Scholarship@Western

Shahabbasi, Rezvan

Chintapalli, Prashant

Zaric, Greg

Western University 
Scholarship@Western 
Inspiring Minds – A Digital Collection of 
Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and 
Creative Activity 
Inspiring Minds 
September 2025 
Pharmaceutical Pricing and Access Policies: A Study on the 
Impact of Physicians’ Imperfect Adherence to Prescribing 
Guidelines. 
Rezvan Shahabbasi 
Western University, Ivey Business School, rshahabb@uwo.ca 
Prashant Chintapalli 
Western University, Ivey Business School, pchintapalli@ivey.ca 
Greg Zaric 
Western University, Ivey Business School, gzaric@ivey.ca 
Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds 
Citation of this paper: 
Shahabbasi, Rezvan; Chintapalli, Prashant; and Zaric, Greg, "Pharmaceutical Pricing and Access Policies: 
A Study on the Impact of Physicians’ Imperfect Adherence to Prescribing Guidelines." (2025). Inspiring 
Minds – A Digital Collection of Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity. 787. 
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds/787 
The rising costs of prescription drugs present a major challenge to healthcare systems, driving 
payers to adopt risk-sharing agreements to reduce financial uncertainty. This study develops a 
framework that considers physicians’ imperfect adherence to prescribing guidelines when 
designing such agreements. Physicians are grouped based on how closely they follow guidelines, 
influencing decisions made by both public payers and pharmaceutical manufacturers. Using a 
Stackelberg game model, where manufacturers set drug prices and payers respond with access 
conditions to maximize net monetary benefit, we explore how prescribing behavior shifts policy 
outcomes. Our findings show that variations in physician adherence can significantly affect 
optimal pricing, coverage criteria, and stakeholder incentives. We also assess how different risk-
sharing strategies interact with physician behavior to impact costs, profits, and patient access. This 
work highlights the importance of incorporating real-world physician behavior into pricing 
policies to improve the effectiveness and equity of healthcare delivery. 


Pharmaceutical Pricing and Access Policies: A Study on the Impact of Physicians’ Imperfect Adherence to Prescribing Guidelines.

Sandford, Kyle

Mantler, Tara

Western University 
Scholarship@Western 
Inspiring Minds – A Digital Collection of 
Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and 
Creative Activity 
Inspiring Minds 
September 2025 
Well-Being in Education: A Post-COVID Lockdown Comparison of 
School Sectors 
Kyle Sandford 
Western University, ksandfo2@uwo.ca 
Tara Mantler 
Western University, tara.mantler@uwo.ca 
Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds 
Citation of this paper: 
Sandford, Kyle and Mantler, Tara, "Well-Being in Education: A Post-COVID Lockdown Comparison of 
School Sectors" (2025). Inspiring Minds – A Digital Collection of Western’s Graduate Research, 
Scholarship and Creative Activity. 796. 
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds/796 
Well-Being in Education: A Post-COVID Lockdown Comparison of School Sectors 
Schools serve as critical environments where children learn, grow, and develop 
during the formative years of their lives.  Teachers, as frontline observers of this 
development, also witness the increasing mental health challenges students face — 
challenges that have intensified in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.  
The shift to emergency remote learning during the pandemic prompted many 
families to reconsider the conventional public education model.  As a result, alternative 
educational pathways such as independent schools, homeschooling, and program-
focused institutions have gained traction, reflecting a broader questioning of traditional 
systems. 
This research aims to investigate differences in the current state of mental health 
across public and alternative education sectors in Alberta and Ontario, focusing 
specifically on teacher perspectives.  It seeks to determine whether these sectors are 
adopting distinct approaches to addressing mental health concerns, and to evaluate the 
perceived effectiveness of those strategies. 


