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Indirect FRB to COVID 19
No full textA Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Psychology, University of Regina. 85 p.Brehm's (1966) theory of psychological reactance seeks to explain why people perform behaviors that they are told not to do by someone because they value their freedom. People may also defy the source of restriction by engaging in other restricted behaviors. Recently, Reactance Theory has been applied to explain refusals to perform health related behaviors relating to COVID-19. That research found people experience state reactance when confronted with information about COVID-19 pandemic regulations or masked mandates. The purpose of the present study is to understand how people in Saskatchewan experience reactance to COVID-19 information despite Saskatchewan lifting lockdown restrictions. Eighty-two participants from the University of Regina Research Participant Pool watched a low or high freedom threat video discussing COVID-19 before completing measures. Participants were assessed for state reactance and indirect freedom restorative behavior (FRB) of COVID-19 threat denial and avoidant social media behavior. State reactance was hypothesized to be associated with indirect FRBs. The manipulation of high and low threat video conditions were generally not effective in manipulating perceived freedom threat and state reactance. Low threat video condition participants with low negative cognitions showed lower COVID-19 denial behavior that high threat condition or high negative thoughts participants. There was also a stronger preference for ignoring such videos if encountered on social media. Thus, health communicators should try to convey information in a less threatening and more attention grabbing manner. Finally, Trait Reactance was positively associated with State Reactance and negatively associated with the Big Five’s agreeableness.Studentn
“Locked in a Jail Cell in Your Own Home”: Child Maltreatment Investigators’ Perspectives of COVID-19’s Effects on Maltreated Children
No full text Children were at a greater risk of adverse experiences, including maltreatment, during the COVID-19 pandemic given the increased stress experienced by families and reduced visibility outside the home. Child maltreatment investigators witnessed the effects of the pandemic on maltreated children and offer valuable insight regarding children’s experiences during the pandemic. The objective of this study was to examine child maltreatment investigators’ perspectives of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on maltreated children and their families in Canada. Sixteen child maltreatment investigators were recruited from agencies across Canada that investigate or offer services to children suspected of having been maltreated. Three focus groups were conducted, which followed a semi-structured interview guide developed by the researchers. Thematic analysis resulted in five primary themes regarding maltreatment investigators’ perceptions of the pandemic’s effects on children, including child maltreatment during the COVID-19 pandemic, increased exposure to violent and traumatic events, stress and challenges faced by families, reduced access to services, and challenges and delays with maltreatment investigations. Child maltreatment investigators perceived that the pandemic profoundly impacted maltreated children and their families. It is critical to ensure children and parents have access to services during future emergencies. This project was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Partnership Engagement Grant – Special COVID-19 from SSHRC 1008-2020-0243
Studying the background response of Minihalo for design optimizations
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 Science in Physics, University of Regina. xviii, 91 p.The Neutron Detection Characterization Facility also called Minihalo Neutrino Detector
is a planned research and development project that will enhance the detection capabilities
of lead based neutrino detectors for supernova physics. It will will be used to construct
low background He-3 counters for HALO-1kT supernova neutrino detector and will also
provide experimental data on cross-sections of ν-Pb interactions at supernova energy scale.
The detector will be placed at the SNS Facility in Oak Ridge National Laboratory on Oak
Ridge, Tennesse, USA.
The SNS Facility produces three ν species from impinging protons at liquid-mecury target.
The νμ, ¯νμ, and νe are produced with a flux of approximately 4.3 ×107 cm−2 s−1 at
supernova energy scale. Studying these neutrinos at supernova energy scales at SNS will
provide necessary data for HALO-1KT supernova neutrino detector. Detecting neutrinos
from core-collapse supernovae through detectors like HALO-1kT accurately can provide
invaluable information on the explosion mechanism of massive stars which is not fully understood.
This is because neutrinos are emitted from the core of a dying star a couple of
hours before the star explodes. Therefore, by detecting these neutrinos, we can not only
probe into the heart of exploding stars but also develop full 3D models on their complete
explosion mechanism.
