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Feature Story: Former Youth from Care Access Tuition bursary program expands
No full textThe University of Regina Former Youth from Care Access Tuition Entrance Bursary is expanding to include free accommodations within University owned and operated residences.Staffn
Nothing to Hide: An Animated Documentary
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 Fine Arts in Media Production, University of Regina. iv, 48 p.In this Critical Engagement Paper, I will explain why I consider animation to be a promising medium to talk about latent and unrepresentable aspects of reality like memories, especially painful ones, related to physical and psychological damage and loss. In my theoretical section of the paper, I will talk about distinct types of body representation and the possibility of transferring those images to cinematic form. Also, based on animation scholar Annabelle Honess Roe, animated documentary modes will be described to give information about the diverse roles of animation in a documentary and clarify my approach to animated documentary.
I will also review the various methods and theories that have informed and inspired my research and my filmmaking process, as I believe that these methodologies and technical approaches have helped me foreground the expressive qualities of animation which have been instrumental in depicting abstract contents like thoughts, feelings and emotions and memories of my subject.
With the help of rotoscope and collage animation as creative animation tools, I am able to create the animation documentary film Nothing to Hide. Thus, by using animation instead of live-action footage, I believe that I would be able to engage the audiences to actively participate in the meaning-making process and in interpreting the difficult life story of my subject Zara, but to do so with empathy.Studentye
Design of hygienic blood collection system for poultry slaughterhouses
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. xiii, 122 p.Blood collection methods from poultry slaughterhouses are assessed and designed. Specifically, a hygienic method to collect blood with no solid debris has been investigated. The research involved designing, improving and/or selecting the blood collection troughs, pipelines, valves, blood pumps, storage tank and related equipment. The research also involved flow simulations in AnsysTM Fluent.
The existing blood collection system in poultry slaughterhouses was reviewed. The slaughterhouse blood uses, equipment needed, blood preservation methods and related processing were also studied. The changes needed were identified and a proposed system was evaluated for both small and large commercial poultry slaughterhouses. The focus was to collect blood hygienically by retrofitting, adding and/or replacing components. The key component is the trough, so various design configurations were studied. Different angles of inclination and variations to the cross-section of the trough were modeled and analyzed using Flow Simulation module in SolidWorksTM. The sensitivity of blood flow rates with respect to angle of inclination was 2.374 ms-1/s/degree. Among a semi-circular, semi-elliptical, trapezoidal, and rectangular cross-section, the most effective for maximizing blood flow volume and velocity was a trapezoidal cross-section. An innovation to the collection system was attaching the trough to a reservoir with a mesh/filter to separate any solid debris like feathers and blood clots from the blood. Also, new materials for piping, blood pumps, valves and other attachments were recommended.
AnsysTM Fluent was used for flow analysis to determine the time taken for the mesh/filter to collect debris to determine the mean time between cleaning the screen. For a large-scale slaughterhouse, the blood collection system required cleaning every 6 hours; for a medium-scale slaughterhouse, every 12 hours. This will allow for future automation and/or scheduling workers to complete the task. AnsysTM Fluent also was used simulate the flow of varying amounts of debris within the blood and the time taken for the debris to travel the length of the trough. The distribution of the debris was tracked. As the weight of debris increases, the time taken to cross the length of the trough decreased. The simulations also showed that as the size of the debris increases, the outlet volume fraction of the blood decreased. Hence, the blood flow is impeded when the debris volume and size were large.
The proposed system has a 3° angle of inclination for the trough compared to 1° which is typical in existing systems. This increases the blood flow velocity and volume fraction of the debris, as validated using AnsysTM simulations. The highest blood flow velocity and outlet volume fraction was achieved with a trapezoidal cross-sectional trough. For a semi-elliptical trough, the ratio of width to depth (W/D) at ~3 had the maximum blood flow rate. Both troughs had the same top width of 1.2m and similar depths of 0.35 to 0.4 m. The simulations also showed that the blood flow decreases when the viscosity and density of the blood increases; the sensitivity was -0.51667 kg-s/m2 based on changes in blood viscosity.
