oURspace (Univ. of Regina)
Not a member yet
15455 research outputs found
Sort by
Refugee-background students in French immersion programs: Exploring the perspectives and ideologies of educators across the Canadian Prairies
No full textA Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education, University of Regina. xii, 187 p.French immersion (FI) programs are becoming more culturally and linguistically diverse because of increased global migration to Canada. Researchers have found that multilingual families and learners are often highly motivated to learn both French and English in Canada (Dagenais & Jacquet, 2000; Dagenais & Moore, 2008; Davis et al., 2019). Moreover, multilingual learners tend to develop strong language proficiency in FI programs (Bourgoin & Dicks, 2019; Knouzi & Mady, 2017; Mady, 2015). However, multilingual learners are often excluded from FI programs on the basis of ostensibly low English language abilities (Davis et al., 2021; Mady & Masson, 2018; Roy, 2015). In the present study, I explore the perspectives and ideologies of educators with respect to refugee-background students in FI programs in eight school divisions across Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Alberta. Adopting the theoretical perspective of sociolinguistics for change, I examine the perspectives of FI teachers, principals, and central office staff through semi-structured interviews (n=40) and questionnaires (n=126). My analysis and triangulation of data generated findings pertaining to eight areas: 1) diversity in FI programs; 2) perceived suitability of FI programs for refugee-background students; 3) perspectives on the learning of refugee-background students in FI programs; 4) challenges facing refugee-background students and families; 5) beliefs about inclusion in FI programs; 6) gatekeeping practices in FI programs; 7) perspectives on policy in FI programs; and 8) supports in FI programs. The findings of this research are presented in a manuscript-style dissertation, including an introduction, three peer-reviewed journal manuscripts, and a conclusion. In the final chapter, I discuss the contributions of this research, propose ideas for future inquiry, and advance recommendations for school divisions to create more equitable and inclusive FI programs across Canada.
Keywords: French immersion; multilingualism; immigration; language ideology; policyStudentye
Development of a pellet extruder with co-axial nozzle for 3D printing using inflatable extrudates
No full textA Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Applied Science in Industrial Systems Engineering, University of Regina. x, 97 p.Additive manufacturing (AM) has emerged as one of the core components of the fourth industrial
revolution, Industry 4.0. Among others, the extrusion AM (EAM) of thermoplastic materials has
been named as the most widely adopted technology. Fused filament fabrication (FFF) relies on the
commercial availability of expensive filaments; hence pellet extruder-based EAM techniques are
desired. Large-format EAM systems would benefit from the ability to print lightweight objects
with less materials and lower power consumption which can be possible by using hollow
extrudates rather than solid extrudates to print objects. In this work, we designed a custom extruder
head and developed an EAM system that allows the extrusion of inflatable hollow extrudates of a
relatively wide material choice. By incorporating a co-axial nozzle-needle system, a thermoplastic
shell was extruded while the hollow core was generated by using pressurized Nitrogen gas. The
ability to print using hollow extrudates with controllable inflation allows printing objects with
gradient part density with different degrees of mechanical properties. In this article, the effect of
different process parameters namely, extrusion temperature, extrusion speed, and gas pressure
were studied using poly-lactic acid (PLA) pellets. Initially, a set of preliminary tests was conducted
to identify the maximum and minimum ranges of these parameters that result in consistent hollow
extrudates. Later, the parameters were varied to understand how they affect the core diameter and
shell thickness of the hollow extrudates. These findings were supported by analyses of microscopic
images taken under an optical microscope. In the next phase of our experiment, we printed an
inflated cylindrical part using the process parameters derived from the initial set of experiments.
We carefully compared the results with the data obtained earlier to ensure accuracy and
consistency. Finally, we successfully printed an object with varying densities in different sections.
Keywords: Additive Manufacturing; Extrusion Additive Manufacturing; Hollow Extrudates;
Pellet Extrusion; Fused Filament Fabrication.Studentye
Fostering Synergy: Enhancing Children and Youth Outcomes through Collaboration Across Human Service Organizations- Insights from TRiP (The Regina intersectoral Partnership)
No full textAccess to services and supports for children and youth in vulnerable contexts remains a key challenge in Canada due to fragmented service delivery systems. Cross-sectoral collaboration has proven to be an effective strategy to overcome existing silos through providing wraparound coordinated services, and a means to promote healthy development and safety of children. Given the challenges associated with establishing and sustaining cross-sector collaborations, including coordination issues and conflicting interests of the sectors involved, our study used TRiP (The Regina intersectoral Partnership) as a case study to explore the dynamics of this collaborative initiative. TRiP is a collaboration across six human service organizations to improve outcomes for children/youth in vulnerable contexts, which has been functioning in Regina, Saskatchewan since 2010.
