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“Realistically, we need policy”: How faculty members approach accommodations for pregnant and parenting students
No full textA Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Psychology, University of Regina. iv, 42 p.Pregnant and parenting university students have increased demands on their time and energy as they manage caregiving responsibilities, university courses, and employment (Nichols et al., 2017). These demands on their time can create multiple roles conflict, leading to increased stress, anxiety, depression, and life dissatisfaction (Dickson & Tennant, 2021; Law, Hales & Busenbark, 2020; Prikhidko & Haynes, 2018; Stein, 2014). One way to combat these negative outcomes is by providing additional academic supports and accommodations to pregnant and parenting students. This study explored how faculty members at the University of Regina justify and negotiate accommodations for pregnant and parenting students. 10 faculty members from the University of Regina were recruited to participate in a semi-structured interview to discuss their experiences, perspectives, and challenges in providing accommodations for pregnant and parenting students. The themes that were identified in the research are perceived prejudice towards pregnant and parenting status, equality versus equity, justifications based on personal experiences, and faculty members desire official policy. The findings explore faculty members' challenges when negotiating accommodations and identify a common desire for an official policy to promote equal chances at success for pregnant and parenting students. The findings contribute to the current literature and knowledge about faculty members' perspectives and the presence of pregnant and parenting students in post-secondary institutions.Studentn
Effects of flue gas impurities on amine stability in C02 capture process
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. xiv, 151 p.Amine stability in a post-combustion carbon capture plant is considered one of the most essential parameters tracked to keep the process running at peak efficiency. The presence of impurities in exhaust gases (O2, SOx, NOx) is known to undergo undesired irreversible reactions with the amine to form products leading to solvent loss which impedes the optimum operation of the plant. Metal oxides (the main constituents of industrial exhaust gas fly ash) influence on solvent degradation however have not been reported extensively and hence this study aims at investigating the effects of different metal oxides common in the blast furnace exhaust gas of iron and steel mills on the degradation of the amine solvent.
In this study, oxygen-induced degradation of 0.28 CO2 loaded 5M MEA-DMAE (3M:2M) solvent under 0.12g of different metal oxides was quantified by NH3 emissions measured using an ammonia-nitrate analyzer. The effect of oxygen concentrations, temperatures, and the different metal oxides on the solvent stability were studied. The experiment was performed with four different systems each containing amine solution unique with a metal oxide constituent of ZnO, Fe2O3, and Al2O3 and a reference system containing no metal oxides(blank).
The solubility of the metal oxides in the amine solution obtained using ICP-MS analysis from the experimental run conducted 10% O2 at 60oC showed that the solubility of ZnO > Fe2O3 > Al2O3 in the amine solution. ZnO and Fe2O3 systems showed catalytic effects in increasing the rate of NH3 emissions whereas the Al2O3 showed a relatively low NH3 emissions to the blank system. However, the specific rates of emissions with respect to the mass of dissolved metals showed that the Fe2O3 system had the highest catalytic effect compared to the ZnO system in increasing the rate of NH3 emissions. The time weighted NH3 emissions rates observed in this study ranged from 0.21-5.99 ppmV/hr.
