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Protein-patterned EMF as enzymatic moderators: evidence for a non-invasive method of cellular manipulation
Get PDFThe resonant recognition model states that each protein can be classified by function through a
characteristic frequency obtained based on the electrical signature of the whole protein. This
electrical signature reflects the accumulation of specific energy values from each of the 20 amino
acids comprising bioproteins. A litany of evidence suggests that exposure to complex
electromagnetic fields (EMF) can influence functioning of biological systems. We therefore
postulated that exposure to a magnetic field patterned after the specific electrical signature of a
protein, calculated using the resonant recognition model would be sufficient to target and
resonate with the modeled protein. Therefore, we created EMF patterns from the amino acid
sequence of two different signaling molecules, p38 and ERK, using the resonance recognition
model. We exposed PC-12 cells to p38-patterned EMF using two different geometries and
measured its ability to affect the differentiation of the cells in vitro. We found that exposure to
the p38 EMF for three days significantly increased the proportion of differentiated PC-12 cells
(t=-2.515, p=.027). The effect of the ERK-patterned EMF on planarian regeneration was
examined in a subsequent in vivo experiment. We found that exposure of bisected planaria to a
sine field caused significantly greater regeneration at 7 days compared to exposure to the
ERK-patterned EMF (U=637, W=1540, Z=-1.977, p=0.048). The results demonstrate the
potential of protein-patterned EMF in modulating biological processes. We propose that there
may be both specific and non-specific effects that result from exposure to protein-patterned EMF
that can interact with one another for constructive or destructive effects. The results of this study
are robust and demand further study on the mechanistic function of these fields.Master of Science (MSc) in Biolog
Assessing the Readiness for and Knowledge of BIBFRAME in Canadian Libraries
Get PDFResearch data is available from https://doi.org/10.5683/SP3/YBVFNMThis study assesses the Canadian library community’s understanding of and readiness for the transition from the MARC format to the BIBFRAME model. Results indicate that knowledge of BIBFRAME is low among respondents and that most of the libraries surveyed do not know enough about BIBFRAME to consider planning a transition. The success of the transition will depend on the leadership of larger libraries as well as better training in formal programs and continuing education initiatives.Memorial University Libraries Research Fun
Compass and the Truth and Reconciliation calls to action
No full textThe main purpose of the practicum is to identify recommendations for organizational
change to decolonize mental health treatment at Compass, an organization providing children’s
mental health services in Sudbury, Ontario. Decolonization means to undo the effects of
colonialism that currently impact Indigenous people (Schill et al., 2019). The recommendations
around decolonization are in reference to the TRC (Truth and Reconciliation Commission of
Canada) Calls to Action of 2015. The TRC document contains 94 Calls to Action with a main
purpose of redressing the injustices done by the Canadian Government and several church
denominations through residential schools (Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada,
2015). My practicum focused on applying Calls to Action 19, 22, and 23 to Compass. Call 19
reflects the need to close health outcome gaps related to suicide, and mental illness. Call 22 calls
for the incorporation of Indigenous culture into health care. TRC Calls to Action 23 requires
hiring an increased number of Indigenous professionals and increasing cultural education in the
workplace for non-Indigenous people (Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 2015).
This practicum is to inspire interest in organizational change within the agency, and it has helped
to focus Compass’s strategic plan regarding Indigenous services. The resulting effect has been
increased Indigenous education activities at Compass. The following practicum thesis will
include a review of literature, methods, and activities employed to identify recommendations for
Compass to address the TRC Calls to Action for organizational change.Master of Social Work Progra
(Niizhwaak Shi Naananmidna Kidwenan)
Get PDFIt is critical that non-Indigenous social workers seek knowledge from Indigenous Elders,
Knowledge Keepers, scholars, mental health professionals, Indigenous-led agencies, and
Indigenous clients on best practices for working with Indigenous children, families, and
communities. Through a placement in the Children’s Mental Health Program at Nogdawindamin
Family and Community Services, I aimed to learn how Western approaches of helping can be
aligned with Indigenous approaches; how non-Indigenous helpers can practice Western methods
of helping in good ways while being informed by Indigenous worldviews; and how Internal
Family Systems Therapy (IFS) might be in harmony with Indigenous values and useful in
clinical practice with Indigenous children and families. Academic research, direct practice,
cultural and professional training programs, and consultation with Nogdawindamin’s Elders,
Knowledge Keepers, and mental health professionals, led to answers to my questions. In this
paper, I outline critical historical, social, and political contexts; relevant theories, approaches,
and worldviews; the tenets of allyship, and the principles of the Seven Grandfather Teachings as
they were taught to me. I reflect on applying allyship practices, the Seven Grandfather
Teachings, treaty responsibilities, The TRC’s Calls to Action, and the 13 Rights of the
Anishinaabe Child within therapeutic relationships with Indigenous children, families, and
communities. I share findings on culturally aligned clinical practices and how the teachings I
received support my developing allied, ethical, and culturally aligned practice. I describe
findings on how IFS can be aligned with Indigenous ways of helping and a useful practice to
uphold allyship commitments with clients.Master of Social Work Progra
Emotion-centric image captioning using a self-critical mean teacher learning approach
No full textImage Captioning is the multi-modal task of automatically generating natural language
descriptions based on a visual input using various Deep Learning techniques. This research area is
in the intersection of Computer Vision and Natural Language Processing fields, and it has gained
an increasing popularity over the past few years. Image Captioning is an important part of scene
understanding with various extensive applications, such as helping visually impaired people,
recommendations in editing applications, and usage in virtual assistants. However, most of the
previous work in this topic has been focused on purely objective content-based descriptions of the
image scenes. The goal of this thesis is to generate more engaging captions by leveraging humanlike emotional responses in the captioning process. To achieve this task, a Mean Teacher Learningbased method has been applied on the recently introduced ArtEmis dataset. This method includes
a self distillation relationship between the memory-augmented language models with meshed
connectivity, which will be first trained in a cross-entropy based phase, and then fine-tuned in a
Self-Critical Sequence Training phase. In addition, we propose a novel classification module by
decreasing texture bias and encouraging the model towards a shape-based classification. We also
propose a method to utilize extra emotional supervision signals in the caption generation process,
leveraging the image-to-emotion classifier. Comparing with the state-of-the-art results on ArtEmis
dataset, our proposed model outperforms the current benchmark significantly in multiple popular
evaluation metrics, such as BLEU, METEOR, ROUGE-L, and CIDErMaster of Science (MSc) in Computational Science
[Re]Développer une architecture inspirée du vernaculaire et de la tradition orale et écrite Franco-Ontarien
No full textLa langue est une manifestation de l’identité culturelle. En contexte minoritaire, la
culture, et donc la langue, ne sont jamais acquises et la transmission culturelle de
génération en génération est essentielle pour leur survie et préservation. D’ailleurs,
la société vit depuis des décennies des transformations qui rendent les minorités
Francophones au Canada plus propices à l’anglicisation. Ces mutations ont effrité
les vecteurs traditionnels de transmission culturelle, tels que la vie domestique.
