MacEwan Open Journals (MacEwan University)
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"Where is the Foe" (Packaging / Book of the Year, "Foe")
No full textFoe by Iain Reid is a science fiction psychological thriller. Upon the arrival of a mysterious stranger to a remote farm inhabited by an unsuspecting married couple, a series of puzzling and unsettling events unfold. Foe explores the themes of marriage, self-determination, and what it means to be human. This brochure is a promotional piece preceding the book. The brochure is folded in a double gatefold in order to surprise the viewer with the hidden contents inside. The front displays a simple layout with digital and futuristic text, showcasing the novel’s sci-fi setting. The text states the following: where is the foe? The book presents many elements and characters that may or may not be “infiltrators” or “foes”, alluding to the book’s title. Throughout the story, the reader attempts to decipher the identity of this foe. However, by the end of this story, this puzzle is never solved. The reader is left to their own devices to determine the true foe. Inside the brochure are many of the elements mentioned in the book, such as the beetles, the barn, the green headlights, the coffee, the piano, outer space, and the characters’ initials. The colour scheme is futuristic; however, these illustrations’ lines are drawn in a pencil texture. These contrasting styles capture how the book simultaneously carries futuristic themes and old-fashioned imagery. The story is set in the future, yet the couple resides an old-fashioned lifestyle. This cluttered and claustrophobic imagery also demonstrates how Hen felt trapped and constraint in her relationship with Junior. Moreover, the car and the beetles have the same shape as the barn, which is a visual representation of how the two infiltrated this couple’s home. These elements are scattered in a puzzle-like manner in order to confuse and disorient the viewer. Like the book, it is up to the viewer to piece together these elements and find the answer.
Department: Design Studies
Faculty Mentor: Constanza Pache
From Uncanny to Un-Haunting or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Ghost
No full textCulturally and critically, the house is recognized as a crucial site of identity and is conceived of through a series of mythic ideals: maternal, feminine, nurturing, protective, insulating, and so on. Haunted house narratives play on these expectations, frequently.
Department: English
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Josh Toth, Dr. Lana Kry
Anxiety in the Learning Environment
No full textAnxiety is defined by excessive worry over a prolonged period of time. Some common symptoms of anxiety include restlessness, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, muscle tension, and sleep disturbance (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Many post-secondary students experience anxiety, which can be either a helpful or harmful stimulus. The literature suggests that there are many specific factors within the learning environment that can contribute to student anxiety, but the general topic requires further investigation.
This project uses a grounded theory approach with mixed-methodology to better understand factors that affect student anxiety within the learning environment. Quantitative data were collected using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale (HADS) to describe our sample population (Bjelland, Dahl, Haug, Neckelmann, 2002). Qualitative data were collected through virtual focus groups. Participants were undergraduate nursing students at MacEwan University (N anticipated = 34). Data collection occurred in three phases, focusing on model development and validation. Our findings contributed to creating a conceptual framework to illustrate the impact of nursing student anxiety within the learning environment.
Several themes have emerged over the first two phases of the project. Themes specific to the context of psychology were self-efficacy, self-worth and self-esteem. Some critical elements that impact student anxiety were related to instructor attributes and behaviour, peer relationships, social determinants of health, and COVID-19. Specific to the theme of COVID-19 were feelings of being overwhelmed, isolation, and decreased motivation. Participants also identified that the boundaries that previously maintained a distinction between school, home, and work had been blurred.
This project has been a wonderful partnership looking at the same complex phenomena from a psychology and nursing lens.
References:
Bjelland,, I., Dahl, A., Haug T., Neckelmann, D. (2002). The validity of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale an updated literature review. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 52(2),69-77. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-3999(01)00296-3
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596
Department: Psychology
Faculty Mentors: Dr. Lisa McKendrick-Calder, Dr. Cheryl Pollard, Tanya Heuver, Christine Shumk
Snapshots of the Youth Climate Strike in 2019 and 2020
No full textClimate change is an anthropogenic, geological issue that has earned much attention in the past few years. The issue has been put to the forefront by then 16-year-old Swedish political activist Greta Thunberg, who began protesting every Friday outside the Swedish parliament in August 2018 (Fraser & Westbrook, 2019) asking the government to reduce carbon emissions in accordance with the Paris Agreement. Her approach inspired many young people around the world. These protests gained momentum and by 2019 the Guardian reported that roughly 6 million people were participating in the global climate strikes (Taylor, Watts, et al. 2019). These protests continued into 2020, however, due to the global pandemic, protesters and activists had to find alternative ways to spread awareness. Images then became more important and also morphed into another kind of storytelling. Images are at the core of this research since images can have a profound effect on our memories, and digital media expanded the possibilities to document protests using images. The focus of this article is on digital storytelling and visual framing. This research qualitatively and quantitatively analyzes 1,394 images of the 2019 and 2020 youth climate strike. By collecting Google Images and using a framework that allows us to study narratives and image-making, we show how the pandemic changed the imagery of this movement moving protest tactics into more individualized, instead of collective, expressions. While news media are still dominant in posting protest images, their ability to control the framing of a protest event is undermined by other sources, including protesters themselves. This research highlights new tactics used by social movements to sustain their activity during the pandemic.