The studies showed that, the rate of NH3 emissions increased with increasing oxygen partial pressure and temperature. The relationship between solubility of various metal oxides in amine and the degradation of amine under typical conditions common to real life post combustion capture plants have been established.Studentye
DSA-BEATS: Multi step, multi-variate dual self-attention N-BEATS model for forecasting COVID-19 hospitalization
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 Software Systems Engineering, University of Regina. xi, 109 p.The high number of hospitalization rates of COVID-19 made public health providers
overloaded. Forecasting the number of hospitalized patients related to COVID-19 can help
public health providers to make informed decisions for controlling the spread. In this study,
we present the Dual Self-Attention N-BEATS (DSA-BEATS) model, a novel approach
that effectively combines the self-attention mechanism of transformers with the proficiency
of the N-BEATS model in dealing with multi-variate forecasting problems. The model has
been applied to a real data set from Regina’s daily hospitalization rates. We proposed to
expand Regina’s COVID-19 daily hospitalization rates dataset to a multi-variate one by
including hospitalization data from Canadian transportation hub cities. These
transportation hub cities were the major ports of entry for international travelers coming to
the country. To expand the dataset further, we proposed to include the SARS-CoV-2 RNA
load in wastewater of the region (i.e., Regina) as well. The resulting dataset helped the
DSA-BEATS model to capture and use complex relationships impacting COVID-19
hospitalizations rate and provide a more accurate forecast. Our data analysis shows that the
virus RNA load in wastewater data can provide an early warning up to 9 days ahead, and
the hospitalization rates of the transportation hub cities of Canada also lead the Regina’s
hospitalization rates and could provide early warnings for COVID-19 spreads. The DSABEATS
model was created in a way to utilize all the mentioned data and was tested on a
55-day test set with a 12-day horizon, resulting in a Mean Absolute Percentage Error
(MAPE) of 14.23%, which implies an accuracy of 85.77%. These results demonstrate
DSA-BEATS: Deep learning model for forecasting COVID-19
substantial improvements over state-of-the-art models such as N-BEATS and Informer,
validating the efficacy of the DSA-BEATS model in accurately predicting COVID-19
hospitalizations rates for Regina and any other non-transportation hub cities. The study
provides a significant contribution to the ongoing development of enhanced time-series
forecasting methods, particularly in the context of public health crises. The DSA-BEATS
model's ability to capture complex temporal relationships and effectively handle multivariate
data inputs underscores its potential in a wide range of forecasting tasks beyond the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Key words: N-BEATS, Forecasting, Wastewater, Transportation hubs, COVID-19, Deep
learning, transformersStudentye
Characterization of Cenomanian-early Turonian bentonites in southwestern Saskatchewan through lithostratigraphy and chemostratigraphy analysis
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 * in *, University of Regina. xi, * 208.Volcanic eruptions can disperse tephra over a wide area, and may result in deposition of ash far from their sources. For example, ash from the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens volcano in Washington State was observed falling upon Regina, Saskatchewan. Bentonite is a name for widely distributed beds of altered ash that have the potential to be used as isochronous horizons in lithostratigraphic correlation, much in the same way that tephrochronology is applied to young volcanic deposits. Numerous bentonite horizons are preserved within Late Cretaceous strata of western Canada and northern USA, and several widespread layers delineate unit or formation boundaries (e.g., the Clay Spur bentonite, X-bentonite). This thesis outlines studies of Cenomanian-early Turonian bentonite across southwestern Saskatchewan, with an aim not only to document these, but to rigorously test whether bentonite can help in refining the regional stratigraphic framework of an area. Specifically, bentonite occurring within the Belle Fourche and Second White Specks formations of southwestern Saskatchewan were investigated using lithological, well log and mineral chemistry data. As evidenced in previous research, near pristine magmatic mineral grains can be preserved in bentonite, despite the changes that accompanied its burial and lithification. Fresh grains of mica and feldspar were identified in bentonite from the study area. Analysis of these crystals record specific and unique compositions for each layer and can provide strong discriminants to identify or correlate layers of bentonite. Moreover, the character of determined mica and feldspar compositions furnish clues to their magmatic sources. Three regional cross-sections are presented herein, highlighting lithological and stratigraphic associations for bentonite within and across the study area. These derive from the examination of 6 principal lithologies, from across 13 wells and aided by detailed studies and interpretation of 56 geophysical wireline logs in Geoscout software. Fourteen bentonites were recorded from the Late Cretaceous strata, with a subset of 35 samples characterized in terms of well log responses, lithological characteristics, and mineral compositions. The 14 layers may be subdivided into four compositional groups, reflecting their volcanic sources (i.e., calc-alkaline, alkaline, peraluminous and sub-alkaline group). Also provided is a database of bentonite, that summarizes key characteristics of each bed to be used as a reference in future studies or for a regional stratigraphic correlation. The results of this study show that bentonite lithostratigraphy and chemostratigraphy have great promise in local and regional correlation and that bentonite is readily identifiable through a combination of core examination and geophysical well log studies. Analysis of crystals within can provide a fingerprint for each bentonite that may help to refine local stratigraphy, especially useful when other methods are inconclusive; for example, a lack of microfossils or facies changes across an area.Studentye
