MacEwan Open Journals (MacEwan University)
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Safety and Securty: ETS Ecosystem Map
No full textThis ecosystem map was designed to provide an increasingly granular look at the Edmonton Transit System through the use of layered information. The objective of the map was to be a flexible tool that could be easily added to as new information about the rider and ecosystem are uncovered. The ecosystem map is broken into the two stages ETS identified in a rider\u27s journey; “The First Stop / Station Experience” — the rider is not on an LRT or bus, and the “Onboard Experience” — the rider is on an LRT or bus. Adding more complexity to the map are layers that can be turned on/off, expanding upon the information provided. The “Safety Concerns” layers provide an overview of the safety concerns in the relative area. The “Rider Feelings” layer provides insight into the rider\u27s emotions within the ecosystem, which can affect their perception of safety and security. The “Touch points” layer expands upon the touch points on the map with additional information. The “Government / City” layer, highlights the local government\u27s role.
Department: Design
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Isabelle Speran
Monday or Tuesday Book Design
No full textMonday or Tuesday is a collection of short stories by Virginia Woolf. This collection of stories is made to feel disorienting and distracting. It is Woolf\u27s first attempt at her ‘stream of consciousness’ technique and makes the reader consider the mundane, daily life, and the passage of time. The fascinating part about this collection is that it makes you sit back and contemplate your own life as you are shown little snippets of the characters lives, thoughts, actions, and the scenes around them. The book’s overall themes are contemplation, mystery, and disorientation. The cover conveys these overall themes through its soft and muted colour palette. The soft colours give a sense of warmth and haze that contrasts sharply with the modern typeface on the cover. The type couples mystery and nostalgia through its elegancy, rounded shape, and balance of thick and thin line weight. The cover also showcases a long exposure portrait. The blurred nature of the face creates a sense of mystery and since her facial features are almost undetectable the viewer has the opportunity to see themselves in the image rather than the model. The inside of the book utilizes the same mystery and disorienting style of portraits at the beginning of each chapter. The chapter titles utilize the same typeface as the cover and creates a sense of unity and reminds the reader of the themes and emotions they saw or felt when looking at the dustjacket.
Department: Design
Faculty Mentor: Constanza Pache
Equity, diversity, and inclusion in early learning and childcare frameworks across Canada
No full textEquity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in early learning and childcare frameworks across Canada The discussions about equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) have reached many different settings throughout Canada, such as educational, professional, and social. Researchers, policymakers, and educators can support, promote, and guide this discussion by combining research and practices. Early learning frameworks serve as a guide for many educators in Canada. This study investigated how early childhood curriculum frameworks acknowledge and suggest applying EDI in early childhood environments. In addition, a preliminary analysis focused on the terms regarding EDI and their use in ten provincial early learning frameworks.
Some of our guiding research questions were:
How does the framework indicate equitable, diverse, and inclusive practices and perspectives?
What are the terms used to express equity, diversity, and inclusion?
Does the curriculum have a separate section to discuss equity, diversity, and/or inclusion? If so, what might that mean?
Is there any difference between the use of explicit and implicit language within the curriculum? If so, how?
We found that certain curriculum frameworks, such as Manitoba’s, allocated a major section on EDI, while others (e.g., FLIGHT in Alberta) explored the concepts throughout the document.
Some other findings of this study included the differences between the use of the terms “equity,” “diversity,” and “inclusion” explicitly and implicitly. To conclude, exploring EDI through early learning and care frameworks can help educators be aware of the Canadian socio-cultural context they live in and employ responsive, meaningful, and respectful practices for and with children, families, and communities.
Department: Human Services & Early Learning
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Ozlem Cankay
Textual Odalisque: From Roxolana to Hurrem Sultan
No full textMy thesis examines the trajectory of literary depictions of the enigmatic figure of Hurrem Sultan (otherwise known as Roxolana, circa. 1502-1558), the legal wife of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and the first Haseki Sultan, or Imperial Consort, of the Ottoman Empire. It will first consider Hurrem’s emergence on the European stage as a product of Orientalist discourse, then focus in detail on her more recent Ukrainian and Turkish cultural depictions. To assist my analysis, I will employ the theory of re-Orientalism, which is defined by Lisa Lau as an approach that determines “how cultural producers with eastern affiliations come to terms with an orientalized East, whether by complying with perceived expectations of western readers, by playing (along) with them or by discarding them altogether” (1). I will examine the Ukrainian opera Roksoliana (by Denys Sichynsky, 1911) and two contemporary Turkish productions, the television show Muhteşem Yüzyıl (The Magnificent Century, 2011, Tims Productions) and the play Gayri Resmi Hurrem (Unofficial Roxelana, by Ozen Yula, 2003) to show how they question, critique, and dispel Orientalist tropes associated with Roxolana in the western European imagination.
