19614 research outputs found
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“Am I Japanese? Am I Nikkei?” An exploration of the identities of Yonsei and Gosei Japanese Canadians
Get PDFIn February 2024, I received a conspicuous text message from my grandmother asking me to call her as soon as possible. “You will not believe what I found,” she exclaimed as I picked up the phone. It was a postcard from my great-grandfather, John Nobuo Nagasaki, sent to my grandparents in 1974, almost 50 years prior. My great-grandfather was born in Vancouver on the 22nd of April, 1922. He was Canadian-born. However, he was also of Japanese descent and, despite never setting foot in Japan, was still considered ‘alien’ on so-called ‘Canadian’ soil. In 1942, when John Nobuo was 20 years old, he and his family were forcibly uprooted from the West Coast along with thousands of other Japanese Canadians and incarcerated in internment camps. Their family home in Vancouver was dispossessed and lost to them forever.
In 1974, John Nobuo visited Vancouver for the first time since his uprooting, a trip during which he wrote this postcard. As my grandma read it out loud over the phone, I felt my heart beat erratically in my chest. This postcard is the only piece of writing I have ever found from my great-grandfather, a figure in my ancestry who is somewhat of a mystery while simultaneously holding so much influence over my life and identity. The postcard read: “Hi, It sure has changed a lot here. I am getting lost every time I go out, But it sure is beautiful, and has it ever grown. Our old home is still here, and it’s the nicest on the block (remodeled). See you all soon, Dad.”
I felt chills. “It’s practically a family artifact,” my grandmother went on, “look at how he calls it a home and not a house…really shows how they lost so much more than just a house, so much more than just things.” I felt tears well up in my eyes. This postcard offered a rare connection to the past, a short missive which briefly outlined the emotion behind what my great-grandfather went through in the 1940s. Today, my family is mixed, assimilated, and disconnected, a broad tapestry of trauma trickling down through the generations. In reading this short postcard, I form a relationship with my heritage and the intergenerational trauma within my family, coming closer to understanding what it means for me to be Japanese Canadian, what it means to be a descendant of internment.UndergraduateReviewe
World model based multi-agent proximal policy optimization framework for multi-agent pathfinding
Get PDFMulti-agent pathfinding plays a crucial role in various robot applications. Recently, deep reinforcement learning methods have been adopted to solve large-scale planning problems in a decentralized manner. Nonetheless, such approaches pose challenges such as non-stationarity and partial observability. This thesis addresses these challenges by introducing a centralized communication block into a multi-agent proximal policy optimization framework. The evaluation is conducted in a simulation based environment, featuring continuous state and action spaces. The simulator consists of a vectorized 2D physics engine where agents are bound by the laws of physics.
Within the framework, a World model is utilized to extract and abstract representation features from the global map, leveraging the global context to enhance the training process. This approach involves decoupling the feature extractor from the agent training process, enabling a more accurate representation of the global state that remains unbiased by the actions of the agents. Furthermore, the modularized approach offers the flexibility to replace the representation model with another model or modify tasks within the global map without the retraining of the agents.
The empirical study demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed approach by comparing three proximal policy optimization-based multi-agent pathfinding frameworks. The results indicate that utilizing an autoencoder-based state representation model as the centralized communication model sufficiently provides the global context. Additionally, introducing centralized communication block improves performance and the generalization capability of agent policies.Graduat
Yoroboshi: A modern Noh Play
Get PDFThis thesis examines the implications of designating an adaptation with the source material's name when the two bear little resemblance. Focusing on Mishima Yukio's Yoroboshi, a play from his Modern Noh Plays collection, this study investigates the effects of this practice on the imagined audience. By classifying a Western-style drama (shingeki) under the highly formalized genre of Noh and creating the category of "Modern Noh," Mishima merges the contrasting notions of tradition and modernity. This thesis posits that this fusion suggests that solutions to contemporary issues critiqued in the play, such as the erosion of national identity, may be found in the past.
Mishima's Yoroboshi, adapted from a classical Noh play of the same name, introduces a family court to adjudicate the legal parentage of a young man blinded in an aerial bombing. The thesis explores the sociopolitical context of its time and the impact of labeling it as "Noh" on the audience. This analysis involves contextualizing the play, conducting a critical translation, and comparing it with the source material to assess its nature as an adaptation.
