MacEwan Open Journals (MacEwan University)
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Nature Of Album Design
No full textFor this Typography II project, an album cover for the band Nature Of was designed. The main idea behind the choices in the design of the album was to represent how the music conveyed a desire to find balance and to find a way to feel alright. The colours, and the way the papers interact together provide a laid back feeling and a good sense of contrast, which supports the main idea of finding balance. As you go further into the record, the text from the dictionary becomes more and more unreadable, and you have to find different ways to read it that are more unusual, kind of like how in the music things seem more difficult to understand the more they are kept inside. The different types of papers used to create each piece are some what like puzzle pieces, with some being more of a rough texture, some being ripped up or missing parts of the page, which once again supports the theme of struggling to find balance.
Faculty Mentor: Constanza Pacher
Department: Design Studie
Applications of Stochastic Processes to Modular Game Design
No full textThe we characterize our approach to game construction as modular for the reason that stochastic processes and Markov chains lend themselves naturally to being used to represent the evolution of a game “board”, so speak, from one state to another. Once a starting Markov chain of a simple set of rules is established, we would be able to arbitrarily complicate the existing rules through the addition of new states to the chain, in a modular way. It leads naturally to all manner of possibilities for conveniently semi-automating the mechanical implementation of additional game rules. And this is of course at the heart of our project—whether or not the process of going from planning to finished product for game development can be plausibly streamlined through a thoughtful application of various stochastic processes.
Faculty Mentor: Cristina Anton
Department: Mathematic
Bioassay-Guided Phytochemical Screening of Albertan Weed Plants
No full textThere is an urgent need for novel antimicrobial drugs due to the growing prevalence of antibiotic resistant microbes. Plant-derived antimicrobial drugs are relatively new in western medicine and represent a novel set of chemicals that have the potential to contend with this issue. This study evaluates chemicals derived from Albertan weeds, invasive plant species that are wreaking havoc on our ecological communities, to assess for the presence of useful antimicrobial compounds. These active chemicals have the potential to be developed into new antimicrobial drugs to treat antibiotic resistant bacterial infections, thus transforming atrocious weeds into a pristine source of pharmaceuticals.
Faculty Mentor: Kimberley Harcombe and Tina Bott
Department: Biological Science (Honours
Incremental Theories of Well-Being Predict the Pursuit of Positive Experiences: A Longitudinal Study
No full textPeople differ on the extent to which they believe well-being is fixed (i.e., entity theorists) or amenable to change (i.e., incremental theorists). Those with a more incremental theory of well-being adopt a more positive orientation to their cognitive and behavioural experiences (Howell, Passmore, & Holder, 2016; Passmore, Howell, & Holder, 2018). The current longitudinal study, with an final sample of 186 university students, tested a model wherein incremental theories of well-being predict positive cognitive and behavioural experiences and, in turn, eudaimonic and hedonic well-being. Participants completed three-waves of data collection at approximately 5- week intervals. Analyses from all three waves indicated that incremental theories of well-being correlated reliably with concurrently assessed Positivity (i.e., the tendency to view life with a positive outlook), Prioritizing Positivity (i.e., the tendency to organize one\u27s life in a manner that maximizes positive experiences), and both eudaimonic and hedonic well-being. Structural equation analyses revealed that both Positivity and Prioritizing Positivity mediated the relationship between incremental theories of well-being and well-being. Further, this study has implications for interventions focused on cultivating incremental mindsets of well-being. Such cultivations may result in more adaptive functioning, enhanced responsiveness to interventions, and increased levels of both hedonic and eudaimonic well-being.
Faculty Mentor: Andrew Howell
Department: Psychology (Honours
Specifying Distinct Groups in Multivariate Data using Machine Learning
No full textWhen working with model-based classifications, finite mixture models are utilized to describe the distributions of the resulting groupings of observations within a data set. These groupings are derived using minimal prior knowledge of this group structure. Mixtures of multiple scaled multivariate-t and SAL distributions possess properties that have been shown to provide excellent classification and improved inferential capabilities for several data sets. However, the number of parameters in these models scale quadratically, leading to models becoming highly parametrized. Hence, the intention of this research project is to develop an efficient variation of an expectation maximization (EM) algorithm to fit mixtures of these distributions. The classification of the models resulting from this algorithm will be compared to other state-of the-art mixtures using simulated and real data sets.
Faculty Mentor: Brian Franczak
Department: Mathematic
Education and Democracy: Plato and the Idea of Liberal Education
No full textThe topic of education is inherently political because political views are always based on what is believed to be true. This is of particular importance in democracies because they place political responsibility on individual citizens. But, while democracies emphasize the individual freedom of their citizens, democratic structures also require democratic-minded citizens in order to continue existing, and purposefully indoctrinating citizens in democratic values necessarily limits individual freedom. This creates a tension between individual freedom and the survival of the democratic structures which promote individual freedom in the first place, and this tension is inherent in all discussions of democratic education. Discussion of this tension often comes into contact with the idea of "liberal education", education designed to promote individual freedom while maintaining democratic institutions. My paper examines scholarly discussion of liberal education and returns to Plato to examine this tension. Plato is of particular interest because his works express the same tension between liberal and illiberal ideas that we see in democracy, and because his works were addressed to a democracy that his works are often critical of. Ultimately, we can consider the works of Plato to be not only about liberal education; because they are addressed to a democratic audience his works are themselves examples of liberal education.