Department: English
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Svitlana Kry
The Accumulation of Microplastics in Different Estuaries
No full textMicroplastics are primarily produced by the fragmentation of larger plastic materials via physical, chemical, or biological means. They are carried by wind and water to various marine environments, such as estuaries, and deposited into sediments. Estuaries are microplastic sinks and can provide information about dominant plastic types and microplastic retention in marine environments. Various studies have produced inconsistent results when comparing microplastics and their sediments. The amount of microplastics accumulated in the sediments is thought to depend on grain size. Samples were collected from two locations along the western coast of North America (Craigs Bay and Netarts Bay) to determine if different depositional environments affect the accumulation and retention of microplastics. Approximately 12.5g of each sample was sifted through various sieves (4000, 2000, 1000, 500, 250, 125, and 63µm, respectively) to determine their grain size distributions and dominant grain size. Microplastics were extracted from an unsorted portion of each sample using a density floatation and enzyme digestions. They were also classified by shape: fragment, fiber, film, and pellets. The overall quantity in each sample was combined with each samples’ grain size distribution to determine if the different depositional environments affect the accumulation and retention of microplastics. The work is part of a new and emerging research area within sedimentology that focuses on the correlation between sediments and microplastics.
Department: Physical Sciences
Faculty Mentors: Dr. Matthew Ross and Dr. Hilary Corlet
Dunes: Portable OSL Technology and its Practical Applications in Canadian Archaeology
No full textThis research will provide an overview of OSL and pOSL technology; this includes a description of its components and an overview of how it works to measure luminescence signals from both quartz and feldspar samples. OSL is an acronym for optically stimulated luminescence and these machines are able to measure the amount of radiation absorbed by mineral samples since their most recent exposure to heat or light. Electrons are trapped in the crystal structure of minerals when they become exited by isotropic radiation; with stimulation from the OSL machine these electrons can be released and measured. Portable OSL technology is able to analyze bulk samples of sediments, in real-time, at archaeology surveys and excavations. The purpose of this research is to look at the practical applications of pOSL in archaeological sites in Alberta, Canada. This will include a comparison of the data retrieved from sites characterized by sand dune sediments and data retrieved from non-sand dune sites. A discussion follows about the viability of using pOSL for archaeological purposes in both sand dune and non-sand dune environments in Alberta, Canada.
Department: Physical Sciences
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Robin Woywitk
A Post-Release Examination of High-Risk Offenders and the Barriers to Reintegration
No full textOffenders who remain incarcerated for the entirety of their sentence are at greater risk of reoffending than those who receive community supervision (Serin et al., 2020). In Canada, those who have completed their sentence but are considered high-risk for violent and sexual reoffending can be placed on a Section 810 peace bond. The purpose of a Section 810 peace bond is to grant law enforcement supervisory power once the offender is released into the community. Little research is available on this subset of offenders despite the proposed safety threat. This poster presentation examines the prevalence of seven basic needs and six criminogenic factors over the first year of supervision post-release. More specifically, it highlights the prevalence of criminogenic and non-criminogenic variables, consistent with some of the challenges commonly encountered by those transitioning back into the community, such as struggling to find employment and accommodations. To examine criminogenic and non- criminogenic variables, we report the prevalence of each variable across three post-release intervals spanning the first year of supervision. As expected, some criminogenic needs and most basic non-criminogenic needs appeared to decrease across the time periods. However, we also found that interpersonal conflicts, substance abuse, and criminal attitudes seem to persist across the first year of supervision. Although these results do not offer a complete picture of what reintegration entails for offenders under judicial orders, we hope to build towards the empirical evidence necessary to support law enforcement tasked with the responsibility of supervising and managing these individuals.