Through this examination, this thesis aims to enhance understanding of Mishima's Modern Noh drama in the postwar context and its significance for the audience.Graduat
Analyzing induced seismicity using the techniques of observational seismology: A case study of a hydraulic fracturing operation in northeast British Columbia
Get PDFThis thesis uses techniques of observational seismology to investigate induced seismicity related to a hydraulic fracturing operation. The hydraulic fracturing operation targeted the Montney formation in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. This study is unique due to its unprecedented resolution in both seismic data and injection information. An initial earthquake catalog is developed, with 3377 high quality events detected from 2021-01-26 to 2021-06-06. Joint high precision double difference earthquake relocation and tomography are performed. The majority of earthquakes in the catalog were associated with the Tower Lake hydraulic fracturing operation. The study area is located near Taylor, British Columbia, and the hydraulic fracturing operation was targeting the Montney formation for the extraction of oil and gas resources. It is found that the cumulative injected fluid volume is the injection parameter with the most influence on seismicity. Injection pressure and rate have less of an effect. This is consistent with the observations that most earthquakes are likely triggered by pore pressure diffusion, rather than the poroelastic effect. Double couple focal mechanisms are also calculated for select earthquakes. The calculated focal mechanisms are generally consistent with the maximum horizontal shear stress in the area. Some small-scale faults are identified using earthquake locations and focal mechanisms. Foreshock sequences are observed along two of the identified faults, demonstrating that fault characterization may be used to help guide injection operations to avoid induced seismicity.Graduat
Narratives of Language, Health, and Identity: Pursuing well-being through Indigenous language revitalization
No full textOver the past two centuries, the Indigenous communities of western Canada have faced monumental changes in the context of colonization and racism. While a small portion of these changes have been negotiated by these communities themselves, most have been imposed, resulting in rapidly changing identities and decreasing levels of well-being. One of the most prominent changes in the social domain has been the experience of language loss caused by practices and policies at Indian Residential Schools, and their aftermath for individuals and communities. For many communities the loss of voice is inseparable from several other significant experiences of disempowerment, all of which have left indelible marks on Indigenous identities. Within this context, today’s language activists are working to revitalize Indigenous languages, not simply to restore a symbol of identity, but for the much larger goal of undoing impacts of disempowering colonial experiences and narratives. This study argues that the methods involved in Indigenous language reclamation and resurgence should reflect the goals of building well-being for individuals and communities. It reviews how the formation and maintenance of Indigenous identity connects language and communication practices to well-being. It examines the undermining and replacement of practices that support well-grounded and agentive Indigenous identities, and then turns to what communities are doing in order to reverse these changes and restore agency and connection. Finally, it looks in depth at how similar programs can be adopted within the field of Indigenous language revitalization, including several concrete examples from the author’s specific context as an Indigenous person with wide experience in language documentation and as a teacher of the Nuxalk and Michif languages, ranging from curricula to unit plans to lesson plans to supporting resources and ways to adapt various common teaching methods. This study shares the author’s personal critical reflection on the use of methods and resources designed to increase the agency of learners, as well as reflections on how to develop and use materials and methods that also increase learners’ sense of security as Indigenous people and establish their grounding in place, in community, and in practice.Graduat
Environmental controls and phenology of sea ice algal growth in a future Arctic
No full textThe future of Arctic sea ice algae is examined using a regional ocean and sea ice biogeochemical model, with a simulation from 1980 to 2085, considering a future scenario with strong warming. To analyze the impacts of climate change, we computed key dates in the development of sympagic blooms, corresponding to the occurrence of specific growth conditions, and designed diagnostics of ice algal phenology to estimate the onset and peak of blooms. These diagnostics help understand how the timing of light and nutrient availability governs the growth of ice algae and how environmental controls will be altered by climate change across regions. With thinner ice, photosynthetically active radiation in bottom ice will reach levels sufficient for growth earlier, resulting in a better synchrony of high levels of light and nutrients. Increases in snow cover can potentially offset the effect of thinner ice, leading to shorter periods of favorable growth conditions in certain regions. The loss of sea ice cover before the late 21st century only impacts sympagic blooms at lower latitudes, as the timing of sea ice break-up shows little change relative to other key dates at higher latitudes. In response to climate change, the model simulates a modified spatial distribution of blooms, with the emergence of highly productive areas and the loss of blooms in other regions. However, the changes in the timing of growth conditions do not substantially alter the timing of blooms, and both onset and peak ice algae see little change. The simulated lack of sensitivity of bloom onset is attributed to the delay in sea ice freeze-up projected by the model, causing a reduction of overwintering ice algae. The resulting lower initial biomass at the beginning of spring then causes a delay in the development of blooms, offsetting earlier light from thinner ice.This research was enabled in part by support provided by BC DRI Group and the Digital Research Alliance of Canada (https://alliancecan.ca).FacultyReviewe
Making sense of critical suicide studies: Metaphors, tensions, and futurities
