MacEwan Open Journals (MacEwan University)
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Emerging Implications of VR Video Game Play on Dreams
No full textVirtual reality (VR) technology may shape human consciousness. VR is computer-simulated environment that replicates the experience of being present in another location (presence), which depends on how well the VR technology creates immersion. Immersion is how well a virtual environment submerges the perceptual systems of the user in computer-generated stimuli. In dreams an individual enters a biologically created virtual reality, with a strong senseof presence felt. Therefore, there is a transfer of certain characteristics from a game played with VR headset into one’s dream, which is known as the game transfer phenomena. The easiest way to capture these experiences is by wearing high-quality VR goggles. The game used for this study is Resident Evil 7: Biohazard.In this study, we are examining the dreams of those who experience VR, versus those who do not. An earlier study compared watching/playing video games on television versus playing a game wearing wide screen goggles. In related studies that looked at the relationship between the immersion created by VR headset and nighttime dreams, it was concluded that the level of presence felt increased with using VR headset which may have affected memories of dreams, but the results were equivocal. This follow up study will employ a fully immersive set of VR goggles to determine if there is an increase in felt presence in participant’s dreams. The hypothesis is that the dreams of those who use VR will have a deeper sense of control, be more vivid, and may be more lucid.
Discipline: Psychology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Jayne Gackenbac
A Hobo, a Bimbo, and an Orphan Walk into a Bar: An Examination of Victim Dehumanization and Reactions to Consent Violations
No full textDehumanization involves failing to acknowledge that another person has the full suite of emotions, cognitions and capabilities associated with being human. Recent work has described two distinct types or dimensions: mechanistic and animalistic (Haslam, 2006; Haslam & Loughnan, 2014). Mechanistic dehumanization involves denying someone characteristics of human nature such as emotionality and interpersonal warmth, and a tendency to perceive them as cold, rigid and lacking in animation, much like automata. Animalistic dehumanization involves perceiving someone as devoid of uniquely human characteristics such as civility and higher cognition, and a tendency to view them as coarse, unintelligent and immoral, much like animals. Dehumanization on either dimension has consequences for our ability to see others as victims, and to experience moral outrage at their victimization (Gray, Gray & Wegner, 2007; Bastian et al., 2011). Our project will examine whether dehumanization of female victims on either dimension influences our assessment of the wrongness of male consent violations and deserved punishment. Participants will read scenarios of heterosexual encounters containing consent violations by a male. The female will be varied between subjects to reflect a profile that encourages humanization or dehumanization on one or both dimensions. Participants’ moral outrage at the male as well as the severity of punishment deserved will be assessed. We expect dehumanization along either dimension will attenuate both measures. However, mechanistically dehumanized females are regarded as cognitively capable, and thus more blame-worthy and less deserving of protection. Those victim scenarios may experience more attenuated levels of outrage and punishment.
Discipline: Psychology (Honours)
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Aimee Sky
Ancestry-Specific Variation in Rogers\u27 Method of Sex Estimation
No full textRogers’ (1999, 2009) visual method is a technique for estimating skeletal sex based on four traits of the distal humerus, and is valuable in cases of commingled or fragmented remains when use of more dominant cranial and pelvic methods is not possible. However, Rogers’ initial accuracy of 92% has not been replicated by subsequent tests of the method, and the role of biological ancestry in the accuracy of this method has not been sufficiently addressed. I conducted a blind test of the method on a sample of nineteenth-century American black and white individuals from the Hamann-Todd Collection. This test resulted in an overall accuracy of 67%, ranging from 54–73% between the two groups. These results demonstrate that accurate estimation of sex using the method is two times more likely for a white individual than for an black individual. More research is required to understand the cause of this variation. Prior to applying this method in bioarchaeological and forensic contexts, future should consider these results that the method is not consistently accurate across all human populations.
Discipline: Anthropology (Honours)
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Hugh McKenzi
Just Get Started in Exercise
No full textAdherence to exercise programs has been shown to be notoriously difficult. The present study explores the efficacy of a technique known as “just getting started” (JGS) to promote exercise programs. JGS can be defined as attempting to begin an activity by first completing a small initial step that is required to perform that activity. Instead of looking at the activity as a whole, setting and completing a small goal initially may make it easier to carry on with the rest of that activity. Healthy volunteers will be asked to create weekly schedules and state their intended amount of exercise. Alongside scheduling, half of these volunteers will also be instructed to use the “just get started” tactic when they don\u27t feel like exercising. Volunteers will be given a logbook containing blank scheduling sheets and an index of habit strength to fill out after each exercise session. We hypothesize that students who are advised to schedule their exercise activities and use the “just get started” tactic will be more likely to adhere to an exercise program and be more satisfied with their exercise routine.
