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Automated title generation for research papers: A transformer-based approach
No full textThe task of generating concise, informative, and relevant titles for research papers is a critical but challenging aspect of academic publishing. This project report explores the application of Transformer-based Large Language Models (LLMs) to automatically generate and suggest research paper titles from their abstracts. Building on the foundational Transformer architecture introduced by Vaswani et al., we evaluate the performance of different models, including a custom-built LLM, a pre-trained GPT-2 model, and a fine-tuned version of GPT-2. Through qualitative analysis, we demonstrate that fine-tuning GPT-2 on a specific dataset of research paper abstracts and titles significantly enhances the coherence, relevance, and contextual accuracy of the generated titles. We address challenges such as hallucinations in LLM-generated text and discuss the importance of high-quality datasets and task-specific fine-tuning. This work contributes to the broader understanding of the capabilities and limitations of LLMs in specialized NLP tasks, offering insights for future research and applications in academic publishing.Graduat
Helping Each Other Up: Dyadic Experiences Underlying Enhanced Attachment Security in New Parents
Get PDFAs suggested by Bowlby (1988), individual attachment orientations can change during periods of chronic attachment system activation, such as the transition to parenthood. This study aims to build evidence for a promising dyadic model of increased attachment security by examining associations between partner support, self-efficacy, and attachment change in partners navigating new parenthood. 98 couples completed a semistructured interview and self-report questionnaires before and after childbirth. Results found self-efficacy and partner support buffered against attachment insecurity over time for men but not women. This study used a longitudinal, multilevel design to build meaningful evidence supporting a dyadic model of chronic attachment change.Jamie Cassels Undergraduate Research Awards (JCURA)UndergraduateReviewe
Doll tomorrow parties: The origin of transsexual glamour in balls and fashion and the adoption of the doll
Get PDFBlack and Latine femme queens and transsexual women have had a vital role in forming contemporary transsexual culture across race and class. One example of this vital role they have had can be observed through the concept of the “doll.” The doll is a type of transsexual woman interested in high fashion, nightlife, and glamour that emerged out of the predominantly Black and Latine ball culture. The doll, through its creation in ball culture and initial popularization by trans women involved in the fashion industry in the late 1980s, has become a concept of feminine empowerment among transsexual women. The continuing popularization of the doll has been mediated by the involvement of transsexual women involved in the twenty-first century fashion press. Specifically, the Spanish trans-focused niche fashion magazine of Candy and the New York style magazines of Paper and Interview have been significant in introducing the doll to the next generation of transsexuals interested in high fashion, nightlife, and glamour. The importance of the doll for transsexuals is demonstrative of the continuing influence that Black and Latine LGBT life has on the linguistics and culture of the wider LGBT community and the importance of ball culture to contemporary transsexual culture.Graduat
Models and data used to predict the abundance and distribution of Ixodes scapularis (blacklegged tick) in North America: A scoping review
Get PDFThe authors would also like to acknowledge the reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions. Their input greatly improved the quality of this manuscript.Tick-borne diseases (TBD) remain prevalent worldwide, and risk assessment of tick habitat suitability is crucial to prevent or reduce their burden. This scoping review provides a comprehensive survey of models and data used to predict distribution and abundance in North America. We identified 4661 relevant primary research articles published in English between January 1st, 2012, and July 18th, 2022, and selected 41 articles following full-text review. Models used data-driven and mechanistic modelling frameworks informed by diverse tick, hydroclimatic, and ecological variables. Predictions captured tick abundance (n = 14, 34.1%), distribution (n = 22, 53.6%) and both (n = 5, 12.1%). All studies used tick data, and many incorporated both hydroclimatic and ecological variables. Minimal host- and human-specific data were utilized. Biases related to data collection, protocols, and tick data quality affect completeness and representativeness of prediction models. Further research and collaboration are needed to improve prediction accuracy and develop effective strategies to reduce TBD.This study is funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Emerging Infectious Diseases Modelling Initiative (EIDM), awarded to the Mathematics for Public Health (MfPH) program led by the Fields Institute. The funder source had no role in the study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, or writing of the report.FacultyReviewe
Invariant conic optimization with basis-dependent cones: Scaled diagonally dominant matrices and real *-algebra decomposition