In order to determine an optimal design for Minihalo, GEANT4 simulations of the proposed
design are carried out to study how the detector responds to background at the Facility. Accurate
fluxes of cosmic muon and gamma-ray backgrounds at the SNS Facility are simui
lated and fired onto the detector. The data from the simulations is analyzed using th ROOT
package. This work focuses on the energy deposition of cosmic muons and gamma-rays
in the scintillators, the optical photon spectra of scintillators and the background neutrons
produced inside the lead from muon interactions. The background neutron spectrum is investigated
in detail in order to determine the efficiency of the detector and the necessary
change to the proposed design are also investigated to increase the efficiency.Studentye
Development of solvent for CO2 capture for utilization in concrete and storage in geological formations
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 Process Systems Engineering, University of Regina. xvii, 165 p.This study focused on developing an environmentally benign solvent for CO2 capture for utilization in concrete and the potential permanent storage in geological formations. Initial solvent screening and the selection included 2M aqueous solvents of KOH, NaOH, K2CO3, Na2CO3, sodium and potassium salts of glycine and lysine at 40oC and 20% CO2 balance nitrogen. The performance of the solvents was evaluated in terms of initial absorption rate, solvent precipitation and CO2 equilibrium loading. To present the best performing solvents as commercial products, the selected solvents were further optimized concerning solvent concentration, precipitation, CO2 partial pressure and absorption temperature. The absorption performance parameter values were 10.99, 11.95 and 13.47 (mol CO2 absorbed)2/(L soln.)2.min) x10-2 for potassium lysinate salt, KOH, and potassium glycinate salts respectively. Moreover, the optimum absorption condition for the best-performing solvents were experimentally determined to be 3M and 40oC, 5M and 60oC, and 6M and 60oC for aqueous potassium lysinate salt, KOH and potassium glycinate salt respectively. In the utilization section, best performing solvents from the optimization studies were loaded with CO2 and used for carbonation reactions. The presence of CaCO3, the main product formed when CO2 reacts with concrete, was confirmed by XRD phase identification analysis. Also, by the TGA thermogram, the calcium carbonates in the precipitate of the K2CO3-Ca(OH)2 reaction was 44.1wt.%, whiles that from CO2-loaded potassium glycinate-Ca(OH)2 was 55.4wt.%, demonstrating the ease with which potassium glycinate easily releases CO2 to concrete compared to carbonates and hydroxide systems. Moreover, these findings proved the concept of utilizing the CO2-loaded solvents in
concrete.
Finally, kinetic studies were conducted for the best performing solvent concerning both CO2 capture and utilization in concrete, potassium glycinate salt. The kinetic performance was measured in terms of the initial absorption rate. To fit the kinetic data, the power law model was used. With the aid of NL-Reg software, the activation energy obtained was Ea = -5.5x103 J/mol. This was expected because, the rate of absorption decreased with increasing temperature. For reversible reaction such as this, the backward reaction might have been favoured at high temperatures leading to this observation. Also, CO2 and potassium glycinate had reaction orders of 1 and 0.11, respectively. The AAD% obtained was 5.15%, demonstrating how well the model predicts the experimentally observed rates.Studentye
Using unmanned aerial vehicles to examine how aboveground forest biomass and bat activity are related to three-dimensional canopy structure
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 Science in Biology, University of Regina. x, 118 p.Canopies are emergent properties of a large number of individual trees
and provide the underlying structure which affects many other components of
forest ecosystems. Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) data fills an important gap in
aerial imaging by offering an affordable and repeatable source of data to assess
variation between forest stands across a given landscape. Individual tree crowns
can be segmented from canopy height models to provide detailed information
about forest and canopy structure, and photogrammetric point cloud data can
be used to identify key habitat variables which affect bat activity. A greater
density of biomass may reflect higher productivity and greater energetic and
material exchange between the atmosphere and biosphere, whereas increased
