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Survival guide: To protect, to preserve
No full textPitchpole dress: a flippable 3-way dress with detachable Philippine Baro sleeves and 3D convertible flap pockets into a tote bagFilipino fabricmodular fashionfunctionalconvertiblePresented at: Vancouver Community College Teaching, Learning and Research Symposium, March 30-31, 202
The Dishonesty Objection: Is Christian Faith Less Intellectually Honest than Science?
No full textIn light of modern science, Christianity is accused of being intellectually dishonest. Unlike science, the skeptic claims, the Christian faith is closed to outside correction, embracing self-defence over self-criticism, employing non-falsifiable claims, and claiming final certainty beyond what any evidence could justify. This thesis answers the skeptic who makes this dishonesty objection from science by comparing science and Christianity. Science self-critically attends to nature, and theology self-critically attends to revelation. Neither can proceed if it becomes skeptical about its own ‘object’ of knowledge. The dishonesty objection tolerates from science what it considers dishonest from Christianity because it excludes in advance the possibility of revealed, authoritative, and transformative theological knowledge as Christian thinkers understand it. This objection thereby insists on guaranteeing theological knowledge to ourselves, by ourselves—on our own terms; this demand is a “pretension ... against the knowledge of God” (2 Cor. 10:5, NIV).apologeticshonestyintellectual honestyintellectual dishonestysciencereligionscience and religionBibleDawkinsTorranceBarthPolanyiMcEwanCSCAASAfalsificationfaithepistemologyPlantingaStar TrekLamoureuxRauserVenemaJerry CoyneSam HarrisNew AtheistsatheismskepticismChristianityKuhnLakatosNewbigi
Addressing violence in prisons: an analysis of situational crime prevention and its theoretical application to the Canadian correctional system
No full textCanadian penitentiaries have remained much the same from the creation of Kingston Penitentiary in 1835, the first official correctional facility in Canada (Correctional Services Canada [CSC], n.d.), to current times. With a growing number of complaints around the maximum- and medium-security prisons, it may be time to change the narrative around retributive architecture. Situational crime prevention (SCP), defensible space (DS) and crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) all have previous proven successes in their application in schools, hospitals, and public spaces to reduce criminality and aggression. In this honours thesis, a literature review and content analysis were conducted to explore the applicability of SCP, DS, and CPTED to correctional settings. Six articles were analyzed using the pre-operationalized definitions as set out by Cozen et al. (2005), Clarke (1997), and Moran and Dolphin (1986). Nine strategies were found to have applicability to correctional settings, with eight of those found to reduce aggression or violence within an institutional setting. Recommendations from the selected eight strategies were completed to create a checklist for Canadian institutions to aid in the implementation of SCP, DS, and CPTED strategies. A theoretical discussion was conducted around the broader applicability of SCP, DS, and CPTED. While it is acknowledged that the instrument created through this thesis does not capture all the possible recommendations or solutions that would fit into a SCP, DS, or CPTED framework, it is hoped that it creates the start of a political change towards that of a focus on rehabilitative architecture
Investigating differences in cancer incidence between immigrants and non-immigrants: A population-based study from 1992-2015 using Statistics Canada data
No full textCancer continues to be a contributing factor to Canada’s healthcare burden and has large impacts on quality of life and survival. While Canada has a public healthcare system, there are different challenges faced by those born outside of the country, and it is important to study any disparities in cancer outcomes to offer more equitable solutions. The research performed for this thesis aimed to investigate the differences in cancer incidence between immigrants and non-immigrants in Canada. Using Statistics Canada data and linking of the 1991 Census, Canadian Cancer Registry, and Canadian Vital Statistics database, a cohort was followed from 1992-2015 to calculate the odds ratios and hazard ratios of cancer incidence for immigrants and non-immigrants. The results support previous research in the field, specifically the existence of a healthy immigrant effect where immigrants have lower odds of developing cancer incidence in comparison to their Canadian-born counterparts. Results also show this effect decreases over time spent in the country, aligning with previous research. This study demonstrates the complexity of this phenomenon and suggests some factors that contribute to the healthy immigrant effect after controlling for various
demographic and socioeconomic factors in the regression models. These results contribute to this area of research and also highlights the need for future studies to examine individual-level health behaviours and other factors that impact the differences in cancer incidence between immigrants and non-immigrants in Canada
compos(t)ing…
No full textThis writing is a window into my mind and the meandering thoughts behind a series of sculptural experiments and installations I have made from compostable materials. The work explores the porosity of bodies as entities and the symbiosis that becomes possible with permeability. Thinking through a critical discourse of ecologies, I (re)imagine and “propose near futures, possible futures, and implausible but real nows” through a materially emergent and ecological, situated practice (Haraway 2016, 136).