Well-Being in Education: A Post-COVID Lockdown Comparison of School Sectors

Srivastava, Ananya

Western University 
Scholarship@Western 
Inspiring Minds – A Digital Collection of 
Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and 
Creative Activity 
Inspiring Minds 
September 2025 
Hunting for Water Ice on the Moon 
Ananya Srivastava 
Western University, asriva57@uwo.ca 
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Citation of this paper: 
Srivastava, Ananya, "Hunting for Water Ice on the Moon" (2025). Inspiring Minds – A Digital Collection of 
Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity. 807. 
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds/807 
Hunting for Water Ice on the Moon 
Ananya Srivastava 
 
Space agencies such as NASA, ISRO, and CSA have focused their efforts on 
exploring the mysterious south pole of the Moon. The forever-dark areas in this 
region are as cold as -246 °C and may contain water ice that’s billions of years old. 
Discovering water ice could revolutionize space exploration by facilitating the 
extraction of drinking water, breathable oxygen, and rocket fuel on the Moon, thereby 
allowing us to stay longer there and serving as a stepping stone for deep space 
missions. My research uses satellite data to detect and map water ice on the south 
polar region of the Moon, which, in turn, will help manned and robotic missions to 
find water ice on the ground. Future missions like NASA's Artemis III and Canada’s 
Lunar Rover Mission will benefit from this study. 
 
 
  
 
 


Hunting for Water Ice on the Moon

Barros, Priscila R. P.

Western University 
Scholarship@Western 
Inspiring Minds – A Digital Collection of 
Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and 
Creative Activity 
Inspiring Minds 
September 2025 
United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples’ 
Language and Symbolic Power 
Priscila R. P. Barros 
Western University, pribeir2@uwo.ca 
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Citation of this paper: 
Barros, Priscila R. P., "United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples’ Language and 
Symbolic Power" (2025). Inspiring Minds – A Digital Collection of Western’s Graduate Research, 
Scholarship and Creative Activity. 818. 
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds/818 
United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples’ Language and 
Symbolic Power 
Priscila Ribeiro Prado Barros 
Ph.D. Candidate 
Department of Sociology, University of Western Ontario 
Thesis Supervisors: Dr. Warren (Ted) Hewitt and Dr. Scott Schaffer 
May 26, 2025 
After reading the report “Study on how States exploit weak procedural rules in 
international organizations to devalue the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of 
Indigenous Peoples and other international human rights law”(E/C.19/2016/4), I became 
interested in understanding which procedural rules could undermine the Declaration. 
Considering the UN ultimately serves the interests of its Member States — not 
Indigenous Peoples — I argue that the document was never truly intended for 
meaningful implementation. Drawing on Bourdieu’s language and symbolic power 
approach, I conduct a content analysis of linguistic structures and symbolic objects. My 
goal is to use language as a tool to uncover new data on how UNDRIP is (or isn’t) being 
implemented. While I acknowledge my position as a non-Indigenous person, I find the 
inconsistencies in recognizing Indigenous Peoples' rights to be deeply frustrating, and I 
hope to contribute to a better understanding of the challenges at hand.


United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples’ Language and Symbolic Power

Holmes, Jessica

Western University 
Scholarship@Western 
Inspiring Minds – A Digital Collection of 
Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and 
Creative Activity 
Inspiring Minds 
September 2025 
Listen to my Speech! 
Jessica Holmes 
jholme69@uwo.ca 
Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds 
Citation of this paper: 
Holmes, Jessica, "Listen to my Speech!" (2025). Inspiring Minds – A Digital Collection of Western’s 
Graduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity. 821. 
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds/821 
Jessica Holmes 
June 6, 2025 
Listen to my Speech! 
Learning to talk involves the coordination of several systems and is one of the most 
complex tasks young children can undertake. Our brain uses what it hears to ensure we are 
speaking clearly. Hearing one’s own voice gives the child’s brain important information on the 
relationship between the position of the articulators (e.g., tongue, lips) and the sounds coming out. 
As a result, this feedback is not only important in learning to talk, but also in the correction and 
detection of speech errors at all ages. Despite its crucial contribution to fluent speech, this 
relationship between the sound of our voice (auditory feedback) and the control of our articulators 
(speech motor control) has not been studied extensively in childhood. Our study is filling this gap 
to better understand how this relationship develops throughout childhood and across different 
populations, and what factors it might be related to. 