Discipline: Psychology (Honours)
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Russ Powell
 
Love Enough (Book of the Year)
No full textLove Enough by Dionne Brand is a book that gives a glimpse into the lives of diverse people in Toronto. Throughout the book, Brand showcases her poetic background, which can be seen when she describes the imagery of Toronto. Love Enough shows the reality of love; it shows the reader each character’s struggle with it.Toronto is home in the book; the map of city is seen on both posters showing that it is one of the main characters in the story. The heavy black lines seen on the posters, symbolize the foundations that Da’uud taught Bedri, The posters connect, making a larger map of the city. One can see the lines become thinner and less substantial in the next poster. This represents the growing distance between Bedri and his father. The car represents Bedri, as he’s running away from his father. The quote chosen encompasses the whole theme of the book; the struggle each character has with love. Black, grey, and white are the colours chosen, because it references to the expression “Not everything is black and white.” This reinforces the idea that love isn’t just black and white; love is a complicated whirlwind people experience in life.
Discipline: Design Studies
Faculty Mentor: Constanza Pacher
 
The Humanization of the Monster in Eden Robinson’s Monkey Beach
No full textThis paper points out the negative impact of western social constructions that reinforces themes of sexual and gendered violence within indigenous communities through the role of the absent referent in Eden Robinson\u27s novel Monkey Beach, which continues to overlook the actions and behaviors of a non indigenous society.
In addition to that, this paper will be focusing on the experiences of Lisamarie, who is the protagonist of the novel and I will draw attention to the physical abuse, institutional racism, and sexual exploitation that Lisa experiences from a non-indigenous society that fails to acknowledge the intergenerational trauma and structural oppression that she faces as an indigenous woman. Also, I will discuss the term monster and how Lisa’s courage and pride help her resist the stigmatizing labels of the term monster.
 
Retrospective Evaluation of PET/CT Scans of Intermediate Risk Prostate Cancer Patients
No full textProstate cancer has a high incidence rate. Research into predictive factors for reoccurrence of prostate cancer can improve patient care and improve mortality rates. A clinical trial at the Cross Cancer Institute, aimed to determine if PET/CT scans using the radioactive tracer 11C choline can predict the treatment outcome of intermediate to high risk prostate cancer patients. 30 patients were enrolled in the clinical trial, of which 25 continued on to successful data acquisition. After a baseline scan, treatment occurred over the next 7-8 weeks and patients were followed for up to 5 years. Chosen treatment outcome markers were the most recent PSA (prostate specific antigen) level and biochemical failure (PSA >2 over nadir). Quantitative PET data (standard uptake value – SUV) from interprostatic lesions was exported into Excel in the form of a time activity curves. A computer code, written in VBA (visual basic for applications), was used to sort, group, calculate and graph several parameters and values from patient data. Charts were visually inspected for correlation between any parameter and treatment outcome. Some separation was observed between high and low most recent PSA values and maximum SUV after 40 minute uptake time. Biochemical failure shows some correlation with integral SUV mean. Further evaluation of statistical power is required to determine significance. Biochemical failure occurred in only 4 patients during the 5 year follow-up period, thus limiting these findings. Furthermore, patient withdrawal during the trial limits statistical significance of later time points
Normal and Elevated Blood CO2 Increased Anterior Blood Flow Responses During the Cold Pressor Test
No full textThe cerebrovasculature is responsive to acute alterations in blood gases (e.g., CO2) and blood pressure. The brain is relatively pressure passive, with acute increases in mean arterial pressure (MAP) driving increases in cerebral blood flow (CBF). The superimposition of dynamic increases in MAP and controlled CO2 perturbations on the regulation of anterior and posterior cerebral circulation is unclear. We aimed to characterize the effects of cold pressor test (CPT) on the anterior and posterior (middle and posterior cerebral arteries; MCA, PCA) with a background of different steady-state CO2 perturbations. Seventeen healthy participants were instrumented with electrocardiogram, finometer, mouthpiece/noseclip, and transcranial Doppler ultrasound (TCD) for measurement of MCA and PCA velocity (MCAv, PCAv). End-tidal CO2 was measured using calibrated CO2 analyzer. In a randomized order, a CPT was administered using 0-2°C water immersion of the lower limbs for 3-min under three coached, normoxic, steady-state end-tidal PCO2 conditions: normocapnia (eupnea), hypocapnia (-10 Torr) and hypercapnia (+8 Torr). The CBV responses were calculated as the absolute difference (∆) between baseline and the mean MCAv and PCAv during the 3-min CPT. The ∆MCAv response was larger in the hypercapnic trial compared to normocapnia and hypocapnia (P<0.05), but there were no differences in the ∆PCAv. The ∆MCAv CPT response was larger than the ∆PCAv during the hypercapnic trial (P<0.001) as well as the normocapnic trial (P=0.017), but there were no differences between ∆MCAv vs. ∆PCAv in the hypocapnic trials. Our data demonstrate that there was differential regional permissive hyperemia when acute increases in MAP and steady-state CO2 are superimposed. Funding Sources: NSERC Discovery, MRU Faculty of Science and Technology.