Faculty Mentor: Gaelan Murphy
Department: Political Science (Honours
Rootbound
No full textThe short story “Rootbound” explores experiences of rural life, everyday unhappiness, aging, and estrangement in all its forms.
Clementine’s children are grown, moved away, and scarcely heard from, leaving her husband Morley her only company. Morley, a retired oil man, seems uninterested in reconnecting with his wife after years of camp food, shack life, and clandestine cocaine. Although Clementine can retire from her part-time job at the garden centre, she continues working to distract herself from the painful nonentity that is her marriage.
Clementine’s dissatisfaction with her life constantly pulls her into the past – a place more vivid than her present, but just as complex. Often, she skis the familiar, wooded trails on her farm to take refuge from Morley’s silence, and to observe the natural world around her that changes almost imperceptibly with each outing, but changes nonetheless.
Skiing one afternoon, Clementine encounters the body of a mare, presumably dumped over the bank by the Swansons to the North or the Bittners to the East. She stops to ponder the mare’s wasting body each time she enters the woods to ski, and becomes acutely aware of the metaphor and ultimatum nature has given her.
The accompanying personal essay “‘It Takes Most of Our Internal Organs:’ Reflections on Writing,” considers the struggles of writing, and its inspirations. Here, the writer discusses her influences, her experiences of the prairies, her fascination with the human gothic, and the interplay between these things within “Rootbound.”
Faculty Mentor: Jillian Skeffington
Department: English (Honours
The Language of Suicide
No full textThere is a significant concern amongst caregivers, mental health advocates, and survivors of suicide attempts surrounding use of the phrase committed suicide. Sommer-Rotenberg (1998) identified that the phrase has a connotation of criminality, dishonor, and immorality, and that its ongoing use contributes to stigma surrounding suicide. Similar arguments have been made by others (see, e.g., Suicide.org; Suicideinfo.ca). In the current study, participants read two scenarios (in counterbalanced order), one depicting a suicide in which bereaved family members verbalize that they view the suicide as sinful and morally condemnable, and one depicting a suicide without this additional information. Analyses tested whether a suicide depicted as sinful is more frequently paired with statements employing the phrase committed suicide (relative to statements containing the phrase died by suicide) than the control scenario. Repeated measures ANOVA revealed that perceived sinfulness led to participants choosing the phrase committed suicide more than the phrase died by suicide. This study provides an empirical basis for a causal link between moral condemnation and the perceived appropriateness of the phrase committed suicide.
Faculty Mentor: Andrew Howell
Department: Psychology
 
Applying two anthropological theories to women\u27s questions about menopause
No full textSeveral hundred women attended an evening information session that featured three didactic presentations dealing with aspects of menopause. To facilitate a question and answer period following the presentations, the audience was asked to write their questions on pieces of paper which were then collected so that representative questions could be answered. Almost two thirds of those present in the audiences were sufficiently invested in the topic to submit questions. At the conclusion of the conference all of the questions were collected and transcribed. The textual material consisting of 374 questions was examined from the perspective of two theories of anthropology. The set of questions were initially examined from a Functional perspective, a theoretical orientation that considers everything we do and our learned behaviors and ideas that are characteristic of a particular group, is to keep the its society functioning normally; taken as a whole the pragmatic nature of the dataset provided evidence of Functionalism. Ruth Benedict looked at the culture of a group or society as "a more or less consistent pattern of thought and action" - the theory of cultural anthropology; societies or groups "choose" features which become dominant traits of persons living within that society. The uniformity of the audience\u27s questions can be viewed from Benedict\u27s perspective as suggesting that culture plays a role in determining behaviour as women in Western society approach or reach the end of their reproductive lives. The menopausal syndrome can perhaps then even be viewed as a Culture Bound Syndrome.
Faculty Mentor: Jennifer Long
Department: Anthropolog
Political Neutrals Find Political Polarization Particularly Disengaging
No full textPast research finds that the more people perceive polarization in others the more extreme their own attitudes become. However, we do not know what affect the perception of polarization has on political neutrals and moderates. In the proposed study, we will examine how polarization perception differentially affects those with neutral, moderate, and extreme views. Specifically, we will examine how these perceptions affect political engagement and voting intention. We expect to find that neutrals and moderates’ engagement is attenuated by perception of polarization and confirm previous finding that extremists become further engaged in perceiving a polarized electorate. In this correlational and longitudinal study, we will gather voting intention measures prior to the Fall 2019 election and follow-up with respondents to determine if intention translated to action. We expect that extremists will show stronger voting intentions the more they perceive polarization whereas moderates and neutrals will show less commitment to vote the more they perceive the political system is polarized.
Faculty Mentor: Craig Blatz
Department: Psychology (Honours