Listen to my Speech!

Bily, Teija M I

Western University 
Scholarship@Western 
Inspiring Minds – A Digital Collection of 
Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and 
Creative Activity 
Inspiring Minds 
September 2025 
Flipping the Script on Huntington's Disease 
Teija M I Bily 
Western University, tbily@uwo.ca 
Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds 
Citation of this paper: 
Bily, Teija M I, "Flipping the Script on Huntington's Disease" (2025). Inspiring Minds – A Digital Collection 
of Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity. 742. 
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds/742 
Inspiring Minds Submission  Friday, June 6, 2025. 
 
Teija M I Bily 
MD/PhD Program 
Department of Biochemistry 
 
 
 
Title: Flipping the Script on Huntington’s Disease 
Can we hack our DNA decoders to combat genetic disorders? Maybe! DNA uses sequences of 
three-letter codes to tell cells which of the 20 amino acid building blocks should be added next to 
a growing protein. tRNAs are our molecular codebreakers: they read those three-letter messages 
and deliver the code-matching amino acid. In Huntington’s disease, a stretch of repeated C-A-G 
codes instructs cells to insert glutamine over and over, producing a sticky protein that clumps 
and damages neurons. Excitingly, we can reprogram our tRNA codebreakers to bend the rules 
and bypass these harmful instructions. “Mistranslating” tRNAs carry one amino acid but decode 
another – so they can read C-A-G but insert a non-glutamine amino acid. By intentionally 
misreading the genetic code this way, we produce a less sticky protein and fewer toxic clumps. 
Hijacking nature’s own encryption with engineered tRNAs offers new hope for Huntington’s and 
other genetic diseases.  
 
Word count: 148 


Flipping the Script on Huntington\u27s Disease

Zhao, Autumn (Junmeng)

Western University 
Scholarship@Western 
Inspiring Minds – A Digital Collection of 
Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and 
Creative Activity 
Inspiring Minds 
September 2025 
Training Mandarin-Speaking Singers in the Bel Canto Tradition 
through Vocal Pedagogy 
Autumn (Junmeng) Zhao 
Don Wright Faculty of Music, jzhao285@uwo.ca 
Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds 
Citation of this paper: 
Zhao, Autumn (Junmeng), "Training Mandarin-Speaking Singers in the Bel Canto Tradition through Vocal 
Pedagogy" (2025). Inspiring Minds – A Digital Collection of Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship 
and Creative Activity. 823. 
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds/823 
Research Description  
 
My study investigates the vocal challenges Mandarin-speaking singers face when training in the 
bel canto tradition, with a particular focus on resonator configuration, consonant articulation, and 
their effects on vocal tone and development. Drawing on interdisciplinary sources in vocal 
pedagogy, linguistics, and voice science, the research identifies how Mandarin’s tonal, syllable-
timed phonology and limited consonant inventory can conflict with the acoustic and expressive 
demands of Italianate singing. Special attention is given to differences in vowel formation and 
glide usage in Mandarin versus the pure, sustained vowels foundational to bel canto. The study is 
proposing a methodology that integrates phonetic awareness, resonance training, and tailored 
diction exercises, supported by spectrographic feedback and motor learning principles. This 
research aims to provide a pedagogical framework for voice teachers working with Mandarin-
speaking singers, bridging cultural and linguistic differences to foster healthy, stylistically 
accurate singing in the Western classical tradition. 


Training Mandarin-Speaking Singers in the Bel Canto Tradition through Vocal Pedagogy