*Indicates presente
Applications of Discrete Markov Chains to Baseball Analysis
No full textThere are two fundamental notions which justify the use of Markov chains in the analysis of baseball game outcomes. The first is simply a statement of the consequences of the rules of Baseball itself-- namely that for any batter, exactly one of three possible outcomes will have occurred by the time their turn at bat is finished. They will have scored a run, or they will find themselves on base, or they will be “out”. As a consequence, the evolving state of a game of baseball can be entirely characterized in terms of batters in sequence moving from their turn at bat into the appropriate variation of one of these three foundational “states”. In particular, from the beginning of a half-inning to its conclusion, every single possible configuration of bases occupied, number of outs, and number of points scored can therefore be arranged sequentially and, as I will demonstrate, the discrete Markov chain is the perhaps the most natural framework in which to do this.
The second fundamental notion is the justification for why, if we create a matrix of transition probabilities representing the transition from one “state of the field”, or “arrangement of players on bases” to the next, this matrix should in fact be a Markov chain. The key is this: since the states being transitioned through in this proposed matrix are exactly the state of the field of play at the time a given batter takes their turn at the mound, and the subsequent state after a batter has taken his turn depends solely upon the performance characteristics of that batter (this is a crucial point, as indeed the next state de facto depends upon the performance of the defenders in the field, but statistically their effects and any others may be aggregated into some “average” performance of the batter), it is logically equivalent then to say that the past states of the game have no bearing on what state will be reached next. The Markov property is satisfied precisely because the state of the game after a batter has taken their turn rests entirely on the shoulders of that batter, without regard to what the batters before have done.
Taken together, these two notions suggest a way to construct a Markov chain which will model each state of play which the game passes through from the start of a half-inning to its conclusion
Abstract Design and Development of Natural Preservative
No full textPersonal care products employ a wide variety of chemicals. Preservatives are essential chemicals used in personal care products to prevent microbes from growing. It’s quite common to use a wide variety of preservatives to achieve broad-spectrum protection against mold, fungi, gram positive and gram negative bacteria. These include parabens, formaldehyde releasers, isothiazolinones, and phenoxyethanols. However, formaldehyde releasers are carcinogens and parabens are known endocrine disrupters that affect reproductive health, leading to problems related to fetal growth. An average person gets exposed to a number of such chemicals on a daily basis. This research is an attempt to design and develop safer preservatives through innovative strategies.
There are results for a gram positive bacterium, staphylococcus and E. coli a gram negative bacterium 6 essential oils and 2 lipids were chosen because they had shown to have antimicrobial effects. The six essential oils are: cinnamon, clove, eucalyptus, oregano, thyme and lavender. The two lipids tested are octanoic acid and lauric acid which are fatty acids. The different concentrations tested, were ratios of 1:1. 1:10, 1:100, and 1:1000 each compound was with the organic solvent DMSO (dimethyl sulfoxide) Data for E. Coli with potassium sorbate, Vitamin E and another essential oil wild orange was obtained. The methods used were similar to that of the Kirby Bauer method, instead of using a sterile paper disc a 5 microliter drop each solution was put directly onto the plate. The size of the incubation zone was measured and used for the data collected