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Leveraging Data & Community Action: Strengthening Safety & Well-Being in Windsor-Essex
No full textHow can we harness data and community engagement to create safer, more connected neighbourhoods? Funded by WE-SPARK and conducted in collaboration with St. Clair College and the City of Windsor's Social Policy & Planning team, this project sought to answer that question. Initially focused on developing a data consortium to support affordable housing, the project evolved based on stakeholder feedback to address two key objectives: (1) assessing the user experience of the Homeless Individuals and Families Information System (HIFIS) to enhance its usability and effectiveness, and (2) developing a Neighbourhood Safety and Crime Prevention Walk Toolkit to equip residents, municipalities, and law enforcement with practical strategies for community-based crime prevention. The HIFIS assessment involved an online survey distributed to 11 organizations, with 46 users providing insights on training needs, system strengths, and challenges. The crime prevention toolkit was co-designed with stakeholders, incorporating Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles, and piloted in real-world settings. Survey findings identified critical training and system improvement opportunities, informing targeted recommendations for enhancing HIFIS usability in our local context. The crime prevention toolkit received positive stakeholder feedback, empowering communities to take an active role in fostering community well-being via safer neighborhoods. By combining data insights with community-based safety initiatives, this project lays the groundwork for sustainable improvements in crime prevention, and overall community health, safety, and well-being across Windsor-Essex
Review of Polymer Gels for Conformance Control in Oil Reservoirs
No full textExcess water production due to conformance problems is a serious issue in oil extraction with severe environmental and economic implications. This is mainly due to the heterogeneity of the reservoir and existence of thief zones which uptake the injected water. Polymer gels have been successfully used to improve the sweep efficiency and to mitigate excess water production. However, due to the complexity of the reservoir, reservoir temperature, salinity, pH, lithology, and permeability, selection of proper gel system is still challenging. This paper aims to provide a literature review on six widely applied polymer gel systems used for conformance control applications. For this purpose, various databases, such as Google Scholar, One-petro and Scopus were extensively searched. Results of this study reveal that polymer gel systems can mainly be classified into two categories: conventional in situ-bulk gels and novel microgels. The first type is mainly for water shut off near the wellbore, where a polymer in-situ cross-linked with a metallic or organic agents. The second type of gels include preformed gel particles with various sizes and properties which provide permeability reduction deep in the reservoir. This study summarized the characteristics, developments and field application results of six widely applied systems. Comparison of these technologies based on their properties and performance under different reservoir conditions is also provided. Directions for further research and development of these gel systems especially for improving their application in higher temperature reservoirs, extreme fractures and deep permeability reduction are given
Studying the effects of PMA induced differentiation on cell signaling on actin cytoskeleton proteins in THP-1 cells
No full textThe mechanism of cell movement is complex and has much to be explored. Previous literature has discovered that the actin cytoskeleton is the major source of internally created force that regulates cell shape and helps in migration (Pollard & Cooper, 2009). A common model system that has been used to study underlying molecular mechanisms in monocytes and macrophages are a monocytic leukemia suspension cell line known as THP-1 cells. The movement required for macrophages to travel around the body requires interactions from several cytoskeleton proteins, and should thus have different levels than premature monocytes. Assessing the levels of protein and comparing them at different time points in the differentiation process should give a greater insight of the proteins that regulate actin cytoskeleton and affect cell movement. To gain a more comprehensive understanding of how cell signaling effects cytoskeleton proteins such as cofilin, WDR-1 (WDR repeat protein) and CAPs (Cyclase Associated Protein), THP-1 cells will be exposed to Phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) to induce cell differentiation from premature monocytes into macrophages. Cells will then be lysed at different time points, and subjected to western blot analysis to analyze the levels of such cytoskeleton proteins. The investigation of cell signaling in actin cytoskeleton proteins in THP-1 cells may provide insight into drug therapy treatments for preventing the movement of cancerous cells
Topological vector spaces
Full text linkThis major paper is a report on author’s study of some topics on topological vector spaces. We prove a well-known Hahn-Banach theorem and some important consequences, including several separation and extension theorems. We study the weak topology on a topological vector space X and the weak-star topology on the dual space X* of X. We also prove the Banach-Alaoglu theorem. Consequently, we characterize the closed convex hull and the closed linear span for sets in X and X* , identify the dual of a subspace of X with the quotient of its annihilator, and obtain the Goldstine theorem as well as some characterizations of reflexive normed spaces
Supporting International Graduate Students: Lessons from a Fall 2020 Non-Credit Course