animal activity indicates a healthier ecosystem with greater resiliency and
stability. In this thesis I use data on forest canopy structure 1) to estimate
aboveground biomass (AGB) and 2) to model bat activity. I developed allometric
scaling models to relate field observations of diameter-at-breast-height (DBH)
and tree height to UAV derived tree height and crown area to estimate AGB of
individual crown segments. Using these estimates, I constructed two Bayesian
regression models to examine variation of AGB of large stands throughout a forest
in response to either a set of stand structural predictors or a set of topographic
predictors. With these models, I found that at the stand level, AGB was closely
related to several structural variables including canopy-area weighted height
and tree density and that AGB showed modest relationships with topographic
variables such as topographic position, elevation and soil moisture. These results
suggest that UAV-derived data calibrated with field observations can be
effective for estimating forest AGB and studying its variation among stands, and
that stand structural characteristics are more strongly related to AGB that
topographic variables. I also captured acoustic recordings of bat passes from
some of these forest stands and assigned automatically classified bat calls into
three echolocation guilds (short-, mid-, and long-range echolocators; SRE, MRE,
and LRE respectively). Using a Bayesian generalized linear model, I was able to
model the activity of these guilds in relation to canopy structure. SRE activity was
more frequent in taller stands, in stands with less canopy cover, and in stands that
were further away from the canopy edge; MRE activity was slightly greater in
stands with shorter canopies; and LRE activity was more likely to be observed in
stands with more canopy cover and in stands closer to the forest edge. Greater
activity of all three bat guilds was observed in plots closer to open water sources.
My results illustrate how photogrammetric point clouds can identify fine-scale
features useful for AGB modelling and important to bat habitat use,
demonstrating how useful UAV captured data can be for forest researchers and
managers.Studentye
Learning to listen differently: Witnessing survivor testimony and implications for ethical responses
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 and Instruction, University of Regina. viii, 158 p.During the Educators for Solidarity Initiative in 2017, participants bore witness to survivor testimony about the 1981 massacre that took place on the banks of the Rio Lempa in El Salvador. It is the experience of bearing witness to survivor testimony with participants who accompanied me on this journey, whose affective responses, unsettlement, and understanding of settler responsibilities are at the center of this study. Explored through autoethnography and life writing methodologies this qualitative study aimed to answer the central research question: “Does the act of witnessing survivor testimony at the Rio Lempa impact the obligations of (settler) witnessing and ethical responses? If so, in what ways?” Data analysis of the affective and ethical responses to bearing witness to survivor testimony of four white, settler women revealed that the participants were address-able and response-able to the story/teller. The act of witnessing survivor testimony at the Rio Lempa impacted the obligations of (settler) witnessing and ethical responses. The ethical responses to witnessing survivor testimony involved: acknowledgement, remembrance, recognition that the testimony was of consequence, retestifying, cultivating relationships, affective learning, critical empathy, listening with humility and vulnerability. Witnessing testimony abroad increased these settler participant’s capacity to become more relational towards Indian Residential School survivor testimony as they continue to interrogate their response-ability in relation to Indigenous peoples.Studentye
Fouling in membrane technology for produced water treatment: Assessing mechanisms, mitigation, and CFD Analysis
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 Industrial Systems Engineering, University of Regina. xxvii, 403 p.Due to environmental discharge regulations and compliance, the need for oily
wastewater treatment and reuse for sustainability has become a pressing reality.
Membrane-based technologies for oily wastewater separation have grown in popularity due
to their energy efficiency, chemical/thermal resistance, and low cost. The membrane can
separate a wide range of oily wastewater effluents and deliver good permeate quality.
