Scholarship@Western

Armstrong, Wes, Mr.

Western University 
Scholarship@Western 
Inspiring Minds – Showcasing Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity 
September 2021 
Better Together: Fostering Student-Level Intercultural 
Competence Through Collaborative Online International Learning 
(COIL) and a Collaboratively Created Assessment Tool 
Wes Armstrong Mr. 
Western University, warmstr5@uwo.ca 
Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds 
Citation of this paper: 
Armstrong, Wes Mr., "Better Together: Fostering Student-Level Intercultural Competence Through 
Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) and a Collaboratively Created Assessment Tool" 
(2021). Inspiring Minds – Showcasing Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity. 
56. 
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds/56 
Title: Better Together: Fostering Student-Level Intercultural Competence Through 
Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) and a Collaboratively Created 
Assessment Tool  
 
By: Wes Armstrong 
250399795 
 
 A declining traditionally aged student population base has pressured Japanese universities 
to recruit students from foreign countries to bolster enrolments. Resultantly, international student 
populations, especially from Asian contexts, have risen consistently in recent years. Despite 
these student-recruitment successes, universities should be doing more to make their on-campus 
environments more inclusive given Japan’s near ethnically homogeneous population and the 
camouflaging similarities that exist between the local culture and East Asian cultures that 
conspire against equitably meeting student needs. Thus, this Organizational Improvement Plan 
(OIP) provides a detailed, research-supported approach to leverage the author’s informal 
leadership capacities at a small Japanese university to collaboratively create a department-
specific intercultural-competence-based assessment tool and a pilot English-language-learning-
based Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) program open to students from all 
departments using a context-specific blend of servant and creative leadership. The goal is to 
bolster student-level intercultural competencies to make the on-campus environment more 
inclusive.  


English

Better Together: Fostering Student-Level Intercultural Competence Through Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) and a Collaboratively Created Assessment Tool

Chung, Kevin J

Western University 
Scholarship@Western 
Inspiring Minds – Showcasing Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity 
September 2021 
Far from home: making stroke diagnosis more powerful at rural 
hospitals 
Kevin J. Chung 
Western University, jchun269@uwo.ca 
Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds 
Citation of this paper: 
Chung, Kevin J., "Far from home: making stroke diagnosis more powerful at rural hospitals" (2021). 
Inspiring Minds – Showcasing Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity. 63. 
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds/63 
FAR FROM HOME: making stroke diagnosis more powerful at rural hospitals 
Imagine you’re on vacation in a rural community and your loved one suffers a stroke. Life-saving 
treatments for stroke are available, but the rural hospital was short-staffed and lacked the required 
expertise to identify a treatable stroke. This is the devastating reality for over 30% of all stroke patients in 
Ontario. Recent advancements in stroke diagnosis have made automated treatment recommendations 
possible using advanced x-ray CT scans and computer software that analyzes a stroke victim’s brain 
blood flow. Though this technology seems essential at under-staffed rural hospitals, it is not yet readily 
available because obtaining the advanced CT scan requires trained technicians. To address this important 
limitation, we developed a new technique that allows simple routine CT scans to be used to analyze brain 
blood flow and make reliable treatment recommendations. Our innovative technique has the potential to 
save your loved one’s life – no matter where they are.  


Far from home: making stroke diagnosis more powerful at rural hospitals

de Jong, Johanna A

Western University 
Scholarship@Western 
Inspiring Minds – Showcasing Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity 
September 2021 
Silver and Gold: No, not the Jewelry, Nanoclusters! 
Johanna A. de Jong 
Western University, jdejon7@uwo.ca 
Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds 
Citation of this paper: 
de Jong, Johanna A., "Silver and Gold: No, not the Jewelry, Nanoclusters!" (2021). Inspiring Minds – 
Showcasing Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity. 82. 
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds/82 
Colourful, nano-sized materials may not be what you associate with the words, “silver and 
gold”, but are something you see everyday in our lab. Why? I study silver and gold nanoclusters: 
atomically-precise nanometer arrangements (< 2 nm, whereas I’m about 1 billion nm tall) of 
these metals protected by organic molecules. Individually, organic molecules, like ibuprofen, 
and bulk metals, like those in your computer, each have important applications. Combining 
them to create nanoclusters yields unique properties with new applications, including medical 
imaging, chemical sensing, and catalysis. Studying nanoclusters also enables the discovery of 
structure-function relationships, which can inspire new materials. Searching for novel structure-
function relationships, I incorporate azide(N3)-functionalized organic molecules into 
nanoclusters. Azides undergo click chemistry, a means of easily linking different molecules 
together. Utilizing azides, I click new molecules on clusters to tune their properties. Who 
knows? Someday, maybe nanoclusters will be what you associate with “silver and gold”. 
 