Structural analysis of the north-central Glennie Domain and controls on gold mineralization in the Santoy Gap Hanging Wall deposit, Seabee area, northern Saskatchewan
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 Geology, University of Regina. xii, 151 p.The Glennie Domain of northern Saskatchewan, centrally located within the Reindeer zone of the 1.9-1.8 Ga Tans-Hudson orogen, is a poly-deformed terrane with evidence of at least four phases of ductile deformation and resultant complex fold interference patterns. The domain also hosts the only producing gold mine in Saskatchewan, Seabee Gold Operation, currently producing from the Santoy deposits situated along a splay of the Tabbernor fault zone. This thesis presents results of structural study at a range of scales and involves two main components: a broad-scale analysis of the structural geology of the central Glennie Domain, coupled with detailed mapping and 3D modelling of the Gap Hanging Wall deposit in the Seabee area of the eastern Glennie. The regional-scale analysis covered three distinct map areas collectively spanning a 60 by 45 km area of the central Glennie Domain. Each area was separated into sub-cylindrical, uniform structural domains to isolate individual fold interference patterns and quantify the geometry of related folds. These techniques established that F3 are NNW-trending, open and inclined to upright in Areas 1 and 3, whereas they are similarly trending but close to tight in Area 2. Average F3 attitudes are – Area 1: axial plane (AP) 160°/82° (hinge line (HL) steep, doubly-plunging); Area 2: AP 346°/79°, HL 55° → 002°; Area 3: AP 347°/72°, HL 65° →124°. F4 was quantified in Areas 1 and 3 as SW-trending, open and moderately-steeply inclined with a gently-moderately NE-plunging fold axis. Average F4 attitudes are – Area 1: AP 232°/67°, HL 25° → 042°; Area 3: AP 249°/61°, HL 35° → 046°. F4 could not be quantified in Area 2 due to the overwhelming influence of D3 Tabbernor-related structures. To complement this analysis, and to explore areas with less robust datasets (Area 3), remote predictive mapping and remote sensing techniques were employed, namely lineament analysis of the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission image
and magnetic susceptibility maps. The lineaments tend to align most prominently with the axial plane of the latest pervasive folding event in the area, while also highlighting previous folding event(s), and subsequent brittle events.
The local-scale analysis involved structural study and 3D modelling of the Gap Hanging Wall deposit, hosted in an apophysis of the tonalitic Lizard Lake pluton (LLP), to establish controls on gold mineralization. Mapping revealed that the apophysis contains several N-plunging folds, reflecting D3 shortening in the limb of a regional s-fold in the western limb of the Carruthers Lake synform. Gold is associated with two stages of quartz veins; vein set 1 is expressed as a healed fracture network inferred to have been emplaced in fractures during D3 shortening, and vein set 2 was emplaced during continued shortening, axial planar to deposit-scale F3 folds. This probably resulted from the build-up of fluid pressure that exploited the axial planar cleavage; alternatively, vein set 2 may have originated as extension fractures along outer arc of fold that were later rotated and flattened. Both stages of veins are restricted to the plutonic host rock and associated with a distinctive cream to pistachio green alteration. 3D modelling included an initial cubic model built in Leapfrog GeoTM using lithologs to identify hanging wall and footwall contacts of the LLP, together with a detailed model that focused on the character of the deposit at depth. By adding Au assay results, a numeric model was created which shows that the gold anomalies tend to be concentrated along the Syn-2 (an F3 synform) trough of the deposit-scale folds. Accordingly, gold-bearing fluids are inferred to have migrated from depth and infiltrated fold hinge zones, where dilational space had been created during microfracturing in the early stages of shortening and incipient folding.Studentye
Exploring Gender-Based Violence in Canadian Prisons: A Scoping Review
No full textBackground
In Canada, prison policies, programs, and practices have been shaped by the historical influences of sex-segregated prisons (i.e., not gender segregated; see Ricciardelli and Bartlett, 2022). Nevertheless, sex segregation has not “stopped” gender-based violence from occurring in prisons. There continues to be risk and security concerns for gender-based violence, including but not limited to 2SLGBTQIA+ people who experience such violence from other prisoners and other correctional staff. As such, our purpose was to review the literature on gender-based violence in Canadian prisons, with an eye to policy, to offer suggested considerations for pathways forward.
Objectives
We sought to map the existing literature on gender-based violence in Canadian prisons. Our guiding research question is: What is the existing literature on prison policies, programs, and practices that have contributed (and continue to contribute) to the historical and contemporary exclusion, marginalization, and gender-based violence of people of diverse gender identifications?
