform of a rowing hull-mounted accelerometer signal
No full textBoat acceleration profiles can provide valuable information for coaches and practitioners to make meaningful technical interventions and monitor the determinants of success in rowing. Previous studies have used simple feature detection methods to identify key phases within individual strokes, such as drive onset, drive time, drive offset and stroke time. However, based on skill level, technique or boat class, the hull acceleration profile can differ, making robust feature detection more challenging. The current study’s purpose is to employ the undecimated wavelet transform (UWT) technique to detect individual features in the stroke acceleration profile from a single rowing hull-mounted accelerometer. In this investigation, the temporal and kinematic values obtained using the AdMosTM sensor in conjunction with the UWT processing approach were strongly correlated with the comparative measures of the Peach™ instrumented oarlock system. The measures for stroke time displayed very strong agreeability between the systems for all boat classes, with ICC values of 0.993, 0.963 and 0.954 for the W8+, W4? and W1x boats, respectively. Similarly, the drive time was also very consistent, with strong to very strong agreeability, producing ICC values of 0.937, 0.901 and 0.881 for the W8+, W4™ and W1x boat classes. Further, a Bland–Altman analysis displayed little to no bias between the AdMosTM-derived and Peach™ measures, indicating that there were no systematic discrepancies between signals. This single-sensor solution could form the basis for a simple, cost-effective and accessible alternative to multi-sensor instrumented systems for the determination of sub-stroke kinematic phases.FacultyReviewe
Painting your own rainbow
No full textPsychology - Three Minute Thesis FinalistUVic Faculty of Graduate Studies Three Minute Thesis (3MT) research communication competition.Graduat
Transgender Travel: A Sociolegal Analysis of Safety and Risk
Full text linkTransgender individuals are an ever growing population around the world, yet safety and health regulations are slow to respond and adapt to. Both gender identity and gender expression make for important points of contact in conducting social behaviour, and gender is constantly being produced and reproduced within various locations. The gender binary, while socially constructed, still remains deeply and institutionally entrenched and, consequently, transgender individuals are often caught in the crosshairs of this imposed binary. This content analysis examines the various health and safety regulations that affect the everyday lives of transgender individuals, paying specific attention to the airport.Jamie Cassels Undergraduate Research Awards (JCURA)UndergraduateReviewe