 
Top: Silver Nanoclusters, Bottom: Gold Nanoclusters 


Silver and Gold: No, not the Jewelry, Nanoclusters!

Ma, Siyuan

The design of vidoe displaying device by FPGA

Chavoshi, Parisa

Western University 
Scholarship@Western 
Inspiring Minds – Showcasing Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity 
September 2021 
The Relationship Between Personality Traits and Depression 
Parisa Chavoshi 
Western University, pchavos@uwo.ca 
Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds 
Citation of this paper: 
Chavoshi, Parisa, "The Relationship Between Personality Traits and Depression" (2021). Inspiring Minds – 
Showcasing Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity. 114. 
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds/114 
Abstract: In the recent decade, depression has been a severe health concern around the 
world. In a lot of cases, depression is often a chronic problem that reduces the quality of life. 
Although the cause of depression is multifactorial, including biological, social and psychological 
factors, personality is among the crucial characteristics hypothesized to predict depression. 
Therefore, different personality traits have been associated with depressive symptoms.  
Our research aims to gather and synthesize previous studies that investigated the link 
between personality traits and depression. In order to do this, we have to immerse ourselves in 
the studies that have been done before. Other than my passion for diving into the literature of 
personality and depression, the fact that I do not need to collect data also encouraged me to do 
this type of study. I think this is an excellent research design that becomes handy during a 
pandemic! 


The Relationship Between Personality Traits and Depression

Huang, Jia Bao

Écrire à partir (des traces) du passé

Salagovic, Cailey A

Western University 
Scholarship@Western 
Inspiring Minds – Showcasing Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity 
September 2021 
Can You See What I'm Saying?: Cochlear Implant Users 
Experience Unique Listening Challenges in Internet Video Calls 
Cailey A. Salagovic 
Western University, csalagov@uwo.ca 
Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds 
Citation of this paper: 
Salagovic, Cailey A., "Can You See What I'm Saying?: Cochlear Implant Users Experience Unique Listening 
Challenges in Internet Video Calls" (2021). Inspiring Minds – Showcasing Western’s Graduate Research, 
Scholarship and Creative Activity. 124. 
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds/124 
When we listen to someone speak, our brains automatically balance the information from the sound of 
their voice with the visual movements of their mouth to best understand what they are saying. When 
speech is transmitted digitally, like on a Zoom call, these auditory and visual components can become 
out of sync. While this might be distracting to people with typical hearing, it may be especially 
challenging for those who use cochlear implants, assistive hearing devices that directly stimulate the 
auditory nerve. Because the auditory signal generated by these implants can sound very distorted, users 
likely pay extra visual attention to mouth movements to understand spoken words. Using such visual 
information in this way might mean that asynchrony between audio and visual speech signals actually 
interferes with overall speech comprehension. My research examines how accessible platforms like 
Zoom are to cochlear implant users considering the unique listening challenges they present. 


Can You See What I\u27m Saying?: Cochlear Implant Users Experience Unique Listening Challenges in Internet Video Calls