The future work could include constructing a pilot plant of the proposed system to evaluate and optimize the blood collection processing further to promote hygienic blood collection from the slaughterhouses.Studentye
Using thermal imagery and changes in stem radius to assess water stress in two coniferous tree species
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. iv, 43 p.With a warming climate and greater evaporative demand, the functioning of forest ecosystems is increasingly affected by water limitation. Water stress has the potential to impact many forests globally with tree die-back, drought-related injury and increased chances of wildfire. To address the need for an innovative, non-invasive research approach to gather insight into a tree’s water stress status, I employed airborne thermal imagery from unmanned aerial vehicles as a new tool for measuring leaf temperatures. Higher canopy leaf temperatures (CLT) have been related to plant water stress when there is low soil moisture and high evaporative demand. In this thesis, I related the difference between leaf and air temperature (ΔT) to local soil moisture, atmospheric humidity and wind speed to determine conditions associated with high ΔT. Those same weather conditions were also compared to dendrometer-based measurements of daily changes in internal tree water deficit (ΔTWD). Environmental relationships of ΔT and ΔTWD were compared to one another to evaluate differences in how they reflected water stress in two species, lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. latifolia) and white spruce (Picea glauca). While canopy leaf temperature and daily change in tree water deficit showed little direct correlation with one another, both variables responded to soil moisture, vapour pressure deficit, and wind speed in a manner that reflects a common response to water stress as soil becomes progressively drier over the summer. The two species showed similar responses to environmental conditions, with some differences related to species-specific strategies for drought avoidance. The application of thermal imagery to detect water stress in natural ecosystems can help in better understanding how trees experience water stress across species and environmental conditions.Studentye
Branching Out: Examining the Possibilities and Challenges of Community Garden Expansion
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 Arts in Social Studies, University of Regina. viii, 161 p.The North Central Community Gardens (NCCG) – the urban agriculture program of the
North Central Community Association (NCCA) in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada – introduced
the Branch Out Project (BOP) in the summer of 2020. After several years of conversations with
community members and discussions among NCCA staff, BOP was designed as a participatory
action research project that would promote the expansion of the NCCG into residents’ yards and
schoolgrounds as well as facilitate research on the practical and theoretical implications of this
initiative. Amidst the many regulations, upheavals to local and global economies, and disruptions
of social and cultural lives brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, BOP resulted in the
construction of eight new gardens: six in residents’ yards and two on schoolgrounds. Findings
from an initial interest survey of NCCG participants (N=21) are presented here, in addition to
conclusions from post-season interviews with BOP participants (N=8). By analyzing the survey
and interview findings, I aimed to address the question: what are the opportunities for,
possibilities of, and challenges to the expansion of community gardening in urban spaces under
neoliberal capitalism? Four key themes emerge from this investigation: consumption,
community, capacity, and control. Applying the extended case method to BOP, I situate these
themes within the food justice and food sovereignty literature to understand community garden
expansion as a counter-neoliberal, anti-capitalist response to crisis. I argue that BOP, and similar
initiatives, have the potential to provide a radical grassroots alternative food system, but that
challenges of land access, funding, and power remain.Studentye
Distinguishing the mental health effects
No full textA Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Psychology, University of Regina. 