Department: Psychology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Sandy Jun
How Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Influences Perceptions of Trustworthiness at Zero Acquaintance
No full textNarcissists\u27 assertive or antagonistic characteristics may impact how they perceive others’ trustworthiness. Individuals high in narcissistic rivalry tend to maintain a hostile orientation after anticipating a threat to their self-image, which may make them less trusting. Individuals high in narcissistic admiration tend to seek social admiration through assertive self-promotion, which may make them more trusting. Here, we sought to determine if trust perceptions differ between high-rivalry and high-admiration narcissists at zero acquaintance. We also examined the variables that may mediate the association between narcissism and trust. Across three studies, participants completed narcissism questionnaires, viewed facial photos of non-criminals (i.e., Nobel Prize winners) and criminals (i.e., those charged for white-collar crimes), and rated their perceived trustworthiness by making dichotomous choices (Study 1) or using a rating scale (Study 2-3). In Study 1, participants were 62% accurate at detecting trustworthiness from photos. Although accuracy did not differ for individuals high and low in narcissism, high- admiration narcissists were more likely to indicate others were trustworthy. In Study 2, high (vs. low) rivalry narcissists perceived non-criminals as less trustworthy. In Study 3, participants rated the perceived attractiveness and dominance of targets. Attractiveness, but not dominance, mediated the association between narcissistic rivalry and distrust. Together, we found that those who are high in narcissistic rivalry distrust trustworthy individuals, possibly due to the maintenance of their antagonistic and hostile interpersonal orientation.
Department: Psychology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Miranda Giacomi
Anxiolytic effects of acute Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) administration in Zebrafish (Danio rerio)
No full textThe current need for novel treatments of anxiety is at the forefront of mental health, with nearly 15% of Canadians indicating symptoms of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) in 2021, up from 13% in the previous year (Statistics Canada, 2021). The Zebrafish (Danio rerio) model organism allows for effective and efficient testing of new treatments, given their evolutionarily conserved anxiety pathway, the hypothalamus-pituitary-interrenal (HPI) axis, that acts nearly identically to the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis in humans (Khan et al. 2017). Furthermore, zebrafish share a similar Endocannabinoid system to that of humans (Oltrabella et al. 2017), allowing for the exploration of the effects of cannabis, and its constituents. The present study aims to explore the anxiolytic effects of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), one of two of the most prevalent phytocannabinoids found in cannabis (the other being Cannabidiol)(Atakan, 2012). Fish will be exposed to THC at doses of 0.3 and 0.6mg/L which have well-established anxiolytic effects (Dahlén et al. 2021; Ruhl et al. 2014), as well as 1.0mg/L. Administration of the drug should result in decreased thigmotaxis within the open field test, indicating reduced anxiety. Zebrafish behaviour will be analyzed using a well-validated test of anxiety; the open field test. This test will allow for the measure of the proportion of time spent swimming near the edge of the tank (thigmotaxis) (Stewart et al. 2012), with a lower proportion of time spent in the thigmotaxic zone indicating reduced anxiety.
Department: Psychology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Melike Schalomo
A Zoo-per Day Keeps The Scaries Away!: The Impact of Seeing Animals on At- Risk School-Aged Children
No full textAnimal Assisted Therapy (AAT) is a common therapeutic practice that involves the use of animals. AAT has benefits to youth’s mental health, including reducing depressive symptoms, anxiety, mood, and improving self-regulation. Many youth in lower socioeconomic statuses may not have access to this therapeutic resource. The present study investigates the effect of seeing animals on at-risk youth\u27s thoughts and moods. Ten at-risk and ten low-risk youth will be assigned to participate in an Animal Activity or Science Activity with their caregiver. At-risk and low-risk status will be determined by an online questionnaire. Before entering and after leaving their assigned activities, the children will fill out the BASC-3 Behavioural and Emotional Screening System to assess their current behavioural and emotional state. After leaving each establishment, the researcher will engage in a qualitative interview with children and their caregivers.. We predict that the animal activity will lower behavioural problems and increase emotional measures in comparison to the science activity, and the impact will be greatest for the at-risk group. Findings from this study could be used to justify and develop community animal- based interventions in lower socioeconomic areas.
Department: Psychology
Faculty Mentors: Dr. Tara Vongpaisal and Dr. Eric Legg