Our research aimed to investigate the emergence, formation, and evolution of this cross-sectoral collaboration; factors influencing collaboration and service coordination across sectors; and the processes and structures involved in establishing and sustaining robust collaborative initiatives. By drawing on interviews with stakeholders from six human service organizations engaged with TRiP (n=25), and persons with lived experience (n=20), observations, and document reviews, the research team identified factors influencing collaboration and service coordination across sectors. We also examined the governance, process of coordinating services across sectors, funding structure, and accountability mecha¬nisms within TRiP.
Our research findings are categorized into four key themes: 1) achievements and outcomes, 2) factors contributing to success and sustainability, 3) perceived gaps and areas for improvement, and 4) suggestions for improvement. Many caregivers and children interviewees pointed to the significant achievements and outcomes accomplished by TRiP since its conception, including: the positive outcomes to the safety and well-being of children; and the positive outcomes experienced by the caregivers, including a nurturing support, improved child-caregiver relationships, and better access to support services. Participants identified a host of factors contributing to the success and sustainability of TRiP including: having a shared vision to guide the direction of TRiP; continuous growth and evolution of the initiative; the leading role of champions within the initiative; the sharing of information between sectors and stakeholders; having a dedicated and single point of contact between TRiP and its clients; and TRiP’s ability to act as a conduit for effectively communicating with various human services organizations. Participants also identified several areas for improvement within TRiP, including: chronic resource limitations; administrative hurdles associated with information sharing; ongoing siloing of sectors engaged; TRiP’s limited public presence; and limitations to clients in the form of age-restricted supports and disrupted continuity of care. Finally, participants provided suggestions for improvement to guide the continued refinement and evolution of TRiP, including: adoption of a proactive rather than reactive approach; enhancement of TRiP’s visibility in the public; revitalization of TRiP’s current system of governance; strengthening TRiP’s accountability mechanisms; establishing cohesive and unified definitions and measures of success; enhancing staff retention; and expanding the range of support opportunities for children.Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation (SHRF
Viscosity modeling of solvent-water-heavy oil/bitumen systems at high pressures and elevated temperatures
No full textA Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Applied Science in Petroleum Systems Engineering, University of Regina. xix, 129 p.It is widely accepted that enhancing heavy oil/bitumen recovery has become a priority
though fundamentally challenging due to the rising oil consumption and gradual depletion
of conventional oil. The hybrid solvent-steam injection has been considered to be one of
the most important enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods for a given heavy oil/bitumen
reservoir with its main mechanisms related to viscosity reduction resulted from thermal
energy as well as solvent dissolution. To quantify the viscosity for such mixtures, various
correlations have been proposed but each of them has its own limitations and may lead to
large deviations under certain conditions. It is, therefore, important to accurately quantify
the viscosity of solvent-water-heavy oil/bitumen systems within a unified, consistent, and
efficient framework.
First, this work presents a novel framework for dynamically reproducing the measured
viscosity of solvent-heavy oil/bitumen systems under varying pressure and temperature
conditions by integrating the Peng-Robinson equation of state (PR EOS) with binary
interaction parameters (BIPs) and modified alpha functions. By treating heavy oil/bitumen
as either as a single pseudocomponent (PC) or multiple PCs, the six most common mixing
rules (i.e., Arrhenius’ mixing rule, Cragoe’s mixing rule, double-log mixing rule, Lobe’s
mixing rule, power law mixing rule, and Shu’s mixing rule) have been evaluated and
compared. By adopting the effective density concept, the volume-based power law, weight-based
power law, and weight-based Cragoe’s mixing rules reproduce the experimentally
measured viscosity from 4.3-15000.0 mPaꞏs within the pressure and temperature range
from 1.1 to 10.9 MPa and from 287.9 to 463.4 K. When utilizing one PC to represent the
oil sample, the overall absolute average relative deviation (AARD) for viscosity prediction
is found to be 16.0%, 16.5%, and 29.4% for the aforementioned three mixing rules. When
treating heavy oil/bitumen as four PCs, the AARDs decrease to 13.9%, 14.8%, and 19.3%
for the same mixing rules.