Full text linkThis paper discusses a non-credit pass/fail course that is designed to support international graduate students as they begin their graduate studies at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. Specifically, the paper considers how the course was redesigned in Fall 2020, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and a university-wide shift to remote teaching and learning. I share my experience redesigning and facilitating the course, as informed by a pedagogy of care within an online context. Special consideration is given to course structure and student engagement, as well as general lessons learned from the experience, including some of the advantages of teaching the course online (e.g., increased student numbers)
Let's Get Fuzzified
No full textEnvironmental assessments tend to be limited by incomplete or unobtainable information. This is a particular problem for environmental problems where data inputs are often imprecise or inadequate due to the complexity and scale of natural and anthropogenic processes. To facilitate a transparent and systematic approach to aid in reducing uncertainty read across methods may be applicable to fill data gaps for topology assessment and regulatory decisions in environmental assessments. Read-across is a technique for predicting endpoint information for one substance, the target substance, by using data from the same endpoint from another substance or substances. Currently read across methods have only been applied in toxicological assessments for chemical safety assessments. The focus of this study is to assess the general methodology of read-across for toxicological assessment, and determine whether it is applicable to environmental assessment. To begin generating read-across predictions for environmental processes, existing read-across strategies must be re-evaluated primarily assessing: (1) the similarity between the target(s), and (2) the uncertainties in the read-across process and prediction. Templates from toxicological assessments will act as proposals to assist in assessing similarity. As well, guide the systematic characterization of uncertainty both in the context of the similarity rationale, the read across data and overall approach and conclusion for potential environmental assessments
Non-profit Organizations and CEO Job Satisfaction
Full text linkThis major research paper will examine the relationship between the job satisfaction of non-profit organization Chief Executives (CEOs) and characteristics of individual demographics, compensation, and organizational culture. The main purpose of this study is to examine the techniques in improvement of the productivity of the employee by investigating the factors that would lead to job satisfaction. Using data from the 2016 BoardSource governance survey that resulted in the 2017 Leadership with Intent report, this study reports on data collected from the survey of 1,759 CEOs. Using correlational and regression analyses, five hypotheses are examined related to CEO gender and age, CEO compensation, organizational creation of staff positions, and factors of organizational culture that relate to CEO job satisfaction. Findings demonstrate that the older generation, increase in salary, creation of new jobs, and good culture would all relate to higher CEO job satisfaction. These results suggest that neither culture nor compensation alone are enough to maximize CEO job satisfaction, but that each operates independently of the other
Assessment of an Ambient Temperature-Adaptive Ventilation System in Various Climatic Regions of the US with the Use of PCM
Full text linkThis thesis explores energy conservation strategies in residential buildings by analyzing the combined impact of dynamically controlled air exchange rates and integration of portable phase change material (PCM) layers to the building envelopes across diverse U.S. climates: tropical (Miami), arid (Las Vegas), temperate (Los Angeles), and continental (Gaithersburg). The study demonstrates that dynamically adjusting air exchange rates significantly reduces cooling loads, achieving up to 18% savings in arid climates like Las Vegas. Additionally, integrating PCMs effectively reduces heating loads during peak demand periods, with reductions of up to 2.6% in climates with pronounced temperature fluctuations, such as Gaithersburg. The findings highlight the synergy between adaptive ventilation and PCM integration, particularly in continental climates, where day-night and seasonal variations maximize energy efficiency. In Gaithersburg, which is in the continental climate, 810 MJ more thermal load reduction was achieved when having both dynamic ventilation and PCM together. A basic cost analysis based on the average electricity price in each city revealed that implementing an outdoor temperature-controlled ventilation strategy makes the most cost savings in Los Angeles with mild /temperate climates leading to a 80 savings in one year of electricity costs. Overall, this research underscores the potential of climate-responsive, adaptive building systems to advance energy efficiency
Inclusion Chemistry of Thiazyl and Selenazyl Radicals in MIL-53(Al)
Full text linkHost-guest interactions have recently become a growing area of study within the scientific community, where the intrinsic chemistry affiliated with the binding and activity of these interactions can be directly correlated to the applications these complexes possess, such as gas storage materials, sensors, activators, and in heterogeneous catalysis. In particular, inclusion complexes possessing radical guests offer the potential for strong communication between both the host and guest and/or the guest molecules themselves, where the nature of the host-guest interactions lead to the effects in which the host can modify the guest properties, or conversely, the guest affects the host structure. This presentation will describe the inclusion chemistry of 4-phenyl-1,2,3,5-dithiadiazolyl (PhDTDA) radical, and its selenium analogue (PhDSDA), into the porous metal-organic framework host MIL-53(Al). The inclusion of the PhDTDA and PhDSDA radicals into MIL-53(Al) was achieved through gas phase diffusion, and led to a colour change in the host from white to red and purple, respectively. The characterization of these inclusion complexes was confirmed through powder X-Ray diffraction and EPR spectroscopy. Reactivity studies of these radicals within the host framework will be discussed