WANG, LIWEI

Western University 
Scholarship@Western 
Inspiring Minds – A Digital Collection of 
Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and 
Creative Activity 
Inspiring Minds 
September 2025 
Development and Evaluation of a Speech-to-Noise Ratio Feedback 
System 
LIWEI WANG 
lwang896@uwo.ca 
Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds 
Citation of this paper: 
WANG, LIWEI, "Development and Evaluation of a Speech-to-Noise Ratio Feedback System" (2025). 
Inspiring Minds – A Digital Collection of Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity. 
827. 
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds/827 
Development and Evaluation of a Speech-to-Noise Ratio Feedback System 
Imagine trying to order coffee in a bustling café when Parkinson’s disease has stolen some 
of your vocal power. My project turns a smartphone and two tiny microphones into a 
personal coach that listens, measures the gap between your voice and background noise, 
and quietly nudges you when that speech-to-noise ratio (SNR, measured in dB) drops. A 
coherence-based algorithm decides whether a sound is “you” or “the room”; if your words 
start drowning, the app beeps so you speak up. In lab and real-world tests with healthy 
volunteers and people with Parkinson’s, this pocket tool raised SNR by roughly 9 dB and 3 
dB, respectively, and boosted automatic speech-recognition accuracy by 15 % and 11 %. 
By restoring audibility in noisy spaces, the system aims to give people with Parkinson’s the 
confidence to be heard—whether in a lecture hall, on a busy street, or across the dinner 
table. 
 
 


Development and Evaluation of a Speech-to-Noise Ratio Feedback System

D\u27Ippolito, Julie Lynn

Western University 
Scholarship@Western 
Inspiring Minds – A Digital Collection of 
Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and 
Creative Activity 
Inspiring Minds 
September 2025 
Who and Where Are They? Understanding Identity and Intention in 
FSL Teacher Education 
Julie Lynn D'Ippolito 
Western University, jmarionq@uwo.ca 
Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds 
Citation of this paper: 
D'Ippolito, Julie Lynn, "Who and Where Are They? Understanding Identity and Intention in FSL Teacher 
Education" (2025). Inspiring Minds – A Digital Collection of Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship 
and Creative Activity. 833. 
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds/833 
Who and Where Are They? Understanding Identity and Intention in FSL Teacher Education 
As a bilingual educator and researcher, I've faced both the rewards and challenges in teaching 
French in English-dominant areas. My passion for the French language and culture stems from 
my personal identities, but is also further motivated by the realities I see in schools where 
French as a Second Language (FSL) teachers are often underrepresented or misunderstood. 
My research explores how FSL teacher candidates and recent graduates navigate their 
professional, linguistic, and cultural identities, and how these factors impact their intention to 
pursue or remain in FSL roles. Through storytelling and dialogue, I aim to understand the 
motivations and experiences that shape their pathways. Faced with teacher shortages and an 
increasingly diverse school landscape, this research inspires essential discussions on the 
impactful recruitment, support, and retention of FSL educators. It celebrates and honors their 
unique identities while empowering them as guardians of the French language and culture. 
 


Who and Where Are They? Understanding Identity and Intention in FSL Teacher Education

Dhakal, Dharma Raj

Western University 
Scholarship@Western 
Inspiring Minds – A Digital Collection of 
Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and 
Creative Activity 
Inspiring Minds 
September 2025 
Landfills are a necessary evil 
Dharma Raj Dhakal 
Western University, ddhakal2@uwo.ca 
Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds 
Citation of this paper: 
Dhakal, Dharma Raj, "Landfills are a necessary evil" (2025). Inspiring Minds – A Digital Collection of 
Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity. 836. 
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds/836 
Landfills are a necessary evil 
Do you know, when you throw waste into the garbage bin, where does it go? The ultimate 
destination is a landfill for those wastes that are not sorted and considered not suitable for 
reuse & recycling. When we place waste into landfills, there is the release of toxic leachate 
(a liquid full of harmful chemicals), greenhouse (GH) gases, and a terrible smell. This 
leachate will harm the surface water, groundwater, and the subsurface soil. So, I will be 
using geophysical methods (specific scientific techniques that include physics and 
mathematics to explain the result in terms of geology) to identify and locate the areas near 
landfills where leachate and GH are leaking. Thus, my research will help in finding defects 
in landfill cover to help reduce the GH gas emission from landfills, as well as reduce the 
environmental contamination caused by identifying potential locations of contamination 
due to landfill leachate. 
 
Student: Dharma Raj Dhakal, 251462954 (ddhakal2@uwo.ca)  
 


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