Then, such a framework has been expanded to determine the viscosity of solvent-water-heavy
oil/bitumen mixtures as a function of thermal energy, solvent dissolution, and water
concentration. By treating heavy oil/bitumen as either a single PC or multiple PCs, such a
framework along with the volume translation (VT) strategy and effective density for the
six mixing rules successfully reproduces the experimentally measured viscosity from 0.7-
566.0 mPaꞏs with an overall AARD of 41.1%, 10.2%, 26.3%, 36.4%, 47.2%, and 47.3%
(1 PC) and 30.2%, 9.1%, 19.3%, 35.5%, 40.0%, and 30.1% (4 PCs), respectively. Adding
water to a solvent-heavy oil/bitumen mixture can either increase or decrease its viscosity,
mainly depending on thermal energy and solvent dissolution. Water concentration in feed
plays a crucial role on the mixture viscosity at liquid/vapor (LV) equilibria other than
aqueous/ liquid/vapor (ALV) equilibria. Heavier solvents are found to have a superior
capacity for diluting heavy oil/bitumen at the same solvent concentration, and water has
the similar ability for reducing mixture viscosity when it is in liquid phase. At a higher
temperature, water as a vapour shows its better ability in diluting heavy oil/bitumen than
some solvents (e.g., CO2 and C3H8). In addition to enabling dynamic and accurate viscosity
prediction for complex mixtures, this framework can be seamlessly integrated with any
reservoir simulators, facilitating design, evaluation, and optimization of a hybrid solvent-steam
process.Studentye
Cross-Sectoral Collaboration to Improve Outcomes for Children/Youth in Vulnerable Contexts: Policy Dialogue Report
No full textExecutive Summary
This report summarizes a one-day policy dialogue event that brought together 55 stakeholders and persons with lived experiences to discuss key lessons from TRiP (The Regina intersectoral Partnership) initiative. TRiP is an example of sustained collaboration across six human service organizations to improve outcomes for children and youth in vulnerable contexts within Regina, Saskatchewan, since 2010. The event aimed to explore how these lessons can be applied in other intersectoral contexts through the engagement of the participants in 1) TRiP translation and 2) consensus-building activities (World Café).
During TRiP translation group activity (see details below), participants were asked about the top reason for TRiP's success. Collaboration was the most common response among 28 participants, followed by the knowledge and dedication of frontline staff (4 participants) and shared consent (2 participants). When asked what aspects of TRiP could be translated into other contexts, participants identified six key categories: effective communication, governance and leadership, building relationships and trust, accountability and responsibility, evaluation and measurement, and organization support and resources.
During the World Café conversations, the event participants discussed the core themes that emerged from the research study including governance and leadership, accountability, information sharing, defining and measuring success and resources. Below is the summary of key findings in each theme.
Governance and Leadership: Participants emphasized the need for buy-in from government and higher-level leadership, suggesting concrete actions beyond written strategies to foster cross-sectoral collaboration. They discussed various leadership models, including single-entity and shared approaches, with considerations for accountability and alternative governance structures.
Accountability: Challenges to accountability in collaborative initiatives were identified, including a lack of shared definitions and siloed structures hindering collaboration. Proposed solutions included inclusive engagement strategies, enhanced communication, capacity building, and person-centered care for improved service continuity.
Information Sharing: Participants stressed the importance of building trust among partners, understanding sector skill sets, and utilizing shared physical space for efficient collaboration. Purposeful information collection and sharing, with a trauma-informed approach, empower clients and improve service delivery.
Defining and Measuring Success: Defining success in collaborative initiatives such as TRiP was seen as complex, tailored to individual needs, and requiring a holistic approach with quantitative and qualitative measures. Success was viewed as collective and reflective of strong partnerships and family connections.