I work with the embedded ideas by moving between 3 different lenses. I begin with Introweaving, my research as a network of pathways that a worm might meander through in a compost pile, opening the various spaces and materials that I use throughout my experiments. Bodies as microworlds probes notions of the body and its porous boundaries; ingesting and regurgitating become critical and generative metaphors for processing ingestible biomaterials made from food refuse. In/Between embraces the active process of borrowing and mutating processes and methodologies from distinct spaces and bodies of knowledge. (Un)Becoming zooms outwards to the cyclical aspects of life and time – exploring animacy, decay and regeneration as expressive processes.
Complementing the initial Introweaving is a final section Interleaving, where I pause and gesture towards future experiments. I view this project and thinking as a become-with (ref. symbiosis/ the more-than-human/ land) is an ongoing process. These ideas are need to continuously percolating… my writing and my project are eternally compos(t)ing…ProcessTransdisciplinaryBodiesResearch-creatio
No poverty
No full textThis zine was created as an assignment for a Global Learning Global Citizenship class (GLGC 1101) with Douglas College instructor Janice Sestan. Students created zines exploring and expressing personal passion related to the advocacy of a chosen United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)
Identification of important SNPs using penalized models and Bayesian Deep Learning on whole-genome Arabidopsis thaliana data
No full textThe process of identifying the most important and informative features from a data set for a particular task is known as feature selection. Feature selection is a critical problem for statistical modeling and machine learning since employing all features might result in over-fitting. In high-dimensional data, where the number of features can be significantly greater than the number of samples, feature selection is even more difficult. One such application where the high-dimensional challenge is common is in Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS). GWAS aims to identify the relationship between genetic variations, such as Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs), and physical traits. Feature selection algorithms based on statistical and machine learning methods are often used to tackle the high-dimensionality problem. This research aims to tackle this challenge by proposing two workflows to identify several potentially important SNPs. The first workflow, PentaPen, combines five penalized models - Ridge, LASSO, and Elastic net using all SNPs and Group LASSO and Sparse Group Lasso (SGL) using filtered SNPs (union of SNPs selected by Ridge, LASSO, and Elastic net). The second workflow, BayesDL, combines Bayesian methods with deep learning using preliminary filtered SNPs found by Chi-square and ANOVA as input. PentaPen, a machine learning model, aims to provide reduced numbers of SNPs by leveraging the beneficial properties of five penalized models. The union of SNPs selected by Group LASSO and SGL are the output SNPs of PentaPen. BayesDL, a cascaded deep learning model, along with identifying important SNPs, aims to provide high prediction performance. BayesDL also mitigates the issue of over-fitting while handling data sets with fewer sample sizes, a limitation in various traditional neural networks. The performances of the proposed workflows are compared with the existing methodologies based on the quality metrics, Precision, Recall, F1 score, AUC, R-squared, RMSE, and Accuracy. The systematic comparison of single penalized models provides a guideline for researchers to make informed decisions to choose a penalized model. BayesDL’s performance is compared with the Convolutional neural network (CNN). In addition, the important SNPs from both workflows are validated to locate genes; these are compared with the output SNPs or genes between each other and from GWAS software (GAPIT and TASSEL). Findings of the continuous and categorical phenotype of Arabidopsis thaliana plant data indicate that PentaPen performs similarly to LASSO and Elastic Net while better than Ridge, Group LASSO, and SGL by reducing over-fitting. Reduced over-fitting was evident with a 10% decrease in the testing metrics compared to the training metrics. PentaPen performs similarly to Ridge, LASSO, and Elastic Net for the binary phenotype. BayesDL performs better than CNN for all the phenotypes. The findings from the proposed workflows complement with GWAS, using different models (generalized linear models in GAPIT and TASSEL versus penalized models and probabilistic models in two proposed workflows respectively).
