Toronto Metropolitan University Open Journals
Not a member yet
1204 research outputs found
Sort by
Evaluation of Phase Change Materials (PCM) for Applications in Refrigeration Systems
No full textThis study investigates the use of PCMs for applications in refrigeration systems, aiming to identify an efficient PCM in the temperature range between -26°C and -19°C corresponding to the vaporization temperature variation of a household vertical freezer. Three PCMs were investigated: a methanol-water solution (28:72), a sodium chloride-water solution (23% concentration), and a commercial PCM HS23N. The experiment involved testing the cyclic melting and solidification behavior under the variable temperature conditions of the freezer to be enhanced with PCMs. The results revealed that the methanol-water solution exhibited phase segregation after multiple cycles, potentially affecting long-term stability. The sodium chloride-water solution demonstrated chemical stability and efficient cycling performance, but had the highest warming rate, leading to rapid heat absorption and temperature fluctuations. HS23N, on the other hand, remained chemically stable, did not exhibit phase segregation, and maintained the lowest warming rate, making it the most effective for temperature stabilization. Following a comparative analysis of the advantages and drawbacks, HS23N was identified as the most promising PCM for refrigeration applications within the targeted temperature range, and its implementation in the evaporator will be addressed in a future study
The Way Weight is Taught: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Selected Canadian Undergraduate Dietetics Syllabi
No full textAnti-fat attitudes and stigmatizing practices have been identified in dietetics students. The relationship between dietetics curriculum and students’ attitudes towards body size has not been well explored. Studies suggest that body size is covered within a weight-centric paradigm in both nutrition and non-nutrition undergraduate courses. Content about weight bias is less frequently taught. The objective of this study was to critically analyze the ways in which the discourses related to body size, weight, and body composition were constructed in course syllabi of required nutrition courses in English-speaking accredited undergraduate dietetics programs in Canada. A critical discourse analysis method was used. Syllabi of required nutrition courses were requested from each of the twelve Canadian undergraduate dietetics programs. The obtained syllabi were analyzed to uncover the discourses within these texts and to understand how body size, weight, and body composition were constructed. Of the 220 syllabi requested, 68 (31%) syllabi were received and reviewed. Twenty-eight (41%) of these syllabi contained the terminology of interest. The language used within the analyzed syllabi created representations of weight, body composition, and body size predominately within a weight-centric paradigm. Weight-centric discourses were found mostly within clinical nutrition courses. Discourses that challenged the weight-centric paradigm were limited and were found mostly within public health, food service, or professional practice courses. To reduce the harms of weight stigma and anti-fat bias, Canadian undergraduate dietetics courses need to shift their discourse towards weight-inclusive practice
Health literacy and the Unified Health System across Brazil: Nutritionists’ perspective
No full textIntroduction: Brazil has acknowledged the importance of health literacy at all levels of healthcare. There is a growing demand for nutritionists’ expertise in many areas of practice, particularly in the public health system, to respond to the population’s needs. Methods: Consultations were held from September to December 2023 in Fortaleza, Brazil. Eleven nutritionists and four nutrition students participated in face-to-face and online consultations. The sessions were audio recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using thematic analysis. The coding was guided by the ideas of organizational structural response to health literacy. Findings: Consultees criticized their traditional biomedical training, which contained little emphasis on communication and health literacy, and pointed to structural barriers hindering patient-centered care. When discussing tertiary health services, consultees identified better flows of information and greater access to technological equipment and materials that foster health literacy. Low-cost strategies—such as use of WhatsApp groups, bedside visuals, and mobile apps—have the potential to enhance patients’ health literacy. Implications for international health, policy, and practice: Measuring health literacy can inform other professional contexts, particularly those in middle- and low-income countries. Strategies to make health literacy a key tool in promoting professional practice include investing in continuing education, reviewing curricula, and expanding resources. Conclusion: Healthcare professionals are ready to integrate health literacy into public healthcare systems, but there are gaps in the infrastructure and in conceptions of nutritionists’ role.
Family caregiver burden among patients with schizophrenia: Concept analysis
No full textPurpose: This concept analysis aimed to clarify family caregiver burden in schizophrenia by identifying its defining attributes, antecedents, and consequences and by situating the issue within its clinical and social relevance. Methods: Using Whittemore and Knafl’s framework, we systematically reviewed 183 studies (1950–2017) from national and international databases. Findings: Caregiver burden is a dynamic, multidimensional construct centered on two core domains. subjective burden (perceived distress, emotional strain) and objective burden (care takes, time demands) whose interaction can lead to overload. Key antecedents included illness related disability, caregiver role demands, economic strain, family conflict, and sociocultural pressures; principal consequences were reduced perceived control and adverse emotional outcomes. Brief illustrative examples (e.g., increased caregiving hours leading to social isolation) demonstrate how these elements manifest in family settings. Conclusion: Family caregiver burden is a dynamic and multidimensional supports the design targeted interventions and the development of precise measurement tools; addressing identified antecedents may reduce caregiver overload and enhance both caregiver well-being and patient care outcomes.
Virtual Reality Narratives: Embodied Encounters in Space
No full textIn recent years numerous innovative and affective virtual reality (VR) works combining documentary-based or fictional storytelling with game mechanics, live theatre and other elements, have appeared at festivals or on online distribution platforms. These interdisciplinary works have much to tell us about the future of VR storytelling but have yet to receive sustained analysis. This book aims to correct that.
The monograph delves into recent evolutions in VR storytelling, focusing on entertainment-based works created or launched since 2020. It features 8 chapters that delve into VR formats with various levels of interactivity, from 360-degree videos to open world VR games. Through an analysis of case studies, the chapters showcase the increasing diversity and sophistication of recent narrative-based projects. Moving past the initial hype associated with the latest wave of VR, the book aims to explore the specificity of a story delivered in this medium considering narrative structures and approaches to narration.