Department: Sociology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Shelley Bouliann
Challenges and Support for LGBTQ2A+ At-Risk Youth
No full textThe number of people who identify as LGBTQ+ has been increasing, especially amongst young people. The LGBTQ+ community faces many challenges. This paper examines responses to at-risk youth who identify as LGBTQ+ in Edmonton, Canada and L’viv, Ukraine from a family structure level, social support structure level, and governmental programs or policies. It also explores how different reactions - such as feminism or patriarchy – have specific implications for these youth. Finally, it looks at how support, activism, advocacy and acceptance, or fear and anger, can create a change within society.
Department: Sociology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Michael Gulayet
The Sums of Integer Powers
No full textAn investigation of the origin of the formulas for the sums of integer powers was performed. A method for calculating the sums of the first n integers to the kth power, denoted Sk(n), was first derived by Jacques Bernoulli in the late 1600’s. Through the discovery of formulas for the computation of integer powers, a numeric sequence arose. This sequence has become known as the Bernoulli numbers. Bernoulli simultaneously derived a recursive algorithm that can generate Bernoulli numbers. This recursive relationship was the subject of the first computer program in 1843. Utilizing a relationship that Bernoulli observed, it is possible to then calculate all terms in a coefficient matrix that enables the calculation of formulas for Sk(n). This coefficient matrix was generated using computer software with two different methods. Numerical analysis techniques were applied to each generated matrix, and the relative error between the two matrices was compared.
Department: Mathematical Sciences
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Christian Ivanesc
Comparing the Role of Sexual Practice in Shaping Perception of Consent and Cue Interpretation
No full textDetermining whether an individual wants to engage in sexual activity is an essential skill. However, research has indicated that consent information from common sources like sex education, media, close others, and the internet can be ambiguous, lacking or absent. These gaps could lead to underperforming this essential skill. In contrast, research has found that consent is central in BDSM cultures, where opportunities exist to experience consent as more affirmative, less taboo, more practical, more progressive, and more grounded in mutual respect. Scholars have argued that BDSM conceptions of consent may be valuable to improving practices in conventional sexual cultures. The research proposed here will examine whether more sophisticated conceptions of consent in BDSM relative to conventional sexual cultures produces more effective recognition of consent cues. Members of both cultures will be recruited to read through sexual encounter scenarios that vary in their consensuality, and to indicate and discuss all relevant cues. We expect BDSM members will highlight more cues, even implicit ones, and will do so earlier in scenarios. Efficient interpretation of signals is a critical part of regulating one’s behaviour with regard to a partner during sexual activity. If BDSM conceptions of consent enhance this ability, our work would suggest how incorporating those conceptions of consent into conventional cultures could improve consent awareness and practice.
Department: Psychology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Aimee Sky
Prevalence of Economic Abuse in Alberta
No full textIntroduction Intimate Partner Violence (“IPV”) is an umbrella term, capturing any form of abuse against a current or former intimate partner. A subset of IPV is financial abuse, also known as economic abuse in which abusers deliberately “interfere with their partner’s ability to acquire, use, and maintain economic resources” (Adams et al., 2008, p. 564). To date, most studies explore the phenomenon in the context of male violence against women. Economic abuse enables the male abuser to keep his victim from leaving the relationship and perpetuate other forms of IPV. Economic abuse is a widespread issue with multiple subsets, being economic control, sabotage, and exploitation. In this study, we seek to determine if economic abuse is a gendered issue.
Department: International Business, Marketing, Strategy and Law
Faculty Mentor: Dr. McKay Whit
Contrasting Nature, Gender, and Genre in Anne Finch\u27s "A Nocturnal Reverie"
No full textAnne Finch came to be considered one of the most influential female figures of the Augustan era because of her free, intimate exploration of nature and gender through poetry as well as her ability to seamlessly blend both classical and modern genres. In this article, Finch\u27s unique style, voice, and perspective are examined in the context of "A Nocturnal Reverie," the final poem in her only published collection in 1713. "A Nocturnal Reverie" best showcases Finch\u27s subtle but subversive style as she revisits scenes from John Milton, criticizes the idyllic presentation of mankind\u27s relationship with nature, and makes a proto-feminist argument against woman\u27s confinement to the domestic sphere all while operating under the pretext of nature poetry
Robustness of Maximin Space-filling Designs
No full textIn this report, we first have a review of the maximin space-filling design methods that is often applied and discussed in the literature (for example, Müller (2007)). Then we will discuss the robustness of the maximin space-filling design against model misspecification via numerical simulation. For this purpose, we will generate spatial data sets on a n x n grid and design points are selected from the n2 locations. The predictions at the unsampled locations are made based on the observations at these design points. Then the mean of the squared prediction errors are estimated as a measure of the robustness of the designs against possible model misspecification. Surprisingly, according to the simulation results, we find that the maximin space-filling designs may be robust against possible model misspecification in the sense that the mean of the squared prediction error does not increase significantly when the model is misspecified. Although the results were obtained based on simple models, this result is very inspiring. It will guide further numerical and theoretical studies which will be done as future work