Results
Forty-seven articles (n = 47) met the criteria for inclusion in the review. Most articles included in the review originate from the USA (n=34). The remaining articles originate from Canada (n=6), Australia (n=3), the United Kingdom (n=3), and Israel (n=1).
Key messages
Violence against female and gender diverse persons in prison contexts remain an ongoing issue. Historically, prison policies denied transgender (herein ‘trans’) people who are incarcerated access to proper healthcare and overlooked gender identity. Today, gender identity and lived experience are important factors to consider in the placement of trans people who are incarcerated. Rehabilitative programming and services for female and gender diverse people in prison contexts should remain accessible.
Methodology
The Arksey and O’Malley’s (2005) methodological framework for scoping reviews is used to identify, describe, and summarize the literature. Several databases were searched for relevant literature including Policy Commons Open Access; Canadian Electronic Library from Canada Commons; HeinOnline Government, Politics & Law in Canada; PsycINFO; Criminal Justice Abstracts; Sociological Abstracts, JSTOR, Web of Science, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global, and the Government of Canada website. We used the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklist (Tricco et al., 2018) for complete and transparent reporting on the conduct of the literature review.‘Exploring Gender-Based Violence in Canadian Prisons: A Scoping Review’ is co-funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and Women and Gender Equality Canada. > est cofinancé par le Conseil de recherches en sciences humaines et Emploi et Femmes et Égalité des genres Canada.Facultyn
Blind Date with a Sask Book
No full textThe “Blind Date with a Sask Book” event was a pilot project held during February 1 - 14, 2023. Similar to the trial 2-Sentence Horror Story contest in the 2022 Fall Semester, the “Blind Date” event was organized under the umbrella of the External Communications Promotion Team (ECPT) and “hosted” on the Library Literary Contest Guide. Our aim is to organize these contest events to engage with the university community.Facultyye
Exploring intentions to conceive among female clinical psychology doctoral trainees
No full textA Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Psychology, University of Regina. 101 p.Doctoral studies often take place when there is a general pressure to conceive. Many graduate students delay having children until after their studies—running the risk of age-induced infertility and involuntary childlessness. Little research has examined why female clinical psychology doctoral trainees delay attempts to conceive. The current study aims to explore the experiences of this unique population and determine what factors impact family planning during graduate studies. A total of 305 female clinical psychology doctoral trainees were recruited for an online survey consisting of self-report questionnaires. While a large majority of participants indicated a desire to conceive at some point (81.7%), only a fraction (15.4%) endorsed a desire to conceive while in graduate training. In a series of hierarchical multiple regressions, age, income, and the perceived compatibility of graduate training and parenthood were identified as significant predictors of intentions to conceive. These findings indicate that in addition to graduate students’ perception of parenthood in doctoral training, systemic structural barriers (e.g., finances) and biological realities (e.g., age) play a crucial role in family planning. Thus, future research is needed to explore the experiences of those who decide to conceive during graduate training to understand further how to address barriers that may impact the reproductive needs of female clinical psychology doctoral students.Studentn
World class manufacturing during prototyping for production
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. xix, 190 p.The transition from prototype to production affects impacts cost and scalability and contributes to the organizational culture. Since, the implementation of World Class Manufacturing (WCM) during prototyping has not been well document; this thesis examines applying WCM tools and techniques to foster a Lean culture by selecting, and optimizing the assembly process, integrating Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, developing standard operating procedures, continually improving processes and adapting facility layouts, along with assessing ergonomic factors.
The management team selected a modular assembly which allowed uncoupling workstations, un-synchronizing movements, improving changeability for agility, and lowering lead times. The effect balanced the production process. The assembly process was optimized by developing detailed assembly work instructions and training tools. A facility plan layouts and Value Stream Mapping (VSM) were also prepared for analysing cycle, lead, and Takt times. For the first VSM's value-added and non-value-added times were 11:37 and 1:25 (hours:minutes), respectively. The material travel distance within the facility was reduced by 11% from the initial layout to the third iteration despite floor space increasing.
Improving ergonomics in the workplace included fabricating or modifying assembly and material carts, introducing anti-fatigue mats, and designing new modular, SA workstations. Assembler assessments for both the SA and GA workstations were completed using the Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) and Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA).