Dooley argues that VR, as an interactive medium that places the user inside a story world in a visible or invisible virtual body, offers narratives that incorporate the user’s body as a storytelling tool. This fosters user-centred stories that unfold in three-dimensional space. Adopting phenomenological and formal analysis methodologies, the monograph examines case studies through their approaches to narrative, style, and interactive devices. Key concepts that are explored include agency, direct address, environmental and spatial storytelling, embodiment and presence. By providing a much-needed analysis of works through a variety of theoretical lenses, the book illustrates how recent VR storytelling fosters powerfully transformative experiences
Narrating the Threshold: Unveiling the Entanglements in the Relational Space between Prison and City
No full textThis paper addresses the problem of how prisons, as hyper-visible yet socially opaque institutions, are represented in the public sphere, and how design education can intervene in transforming collective perceptions through participatory and communicative practices. It analyzes the work of Imagis Lab (Department of Design, Politecnico di Milano), which since 2019 has been conducting action-research in Milanese prisons—namely the Seconda Casa di Reclusione di Bollate and the Casa Circondariale \u27Francesco di Cataldo\u27 (San Vittore)—exploring the role of communication design as a relational process, and storytelling as both a tool to activate listening processes and a collaborative practice to investigate and build new imaginaries. Central to this investigation is Off Campus San Vittore, a university-led space within the San Vittore prison developed through Polisocial, the university’s social responsibility program, which aims to build reciprocal knowledge between the prison and the city through interdisciplinary, site-specific research.
Focusing on a participatory design education project conducted during the winter semester of 2023, the paper examines how 40 master\u27s students in Communication Design engaged with the prison context to co-create transmedia narratives intended to shift public consciousness about incarceration.
The first section of this paper introduces the conceptual lens of entanglement that emerged through this educational experience, followed by a discussion of the prison as a paradoxically transparent institution. The second section presents the pedagogical process and two student-produced transmedia documentaries, analyzing 1) how the design teams have activated new societal connections and heightened students\u27 awareness of values, conflicts, and agency within these systems, and 2) sparking transformative discourses and engagement projects aimed at cultural and narrative change
The Inclusion Of Matter: An Emancipatory Viewpoint
No full textThis paper proposes new materialist theory as a framework for emancipating fat, queer, and traumatized bodies from oppressive significations embedded in written discourse and social narratives that often legitimize and perpetuate systemic inequalities, contributing to sustained marginalization and othering. Through a critical examination of dominant epistemologies, I argue that binary constructions generate conceptual divides such as fat/thin, white/other, gay/straight, male/female, human/non-human and so on that systematically marginalize and exclude bodies that fall outside of these boundaries. To address these exclusions, I propose a twofold approach to inclusion: first, by dismantling hierarchical conceptualizations of matter, and second, by critically rethinking matter, difference, and positionality. Drawing on the work of key theorists, including Karen Barad, Donna Haraway, Alison Kafer, Ramanpreet Annie Bahra, and Sarah Ahmed, among others, this paper blends perspectives from fat, queer, and disability studies to confront oppressive and harmful viewpoints of corporeality. By reframing how we engage with materiality and bodily difference, we can foster more equitable representations and dismantle harmful discursive structures that perpetuate exclusion to reach a more holistic, inclusive viewpoint. Throughout the paper, I will include my own new materialist-inspired paintings that I consider to be in conversation with the text. I encourage you, the reader, to engage with both text and image as you go along
How Fat People are Harmed by the Fertility Industry: : An examination of systemic discrimination, human rights, and weight bias in medical professionals providing fertility services in the UK
No full textFat people who want to have children face numerous challenges, including societal judgement, systemic as well as physical barriers, and limited access to fertility care. Despite the fact that almost a third of people seeking fertility support in the United Kingdom (UK) are excluded from treatment based on their Body Mass Index (BMI) being “too high”, the reasoning and evidence supporting such exclusions is weak. In this paper, I explore these barriers and the impact they have on individuals’ pursuit of parenthood.
These barriers include the NHS and its policies, financial disadvantage, the fertility industry, who has the power to define health, demonstrated bias in research and education, human rights and reproductive rights violations, racism, the use of and reliance on beliefs in medical settings instead of evidence based care, the inappropriate use of the BMI as a measure for access to reproductive medical care, discrimination against difference in body types, and financial sponsorships.
I delineate each of these barriers, argue that these barriers are not supported by evidence and are ethically questionable. I highlight the immediate need for a shift in the provision of fertility care, away from shame and judgement towards support and inclusivity. The paper concludes by exploring how to improve the accessibility of fertility treatment for fat people, especially people of colour, requiring up to date education and training for healthcare providers, insisting on evidence-based approaches to fertility treatment, and mandating the provision of support and resources for everyone seeking to conceive.
The provision of equitable and inclusive fertility care is crucial, not only for people to grow their families on their terms, but to secure the people’s rights to reproductive justice
Celebrating the legacy of Dr. Crystal Kotow
No full textIn 2022 our dear friend Dr. Crystal Kotow died suddenly, two years after defending her PhD in Gender, Women and Feminist Studies. We each had our own experiences of knowing Crystal and our own experiences of navigating the grief of her loss.
May, a member of Crystal’s doctoral committee, sought permission from her family to get her dissertation published, and in spring 2024, Crystal’s book The Hidden Lives of Big Beautiful Women was published by Palgrave.
In this piece we briefly explore the origins of our relationships with each other and Crystal and then consider the impact of her scholarship
Reflections on Golosa en La Cama
No full textA reflection on Golosa en la Cama, a performance with a cake bed on the intricacies of relationships and yearning for love as a fat femme