While the membrane technology witnessed many improvements, membrane fouling
continues to be a major drawback and is the downside of the large-scale adoption of this
technology. To improve membrane performance, understanding membrane fouling
development is the final objective of many researchers. In this work, we assess the laws
and the mechanisms used by the researchers to explain the fouling development. We used
computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to prove the limitation of these blocking
laws/Hermia’s models, originally developed for solid-liquid separation in pressure-driven
system and extended them to cover the modeling approach of crossflow filtration.
First, a comprehensive study using experimental work and microfluid analysis was
used to elucidate the effect of the oil in the membrane pores on the behavior of the oil
droplets during the oily wastewater filtration. In this study, in-situ visualization is used
alongside experiments. The CFD and experimental results refuted the ability of the
blocking laws to explain the membrane fouling mechanism during oily wastewater
membrane filtration.
Second, a cross-flow ultrafiltration ceramic membrane is used to mitigate membrane
fouling. The results showed the limitation of the crossflow to combat fouling development,
where the permeate flux declined by up to 80% in the first 10 minutes of filtration time. In
addition to the crossflow field pretreatment method, reverse backwashing and backpulsing
cleaning methods were used their efficiencies were investigated.
Given the operational limits of backwashing and pulsatile physical antifouling
approaches, we suggested a novel physical antifouling technique called the Periodic
Transmembrane Pressure Technique (PTMP) to mitigate membrane fouling and enhance
performance. The new approach involves a controlled membrane fouling via pressure
variation, creating induced shear stress at the membrane surface, resulting in the
displacement of oil droplets and their transport by the crossflow field. The mechanistic and
physics behind the novel technique were elucidated, and the technique was implemented
in a series of experiments. The total filtration system performance including the flux
recovery and the state of the membrane after each cycle was quantified, leading to the
investigation of fouling mitigation. Several PTMP scenarios were explored, and their
performances were compared.
Finally, a comparison between all the physical antifouling techniques (backwashing,
pulsatile flow, and the novel PTMP approach) was performed according to the fouling
control and membrane performance. Fouling development, in all scenarios, was studied
using static and dynamic resistance modelling analysis alongside an in-situ membrane
internal channel surface visualization to understand the extent of the fouling mitigation in
each case. The membrane performance was measured based on the collected permeate
volume during each scenario.
PTMP studies show that the implementation of the technique will significantly reduce
operating costs by allowing for more frequent cyclic cleanings in the crossflow membrane
water filtration system.Studentye
The role of intercultural communicative competence in the acquisition of English as an Additional Language for Arab Learners: A hermeneutic phenomenological study
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. xiv, 217 p.This hermeneutic phenomenological study examines Arab female newcomers’ lived experiences in an English as an Additional Language (EAL) program and their acquisition of intercultural communicative competence. Two in-depth semi structured interviews were conducted with seven students enrolled in the Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) program to reveal the challenges that face EAL learners that make it difficult for them using the language effectively in real life situations. In addition, I used journaling as another source of data to review my personal biases and to develop a new projection of meaning. Thematic analysis was utilized to find patterns of the participants’ lived experiences. Themes were identified and combined into three major thematic groups, where each of these groups of data answered one research question. The findings of this study revealed several issues including the meaning the students attach to themselves as EAL learners and their perceptions of cultural information of the host country, that intercultural communicative competence is an important and necessary component of language that is difficult to separate from language learning and, that a lack of cultural knowledge impacts the learning process negatively which in turn leads to isolation and loneliness that prohibits learners to actively communicate in real life situations. These findings have the potential to assist educators and stakeholders to reassess the content and pedagogies used in EAL programs that address the challenges that learners of English face inside and outside the classroom.Studentye
Teachers’ views of elementary school students’ understanding of arithmetic concepts