75 p.Background: A significant minority of people suffer from elevated depression and anxiety symptoms. Dispositional mindfulness, the capacity to pay attention to present-moment experiences non-judgmentally, has consistently been associated with reduced depression and anxiety. However, little is known about other mindfulness-inspired concepts, such as nonattachment and equanimity, and how much they overlap with mindfulness in predicting symptoms. Non-attachment is having balance and flexibility and exerting openness towards the prospect of change. Equanimity is responding neutrally towards all experiences and having a balanced state of mind. Purpose: The aims of the present study are to examine if, after controlling for variance by demographics and mindfulness scores: (1) non-attachment predicts unique variance in anxiety and depression; and (2) equanimity predicts unique variance in anxiety and depression. Method: A total of n=414 (nfemale= 189; 45.6%) participants provided their consent and completed measures of depression (PHQ-9), anxiety (GAD-7), dispositional mindfulness (FFMQ-39), non-attachment (NAS), and equanimity (EQ-16). Participants were recruited through the crowdsourcing website Amazon Turk Prime (AMT; Litman et al., 2017). Results: Hierarchal regression analyses revealed non-attachment and equanimity each predicted unique variance in depression and anxiety symptoms, after controlling variance contributed by demographic variables and mindfulness. Limitations: The study’s cross sectional design prevents drawing any causal inferences about the relationships between the variables. Cultivated forms of dispositional mindfulness, non-attachment, and equanimity differ from their non-cultivated counterparts. Implication: Study results are preliminary, but may suggest supplementing future Mindfulness-Based Interventions (MBIs) with teachings of non-attachment and equanimity.Studentn
Controls of Carbon Dioxide, Methane, and Nitrous Oxide Emissions in Natural and Constructed Agricultural Waterbodies on the Northern Great Plains
No full textInland waters are hotspots of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and small water bodies are now well known to be particularly active in the production and consumption of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O). High variability in physical, chemical, and environmental parameters affect the production of these GHG, but currently the mechanistic underpinnings are unclear, leading to high uncertainty in scaling up these fluxes. Here, we compare the relative magnitudes and controls of emissions of all three major GHG in twenty pairs of natural wetland ponds and constructed reservoirs in Canada’s largest agricultural region. While gaseous fluxes of CO2 and CH4 were comparable between the two waterbody types, CH4 ebullition was greater in wetland ponds. Carbon dioxide levels were associated primarily with metabolic indicators in both water body types, with primary productivity paramount in agricultural reservoirs, and heterotrophic metabolism a stronger correlate in wetland ponds. Methane emissions were positively driven by eutrophication in the reservoirs, while competitive inhibition by sulfur-reducing bacteria may have limited CH4 in both waterbody types. Contrary to expectations, N2O was undersaturated in both water body types, with wetlands a significantly stronger and more widespread N2O sink than were reservoirs. These results support the need for natural and constructed water bodies for regional GHG budgets and identification of GHG processing hotspots.Ministry of Agriculture - Saskatchewan
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of CanadaFacultyn
Cultural and Islamic influences on perceptions of mental health services among middle-aged Muslim adults
No full textA Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Psychology, University of Regina. 73 p.Background: Several factors contribute to rejection attitudes towards professional mental health services within the Muslim community. The Muslims’ Perceptions and Attitudes to Mental Health (M-PAMH; Ali et al., 2021) examines some of these factors, including cultural and religious beliefs about mental health as well as experience and familiarity with professional mental health services. The M-PAMH constructs have been examined among a sample of younger Muslim women; however, the M-PAMH constructs have not yet been investigated among middle-aged Muslim adults. Purpose: The current study was aimed at examining the MPAMH constructs quantitatively and qualitatively among a sample of middle-aged Muslim adults. Method: Using a mixed-method sequential exploratory study design, a total of 78 participants completed a set of self-report questionnaires on rejection attitudes and factors influencing these rejection attitudes followed by individual interviews with a subsample of 14 participants to collect more in-depth perspectives on these issues. Results: A linear multiple regression analysis revealed that cultural and religious beliefs about mental health as well as experience and familiarity with professional mental health services significantly predicted rejection attitudes toward these services. Following directed content analysis, narrative data from the interviews indicated prominent cultural influence subthemes of trust, stigma, and values along with the religious influence subthemes of values and practices. Implications: Findings from this study will contribute to the growing body of literature on mental health seeking behaviors among Muslim Canadians and contribute to a better understanding of the specific needs of middle-aged Muslim adults seeking professional mental health services in Canada.Studentn