No full textSymmetry reduction for a semidefinite program (SDP) with symmetries makes computational solution of the SDP easier by decomposing the semidefiniteness constraint into multiple smaller semidefiniteness constraints. This decomposition requires changing to a symmetry-adapted basis that block diagonalizes the matrix variable, but this does not change the optimum value of the SDP because the semidefinite cone is basis-independent. For other cones that are basis-dependent, if optimization problems over those cones have symmetries one can still change to a symmetry-adapted basis that block diagonalizes the matrix. However, this change of basis generally changes the constraint cone and can change the optimum. In this thesis, we develop a framework for determining when symmetry reduction for basis-dependent conic optimization makes the optimum increase, decrease, or stay the same. The aim is to determine this using general features such as the symmetry group of the optimization problem, without having to solve the problem computationally. We then use our framework to prove various results of this type for scaled diagonally dominant programs (SDDPs), which are convex optimization problems over the cone of scaled diagonally dominant matrices. These results depend on the orbital structure of the underlying representation of invariant SDDPs. Using the regular representation, we demonstrate that analysis of SDDPs of any size can be confined to a smaller SDDP that is invariant under a particular representation. Our approach uses real *-algebra decomposition of equivariant maps, which is not needed for existing symmetry reduction of SDPs. Because polynomial optimization problems with sum-of-squares and sum-of-binomial-squares can be represented as SDPs and SDDPs, respectively, our results on SDDPs have implications for polynomial optimization. Using several polynomial optimization problems as examples, we give computational results that illustrate our theorems. For polynomial optimization subject to sum-of-binomial-squares, our examples include cases in which symmetry reduction causes the optimum to increase, decrease, or stay the same.Graduat
Open Worlds or Linear Paths: Exploring English-as-an-Additional-Language Oral Production Mediated by Minecraft
Get PDFAs digital games continue to gain popularity in learners’ everyday life, it is increasingly pertinent that educators be informed about ways to utilize them in the classroom. This pilot study investigated how, in a digital game like Minecraft, the quantity and quality of oral language production changed in the type of game design implemented: An ‘open world’ design that allows player agency in deciding goals and tasks, or a ‘linear’ design that provides pre-designed tasks and target achievements. Two participants, both English-as-an-additional language learners, were given a free 2.5 hour English lesson that contained both types of gameplay. Analysis of the transcript from the recording session was done primarily using LexTutor (Version 8.5), with other means, along with observations, the survey completed by the players. Results show that ‘open world’ play had more turn-taking and higher lexical density, and ‘linear’ design produced longer exchanges with more lexical variety. The results of this preliminary study will inform future research looking into the use of pre-existing online games to promote vocab and language learning, and will aid teachers in deciding how to incorporate digital games into their language classes in order to enhance learning outcome.Jamie Cassels Undergraduate Research Awards (JCURA)UndergraduateReviewe
Indigenous Peoples’ experiences with culturally safe health care
No full textIt is widely recognized that Indigenous peoples have a lower life expectancy and higher rates of chronic health conditions and infectious diseases than non-Indigenous people do. Factors contributing to such health inequities include the impact of colonization on Indigenous peoples’ health and racism that Indigenous peoples often endure in mainstream health care settings. To
promote Indigenous peoples’ health and reduce stigma and discrimination in health care, cultural safety is a promising approach. Although there is a substantial body of literature and research on cultural safety, there is a lack of resources to guide health care providers in practicing cultural safety effectively.
The overarching purpose of this dissertation was to gain insight into Indigenous peoples’ experiences with culturally safe health care. Two research questions guided the research process:
1. What are Indigenous peoples’ experiences with culturally safe health care
encounters?
2. How is cultural safety enacted in health care as described by Indigenous peoples?
Two methodologies were used to explore these questions. For the first question, I used the Joanna Briggs Institute meta-aggregative approach to conduct a qualitative systematic literature review. For the second question, I used a descriptive qualitative methodology informed by relational inquiry, which is a nursing approach that is grounded in critical theoretical
perspectives, hermeneutic phenomenology, and pragmatism. While the systematic review provided a synthesis of existing evidence, the qualitative study explored the ‘how’ of cultural safety, specifically, how health care providers created positive and safe health care experiences as described by Indigenous peoples, in contrast to much of the existing research that mainly
focuses on the ‘what’ of cultural safety.