My study provides a classifier and regressor - PentaPen - for researchers finding reduced numbers of important SNPs for further analysis; the study also provides a rigorous comparison of penalized models to gain insights into the strengths and predictive performance of each model. Furthermore, the study also gives the bioinformatics community a cascaded classifier and regressor, BayesDL or Bayesian Neural Network (BNN), useful for the prediction and identification of important SNPs in the whole-genome SNP data.Genomic Wide Association StudySingle Nucleotide PolymorphismSNP IdentificationMachine LearningDeep LearningHigh Dimensional Dat
Development of an electrochemical system for the manganese electrocatalytic oxidation and hardness precipitation in groundwater
No full textManganese is one of the most occurring heavy metals in the source and drinking water of rural and remote communities in Canada. The removal of manganese from groundwater was explored by designing a biochar-assisted electrochemical technology as a small-scale and chemical-free method. Electrocatalytic oxidation of manganese was acquired while utilizing wood residue biochar as a coating layer on the surface of activated carbon felt anode. The biochar-coated anode showed enhanced conductivity and surface area, consequently facilitating the electron exchange and manganese removal efficiency. Manganese initial concentration, current intensity, pH, and time were considered the main variables and their effect on the removal efficiency of manganese from groundwater was investigated. Current had the most influence on removal efficiency, as evidenced by the fact that no manganese removal occurred at zero current and the removal efficiency was increased by enhancing current from 25 to 75 mA. With the Mn initial concentration of 2 mg/L, current of 75 mA, pH 9, 97.5 % manganese removal efficiency was acquired, which helped to reduce the contaminant concentration under the maximum acceptable concentration. The results demonstrated a well-fitted pseudo-first-order model with a rate constant of 0.0411 min-1 for electrocatalytic oxidation. Real groundwater of Lheidli T'enneh community in Northern BC was employed to evaluate the impacts of co-existing ions on the manganese removal performance. The results confirmed that not only did the use of real groundwater have no detrimental impact on the system’s efficiency, but also the system was able to decrease the high hardness of 268.2 mg CaCO3/L in the groundwater to 72.2 mg CaCO3/L suitable for drinking purposes. Investigation of the manganese removal mechanisms indicated that various species, such as hydroxide ions, sulfate, and hydroxide radicals can play key roles in transferring or removing manganese from groundwater by oxidation and precipitation pathways. The formation of a black powder precipitated on the anode surface and in the cell after treatment proved that oxidation of manganese takes place in the system. Furthermore, the evolution of pH after 90 minutes of reaction further confirmed the presence of hydroxide ions in the system. Overall, the designed system achieved a significant performance in removing manganese and hardness from groundwater while utilizing biochar as a waste and
cost-effective material
A Phonology of the Domung [dev] Language of Papua New Guinea With Acoustic Analysis
No full textThis synchronic phonological analysis of the underdescribed language of Domung (ISO 693-3 [dev]) identifies 16 consonant phonemes and six vowel phonemes based on a corpus of 1600+ recorded words collected during original fieldwork. Domung is a Trans New Guinea language spoken in the Finisterre mountains of Papua New Guinea. A brief comparison is made to the phonemic inventories of other related and documented Finisterre family languages. The phonology description includes acoustic measurement and analysis of vowel quality (via vowel formants) and vowel length (via vowel duration). Acoustic analysis confirms the presence of phonemic vowel length in a subset of vowels. Vowel sequences and diphthongs are also identified and characterized using relevant acoustic correlates. Syllable and word structure analysis is provided as well as description of several phonological processes occurring at morpheme boundaries. The accent system is also analyzed via both native speaker intuition assessments and acoustic measurement data.PhonologyDomungAcoustic AnalysisTrans New GuineaFinisterr