No full textA Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Psychology, University of Regina. 34 p.This study investigated how accurate educators were in recognizing Grade 5 students’ ability in utilizing the mathematical concepts of inversion, associativity, and equivalence. It also sought to analyze how educators understand and characterize all three concepts. An explorative approach was employed, testing out an online-based approach to data collection of arithmetic concept use instead of the more traditional in-person methods. Undergraduate education students (N = 30) completed inversion, associativity, and equivalence problems and explained their problem-solving strategies. Afterward, they estimated the rate of use of these conceptual problem-solving strategies in Grade 5 students. There was evidence found that educators did not accurately estimate conceptual strategy use, overestimating the strategy use of Grade 5 students. Participants estimated strategy use to be higher for addition that for multiplication problem types. The findings of this study highlight the disconnect between a student’s performance on math problems and their teacher’s accurate recognition of their performance. Participants were seen to favour conceptual strategy use on problems rather than calculation. Data collection through an online format was found to be inefficient due high attrition rates and a lower amount of codable data. This study indicates the need for further investigation of teacher perceptions of student understanding.Studentn
A novel scaling approach for micro-optical analysis of nanoparticle-stabilized CO2 foam flooding for enhanced heavy oil recovery
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 Petroleum Systems Engineering, University of Regina. xv, 340 p.Heavy oil reservoirs are considered one of the prime hydrocarbon resources for the upcoming decades in Canada. However, more technological and effective methods are needed to overcome the economic and environmental limitations of existing sole surfactants, polymers, nanoparticles, and CO2 flooding recovery methods. Laboratory experiments of these combined methods yields promising outcomes, but cost-effective manners and optimal operating conditions still need to be determined. In this dissertation, mathematical and experimental investigations of nanoparticle-stabilized CO2 foam flooding were performed to enhance heavy oil recovery. CO2 injection is one of the most promising techniques that can enhance heavy oil recovery by reducing oil viscosity and interfacial tension. However, it poses a variety of problems, including low volumetric sweep efficiency due to gravity overriding, and gas fingering. Several methods have been attempted to solve this issue. Foam flooding is one of the most promising strategies for overcoming this issue. However, several challenges are also associated with foam generation and stabilization in reservoir conditions. The addition of nanoparticles with surfactants can overcome this weakness and generate stronger and more stable CO2 foams. In this research, a series of bulk and dynamic foam generation and stability tests were performed with various concentrations of surfactants with nanoparticles. The foam formation and stability improved by 23% and 17%, respectively, when nanoparticles were used in foamability tests in the bulk and dynamic phases. The interaction mechanisms between rock-fluid and fluid-fluid and their effect on oil recovery were also investigated by FTIR spectroscopy, and SARA analysis along with a series of direct visualized micromodel tests.
Nanoparticle-stabilized CO2 foam flooding is an effective technique that can enhance heavy oil recovery. However, due to their physical constraints, replicating the genuine behavior of a reservoir on a field scale is unfeasible. As a result, developing scaling criteria for representing actual fluid behavior in heavy oil reservoirs is crucial. In this dissertation, a series of connections were developed between two configurations and the outcome of the lab-scale model was used to foresee the behavior of a field-scale process. In this study, a mathematical scaled model was developed using governing equations with their initial and boundary conditions by incorporating a novel concept. The effects of these developed dimensionless numbers on oil recovery were studied. The results indicate that capillary numbers, gravity numbers, mobility ratios, gravity to fluid movement ratios and Peclet numbers can significantly affect oil recovery.
In addition, the effects of silicon dioxide NPs and the SDS surfactant on the rheological characteristics and composition of extra-heavy crude oil were investigated in this study. A series of sandpacked/micromodel tests have been conducted to visualize and estimate the process controlling parameter’s effects on oil recovery. To evaluate the lab scale results to the field scale process, a synthetic reservoir study was compared with a small-scale model to investigate different process controlling parameters that affect oil recovery. Finally, a correlation was developed between lab scale results to field scale process. Mathematical and experimental studies were combined to find efficient and effective nanoparticle stabilized CO2 foam flooding for enhanced heavy oil recovery (EHOR). These research findings will have practical benefits in selecting EHOR schemes and will lead to new opportunities for improving current practices and implementing techniques that have not been previously considered.Studentye