This publication-based dissertation is organized into three papers. The first paper is a published protocol for the qualitative systematic review. The second paper is the completed qualitative systematic review. The third paper is a practice-oriented paper aimed at assisting nurse practitioners in implementing culturally safe practice at the point of care through the
creation of a mnemonic. The mnemonic was intended to provide a way for nurse practitioners to think about culturally safe care and enhance their ability to provide that care in specific health care situations.Graduat
Improving our understanding of vertebrates in nutrient recycling and ecological stoichiometry
Get PDFNutrient-rich, large, long-lived, and mobile, vertebrates may uniquely impact nutrient recycling and thus ecosystem function by storing copious nutrients within their bodies, by producing large quantities of waste, and by transporting nutrients long distances within and across ecosystems. Currently, vertebrates face myriad threats, leaving many ecosystems to face a future with reduced vertebrate biomass and diversity; understanding how vertebrates affect nutrient cycles thus provides valuable insight into how vertebrate extinctions will impact ecosystems. Broadly, I characterize variation in how vertebrates store phosphorus (P) within their bodies and recycle P from their diets in their excreted and egested wastes. To accomplish this, I link bone investment, bodily elemental content, and waste production. Bone, a P-rich tissue (mean of ~12%) unique to vertebrates, can alter vertebrate-driven nutrient recycling both by increasing P storage within vertebrate bodies and by changing P demand and thus P release in waste. Given this, my dissertation has three goals: (1) quantify how vertebrates vary in bone content and whole-body %P, (2) determine how this variation affects dietary intake and waste production, and (3) evaluate how bone may affect P demand differently from other P-rich bodily components. To fully characterize this, I used ecological stoichiometry (ES), a framework that uses mass-balance to conceptualize organismal and ecological processes, including nutrient uptake and processing by animals. I therefore begin my dissertation by developing methods to measure all factors effectively and simultaneously, which is rarely achieved in current literature. Using these methods, I then performed a field study to examine how intraspecific bone variation in the threespine stickleback (an evolutionary model fish species with well-characterized bone variation) affected whole-body %P, dietary %P, and P release in excreta and egesta. ES predicts that bone increases whole-body %P and should therefore increase P demand and decrease P release. Counter to these predictions, I found that although stickleback with more bone indeed had higher whole-body %P, bone did not clearly impact P demand. Stickleback with more bone showed similar diets, nutrient absorption, and egestion to those with less bone. Additionally, stickleback with more bone excreted more P, perhaps implying that bone mitigates P demand rather than causing it. More broadly, I found considerable variation in bone, whole-body %P, and waste production within and across sites, most of which was unexplained by size, sex, or environmental characteristics. Bone also causes interspecific and ontogenetic differences. In a systematic review of vertebrate elemental content, I found whole-body %P ranging from 0.39 – 6.91% P, suggesting strong bone variation across taxa (interspecific) and life stages (intraspecific). Given my previous findings, this variation may impact P demand and release in unexpected ways. Thus, I finish by integrating osteological and stoichiometric literature to examine how bone’s unique physiology affects its relationship with P demand and release. While ES implicitly assumes all tissues impact demand equally, bone’s unique characteristics change how it affects elemental demand. Primarily, bone’s ability to self-destroy and provide mineral nutrients to the rest of the body allows bone to directly mitigate a vertebrate’s increased P or calcium demands. This may make vertebrates with more bone more resilient to dietary P limitation, rather than the opposite. Ideally, future research will build on these findings to improve our overall understanding of vertebrate-driven nutrient recycling.Graduate2025-07-2
Beyond the Surface: Exploring the Relationship Between Body Image and Perceptions of Physical Skill Competence in Female Adolescents
Get PDFThe purpose of this preliminary cross-sectional analysis is to explore the relationship between body image and perceived lack of physical skill, which have been shown to be barriers to female adolescents’ continuation in PA and sport. Female participants (n=9, age=14.33) were recruited from the Adolescent Daily Lives study sample. Participants completed the Experience of Embodiment Survey (EOES), where the Resisting Objectification (RO) subset of six questions were used to quantify participants’ body image rating. Participants completed two test trials of each movement assessment, squat and one-hand catch (OHC), using the Baseline Movement protocols. Following movement completion, participants answered three Self-Reflective questions, using a Likert scale, to quantify participants’ perception of physical skill competence. Pearson correlation was used to identify an association between the two variables, where a strong positive correlation was found between body image and perception of physical skill competence (Fig. 1)(r= 0.808, p = 0.015). There exists a strong relationship between body image and individuals’ perceptions of their physical skill competence. In the second phase of this study, this relationship will be considered in its impact on participants' daily minutes of MVPA.Jamie Cassels Undergraduate Research Awards (JCURA)UndergraduateReviewe
Pre-war factory relations in Stalin’s Soviet Union (1924–1941)
No full textThis thesis analyzes the rapidly changing labour relations in the Soviet Union from the period of 1924 to 1941. While the Soviet Union proclaimed itself to be a workers’ state, the legislative changes introduced by Stalin created continuously harsher conditions for Soviet workers. The worker-director relationship in factories is examined in this thesis, along with how important legislative changes impacted this relationship. Accounts provided by former Soviet workers, including a set of interviews from the Harvard Project on the Soviet Social System, are used to determine how the workers viewed their role in the Soviet factory and their relationship with their directors. Collaborative efforts between workers and directors were necessary, even when legislation forbade it, so the factories could meet their constantly increasing quotas. Despite the Soviet state at times mandating factory directors to be ruthless and distant from their workers, the workers often understood that the directors had no choice in how they acted, as they were forced by the Soviet state to enforce strict laws or face harsh repercussions.Graduat