No full textCritical suicide studies is a relatively new area of research, practice, and activism, which we believe can offer creative new vantage points with which to ‘think’ suicide into the future. We present findings from a qualitative research study undertaken to understand how critical suicide studies is being conceptualized by those who draw from this orientation. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine scholars, practitioners, activists, and/or those with lived and living experience of suicidality. To analyze the data, we used reflexive thematic analysis and drew on a social constructionist orientation. We discovered that metaphors were an important way of conceptualizing and reflecting upon critical suicide studies. Four themes were generated: critical suicide studies is a site of respite and fortification; critical suicide studies is a felt experience; critical suicide studies is a desire line; critical suicide studies is yearning. We contend that the dominant language available to describe suicide and suicide prevention might not be adequate for expressing the complexities and contradictions of suicide prevention practice or suicide’s ultimate unknowability. We call for more diverse, inclusive, and expansive frameworks for understanding and responding to suicide and show the potential of joining other critical scholars and social movements to build a more just, caring, and inclusive world.This research was funded by the São Paulo Research Foundation, grant number 20/16014-4.FacultyReviewe
Bi-concave functions connected with the combination of the binomial series and the confluent hypergeometric function
No full textIn this article, we first define and then propose to systematically study some new subclasses of the class of analytic and bi-concave functions in the open unit disk. For this purpose, we make use of a combination of the binomial series and the confluent hypergeometric function. Among some other properties and results, we derive the estimates on the initial Taylor-Maclaurin coefficients |2| and |3| for functions in these analytic and bi-concave function classes, which are introduced in this paper. We also derive a number of corollaries and consequences of our main results in this paper.FacultyReviewe
Rethinking public transit networks using climate change mitigation and social justice lenses: Great Victoria Area case study
Get PDFPublic transit has a relatively low GHG-to-passenger ratio and offers affordable options for local travel compared with personal vehicle travel. Investments in an effective public transit network are therefore critical for progress toward climate change mitigation and social justice. Using the Greater Victoria Area (GVA) in British Columbia, Canada, as a case study, this research identified, mapped, and examined three new regional transit network scenarios, which, respectively, align with the objectives in the planning and policy areas of (1) climate change mitigation, (2) social justice, and (3) climate justice. The methods involved a literature review to develop an analytical framework for mapping and examining new transit networks using the climate change mitigation, social justice, and climate justice lenses. The framework was revised through a research practitioner workshop, and it was then applied using network analysis techniques to (re)map the GVA’s transit networks under the three scenarios. The key outcomes of the project included an analytical framework and a process for analyzing and remapping transit networks in ways that align with climate and social justice objectives. The findings indicated the need to add some bus routes and stops, especially in the northern part of the GVA, and two new fast transit networks according to the justice lenses.This project is supported by funding from the MITACS Accelerate program (application reference: IT35318).FacultyReviewe
Comparison of environmental DNA and SCUBA diving methods to survey keystone rockfish species on the Central Coast of British Columbia, Canada
No full textThis project was an extensive collaborative effort. We are thankful for the invaluable sharing of territory knowledge from the Kitasoo/Xai’xais Stewardship Authority, particularly Chief Doug Neasloss, Medrick Robinson, Spencer Mason, Tony Robinson, and Brady Stjerneberg. We are very grateful for the extensive expertise of the dive team: Derek Van Maanen, Andrew McCurdy, Tristan Blaine, and Courtney Edwards, whose knowledge and field skills made this project feasible. We thank Dr. Greg Owens for providing rockfish mitogenome sequences prior to their public availability. We also thank Braeden Schiltroth and Jeremy Heywood from the Vancouver Aquarium for providing access to tank water, and Cassandra Konecny, Jacob Imbery, and Dr. Mark D. Louie Lopez for helpful discussions and technical assistance. The photographs used in this work were generously provided by Neha Acharya-Patel, Andrew McCurdy, Mike Byerley, Vicky Okimura, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, and NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center.The rocky reefs of British Columbia’s (BC) coast are a productive ecosystem, home to 38 rockfish species (Genus: Sebastes) that are culturally and economically important. Quantitatively assessing rockfish populations is vital to support conservation and stock assessment needs. Self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (SCUBA) diving surveys are a commonly used monitoring method in BC. However, this resource-intensive approach is challenging, particularly for cryptic or deeper species. Herein, we compared environmental DNA (eDNA) detection methods with SCUBA diving surveys to capture overall rockfish biodiversity. We employed two eDNA methods: 1) a targeted quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) approach to monitor species of particular importance to First Nations collaborators and decision makers, and 2) a metabarcoding approach for assessing community composition using the previously published MiSebastes assay. Both approaches are confounded by the little DNA sequence divergence among species and high sequence variation within species. Overcoming these challenges using a whole mitochondrial approach with the mtGrasp and unikseq pipelines, we generated highly useful eDNA tools. We found that eDNA methods were highly comparable to dive surveys, as both methods indicated a similar ecological reality, including species detections and distributions. Though there are certain species that cannot be distinguished by the MiSebastes assay, eDNA metabarcoding still detected more rockfish species overall. Both eDNA methods show potential for use alongside conventional methods for scalable incorporation into community-based monitoring programs.This project was funded in part through a NSERC CGS-D grant and the Stephenson’s Exploration Advancement Grant from the Explorers Club to NAP. It was also funded in part through a MITACS
accelerate fellowship and a Genome Canada, Genome British Columbia, and Genome Québec large scale applied research project #312ITD to CCH.FacultyReviewe