Resources: Concerns about potential burnout among dedicated staff and financial challenges, especially in securing government funding, were noted. Suggestions included exploring direct resource allocation options and addressing the high turnover rate among TRiP personnel to enhance service delivery.Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation (SHRF
Impact of institutional betrayal and institutional courage on mental health in people with chronic disease
No full textA Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Psychology, University of Regina. viii, 81 p.People living with chronic disease are at an increased risk of developing psychological distress. Moreover, people living with chronic disease interact with healthcare institutions frequently and are, therefore, more likely to experience adverse medical events. Relatedly, institutional betrayal is an institution's failure to prevent and respond to harm experienced by the people they serve, whereas institutional courage may mitigate some of these harms. This study aims to understand how interactions in healthcare (i.e., adverse medical events, institutional betrayal, institutional courage) impact psychological outcomes. A case-control study was conducted with participants who were at least 18 years of age and living with and without chronic disease. Self-report questionnaires were administered to participants regarding healthcare experiences and mental health symptoms. Independent samples t-tests were conducted to compare people with and without chronic disease with regard to these experiences and symptoms. Hierarchical multiple regressions were run to determine if healthcare experiences predicted mental health symptoms. We found that people living with chronic disease reported significantly higher levels of depression, anxiety, trauma, institutional betrayal, and adverse medical events compared to people without chronic disease; however, people without chronic disease reported significantly higher levels of institutional courage compared to people with chronic disease. Moreover, institutional betrayal significantly predicted anxiety and trauma symptoms, but not depression symptoms. These results demonstrate the impact that healthcare institutions have on the well-being of their patients and highlight the need for better systems in responding to patient harm. Findings from this study could inform mental health treatment for populations with comorbid chronic disease and psychological distress
Modeling of birth and death oscillations in provinces of Canada
No full textA Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Statistics, University of Regina. viii, 90 p.We discuss several statistical properties of the new proposed Log-Logistic Erlang (LLogE)
distribution. Additionally we analyse birth, death oscillation of Canadian provinces in depth
as well as the correlation between birth and death and those with temperature that has been
collected from center of population of each provinces.
While the focus of this study is on Canada, temperature may have a global influence
on fertility. Even if there is no consensus how seasonality of birth phenomenon modelled,
yet environmental factors specifically temperature, plays a role in explaining the seasonality
observed in birth in many countries over many years. There are many other factors other
than temperature that plays role to disentangle the shocks presents in birth. Our research
offers unique insights by exploring the effects of environmental factors on monthly and daily
birth and death oscillations using spectral and correlation analysis during 2011 and 2019.Studentye
Belonging, conflict and loss: Learning Ukrainian online during COVID-19
No full textThis is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in the Journal of Language, Identity & Education on February 8, 2024 available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2024.2306923.This paper draws on findings from a duoethnography of two adult, heritage language learners of Ukrainian who began language learning online during pandemic restrictions. In duoethnography, researchers place life histories side by side with the goal of sharing multiple understandings of a social phenomenon (Sawyer and Norris 2012). In this paper, we weave our life histories together to find meaning in how we are learning Ukrainian online during the pandemic and the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian conflict. The differences between us, including race and proximity to heritage language speakers, have affected our upbringing and development as people but they haven't affected our emotional attachment to Ukrainian. We recognize this same attachment in the adult diasporic learners we meet through online classes. Ultimately, our narratives of belonging and acceptance in an online language learning community may have something to offer language education researchers and practitioners working with communities of diasporic heritage language learners
Exploring the Twitch.tv phenomenon: Secondary students' lived digital citizenship experiences on Twitch.tv
No full textA Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Education in Curriculum & Instruction, University of Regina. x, 95 p.This study explored the lived experiences of secondary students in Saskatchewan on the popular live-streaming platform Twitch.tv (hereafter, Twitch) in order to understand their perceptions of digital citizenship in such interactive online spaces. Hermeneutic phenomenology was used to analyze interviews with eight participants who spoke about their experiences on Twitch. Analysis of the interview data generated two major themes. The first major theme, digital engagement, was bisected into two subthemes: using without the manual and safety in anonymity. The second major theme, digital awareness, was also parted into two subthemes: (digital) citizenship and digital literacy. The interview data showed that participants used Twitch in a variety of ways with limited understanding of digital citizenship and almost no awareness of the platform’s safety guidelines. However, implementing digital citizenship using Saskatchewan’s current curricula to remedy this lack of understanding is challenging because the documents are outdated or leave little room to take up digital citizenship in a meaningful way. As well, the policy guide for digital citizenship in Saskatchewan schools, like so many definitions of digital citizenship, is somewhat narrow and, importantly, optional. This study is just one example of why digital citizenship needs to have a more prominent role in Saskatchewan curricula, as a broad area of learning or an outcome in core classes, and as a participatory, collaborative, and flexible concept in order to adequately prepare students for the ever-changing social media landscapes that they access daily outside of the classroom.
Keywords: digital citizenship, Twitch.tv, live streaming, Saskatchewan, phenomenologyStudentye