For inventory management and pull system implementation, Kanban along with Point of Use Inventory (POUI) was introduced; item and Kanban cards were developed. The bin quantity calculation suggested allocating a 2-bin system for Kanban. The POUI for fasteners and hardware items were vendor-managed inventory by Fastenal Company.
The fuzzy Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DMATEL) analysis was performed to identify cause-and-effect relationships for drivers and barriers in the Lean implementations during prototyping and compared to results for companies in full-scale production as reported in the literature. The most significant barrier for companies either in the prototyping or in the production stage was the same: a lack of top management commitment. The driver for the prototyping company, LyteHorse, was support from U.S.-based assembly facility: Mayco International.
The implementation of WCM during the prototyping as the company neared full scale production faced the challenges of changes in design components, the assembly process and resources along with their suppliers continually changing. No standard or repeated process exists for analysing or optimizing as typically is the case for WCM applied to established production lines. The prototyping design and assembly team was small, a mere subset of the future scaled production team. Nonetheless, with the support of management, Lean culture was established through daily and weekly meeting among the Operations and Engineering departments along with the primary investors. Work bench selections, facility layouts, Kanban systems, instruction and training supports, were designed and developed according to WCM principles. The WCM tools implemented included Value Stream Mapping, Production Mapping, Continuous Improvement (Kaizen events), Kanban, and ergonomic assessments throughout the prototyping process as the company moved towards its future production. To conclude, developing a WCM culture and implementing WCM techniques was appropriate and successful during the iterative prototyping stage, as the company is well positioned to be an industry leader in practising WCM principles.Studentye
Effects of high permeability channel parameters on VAPEX performance: A numerical and experimental approach utilizing the reservoir-on-the-chip
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. xxi, 262 p.Numerous heavy oil and bitumen reservoirs exist in Canada. Regarding the ever-growing energy demands and the economic aspects and the rising environmental concerns, these underground resources need to be produced from through advanced, environmentally friendly, and economically viable methods. The implementation of such techniques can secure the future of the heavy oil industry. Despite resulting in lower production rates, the solvent-based methods hold major advantages over the thermal recovery methods in many other areas such as those mentioned.
The present research carries out an in-detail study of the VAPEX process, as one of the most recent solvent-based heavy oil recovery techniques, in the reservoirs with high permeability channels to evaluate the effect of high permeability channel parameters on the process performance. Heavy oil recovery processes, in this case the VAPEX, have been rarely studied, which signifies the reason why this process has not been fully commercialized in the industry. To achieve this purpose, several patterns with high permeability channels with distinct features were designed and engraved on glass pieces to manufacture state-of-the-art microfluidic models mimicking a typical Canadian heavy oil reservoir. Two heavy oil samples were utilized (around 1500 and 3000 cP) during the conducted experiments as well as the three injected solvents of pure propane, pure carbon dioxide, and the propane-carbon dioxide mixture.
Separate sets of experiments were conducted to measure the pure and mixture solvents solubilities in both heavy oil samples at various pressures below their corresponding vapour pressures, and room temperature. This allowed for tuning the PVT data in the simulator and then, obtaining a history-matched model capable of simulating the injection- production scenarios that could not be experimentally tested due to the high number of cases.
A thorough image analysis operation was carried out over the experimental models to determine the heavy oil produced, residual oil saturation, ultimate recovery factors, and monitor solvent chamber expansion. Together with the simulation outcomes, a comprehensive data bank was obtained from the 90 scenarios designed and 54 VAPEX experiments conducted. The effects of high permeability channels orientation, length, width, intensity, and position on the process performance were identified and numerically evaluated. Moreover, in terms of the solvents used, propane proved the most efficient owing primarily to its and high solubility in both heavy oil samples.
It was observed that all high permeability channels, regardless of their properties, enhanced the heavy oil recovery in comparison to the base case (no high permeability channels) scenario. The highest recovery factors were obtained by positioning two long horizontal high permeability channels between the injection-production well pair and injecting propane. Almost equal to that was the process efficiency when implementing 2 wide vertical high permeability channels on either side of the well pair.
The obtained results from the present work, combined with data from the literature will serve to develop a predictive model for the VAPEX recovery factor evaluation using an artificial neural network technique.Studentye