Dutta, Anmol

Western University 
Scholarship@Western 
Inspiring Minds – Showcasing Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity 
September 2021 
(Re)Viewing Netflix India: Re-Presentation, (Self) Surveillance and 
Cultural Identity 
Anmol Dutta 
Western University, adutta24@uwo.ca 
Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds 
Citation of this paper: 
Dutta, Anmol, "(Re)Viewing Netflix India: Re-Presentation, (Self) Surveillance and Cultural Identity" (2021). 
Inspiring Minds – Showcasing Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity. 125. 
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds/125 
Title: (Re)Viewing Netflix India: Re-Presentation, (Self) Surveillance and Cultural Identity  
The Government of India as of February 2021 declared that all OTT platforms in India, including 
Netflix, will be regulated—analysing the interaction of negotiations of culture with ‘protecting sensibilities’ 
in today’s India, bringing OTT platforms under the ambit of the government polices representation, 
primarily for a nationalist propaganda. Becoming the flag-bearer of an “amorphous sense of ‘Indianness’” 
(Chadha and Kavoori 131-132) on a global platform, Netflix India navigates a cultural exchange that 
(re)presents a fabricated reality to the Indian diaspora in Canada as it becomes “one of the most tangible 
links to the homeland” (Bhatia 5), while (re)imagining the materiality of India for the foreign eye. My 
project will complicate the notion of a fluid world: of art transcending borders, by probing into the 
problematics of this “new transnational culture” (Bhabha 4).  
 


(Re)Viewing Netflix India: Re-Presentation, (Self) Surveillance and Cultural Identity

Stampp, Zakara J

Western University 
Scholarship@Western 
Inspiring Minds – Showcasing Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity 
September 2021 
The Coping Strategies of Older Adults with Age Related Vision 
Loss (ARVL) – A Narrative Account 
Zakara J. Stampp 
Western University, zstampp@uwo.ca 
Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds 
Citation of this paper: 
Stampp, Zakara J., "The Coping Strategies of Older Adults with Age Related Vision Loss (ARVL) – A 
Narrative Account" (2021). Inspiring Minds – Showcasing Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and 
Creative Activity. 131. 
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds/131 
The Coping Strategies of Older Adults with Age Related Vision Loss (ARVL) – A Narrative 
Account  
My research project focuses on the coping strategies used by older adults with ARVL to support 
their engagement in meaningful activity. Employing a narrative methodological approach, I aim 
to capture the stories of five older adults as they share their experiences with ARVL and what 
coping strategies they use to maintain their involvement in the activities they love. This 
research project was inspired by my grandmother as she faced ARVL head on. Despite the lack 
of resources, I watched her quickly adapt to maintain her participation in her favourite 
activities. She had no medical guidance in doing so, which was odd considering the prevalence 
of ARVL and the negative effects associated with loss of activity. In the end, I hope that older 
adults with ARVL find comfort in the shared stories of others in a similar situation and that 
coping mechanisms are focused on for improved ARVL rehabilitation strategies.  
 
 
 
 
 This is a photo of Thelma Stampp, my grandmother and 
inspiration behind my research project.  


The Coping Strategies of Older Adults with Age Related Vision Loss (ARVL) – A Narrative Account

Sornoza Parrales, Diego R

Western University 
Scholarship@Western 
Inspiring Minds – Showcasing Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity 
September 2021 
The Implementation Of The Research Quality Assurance Policy In 
The Ecuadorian Public Regional Universities: The Case Of The 
Manabi Province 
Diego R. Sornoza Parrales 
Western University, dsornoza@uwo.ca 
Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds 
Citation of this paper: 
Sornoza Parrales, Diego R., "The Implementation Of The Research Quality Assurance Policy In The 
Ecuadorian Public Regional Universities: The Case Of The Manabi Province" (2021). Inspiring Minds – 
Showcasing Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity. 153. 
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds/153 
The implementation of the research quality assurance policy in the Ecuadorian Public Regional 
Universities: The case of the Manabi province 
 
In order to evaluate the performance of its higher education institutions, the Ecuadorian higher 
education system has adopted research quality assurance policies. Despite their widespread use, little is 
known about the ways in which these policies have been adopted at the institutional level. My research 
investigates how research offices in the Public Regional Universities in Manabí (Ecuador) implement 
Research Quality Assurance Policies. This is a qualitative study based on a Case Study design. The data 
will be collected using semi-structured interviews with the administrators in charge of implementing the 
National Quality Assurance Policy in Manabí’s Regional Universities. The results of this study could 
provide input to administrators and policymakers to match the implementation of Quality Assurance 
Policies with the local needs of Regional Universities in Ecuador. 


Western University

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