Ceci est intrinsèquement lié à la façon dont l’occupation du territoire et l’architecture
traditionnelle ont été bouleversées au 20e siècle, perdant tout ancrage au lieu et à
la mémoire collective. En s’inspirant de l’architecture vernaculaire, mais aussi de
la tradition orale et écrite Franco-Ontarienne, on peut concevoir un environnement
bâti contemporain porteur de sens, s’inscrivant aussi dans la continuité avec le
passé, redynamisant la vie familiale et communautaire et donc la transmission de
notre culture et de notre langue.Maîtrise en architecture (M.Arch
Chemostratigraphy and structural framework for gold mineralization at the Goliath Deposit, Western Wabigoon Subprovince, Ontario
No full textThe Goliath deposit (32 Mt at 1.09 g/t Au and 3.42 g/t Ag) is one of the larger gold deposits
within the western Wabigoon subprovince, 20 km east of Dryden, Ontario. The economic
potential of the Goliath deposit makes it important to understand its geological setting to improve
exploration models for such significant targets. Felsic volcanic sedimentary rocks (maximum age
of ~ 2703 Ma) host the mineralization, were sericitized, and metamorphosed into the muscovite-
sericite schist and biotite-muscovite schist. This package is enclosed within a similarly aged
turbidite sequence (maximum age of ~2701 Ma). The mineralization consists of base metal
sulphides with gold and silver hosted in As-rich pyrite and remobilized along pyrite fractures.
The mineralization is likely pre-deformation as the regional compressional D1 deformation and
transpressional D2 deformation reoriented the grade shells to be subparallel to the S1 foliation
(075°/78°), and higher-grade shells subparallel to the intersection lineation of S1 and S2 fabric
(52°/218°), and subparallel to the F1 fold axial plane (28°/81°). The Goliath gold deposit is thus
interpreted to have formed in a synvolcanic, pre-orogenic environment.Master of Science (MSc) in Geolog
Modeling time-dependent deformation behavior of jointed rock mass
No full textLong-term stability analysis and stand-up time prediction of underground excavations are
important in engineering design and construction. In this thesis, a numerical study of the
time-dependent deformation behavior of jointed rock mass is presented.
Firstly, creep deformation behavior of intact rock is studied numerically using the grainbased modeling (GBM) approach based on the Distinct Element Method (DEM). A grainbased time-to-failure (GBM-TtoF) creep model for intact brittle rocks is proposed to
simulate creep deformations in the first two creep stages and time-dependent failure at the
tertiary creep stage. Parameters of the TtoF model are calibrated using experimental data
of Lac du Bonnet (LdB) granite. Simulations of the time-dependent deformation of rock
pillars using the GBM-TtoF model are conducted. The influence of pillar shape (width to
height ratio) and loading ratio (stress / strength) on the time-dependent spalling on pillar
walls is investigated.
Secondly, creep deformation of rock joints is simulated by using the grain-based joint
models that are established using the GBM-TtoF model. The influences of joint roughness
and loading conditions (normal and shear stresses) on the long-term shear strength and
creep sliding velocity of joints are investigated. A new creep model is proposed, which can
be used to control the creep deformation behavior of flat joints in the DEM. The model is
validated using experimental data of joints. Thirdly, a creep model for jointed rock masses, which can consider time-dependent
deformations of both rock and joints, is proposed. Creep deformations of jointed rock
masses are simulated using a few jointed rock mass models, i.e., a rock mass model with a
single joint, a jointed pillar model and a high rock slope model. The creep deformation
characteristics of the jointed rock mass models are analyzed.
Finally, time-dependent deformation behaviors of tunnels excavated in jointed rock masses
are simulated using the creep model for jointed rock masses. The weakening of face-effect
due to creep deformation of the rock mass is modeled using the internal pressure reduction
method and the convergence-confinement method. The stand-up time of unsupported
tunnels is simulated considering the influence of rock mass quality and the unsupported
roof span. The simulated result is validated using Bieniawski’s stand-up time chart.
The models developed in this thesis provide novel numerical approaches to simulating
creep deformations of rock, joints and jointed rock masses, and are important for improving
the understanding of the time-dependent deformation behavior of jointed rock masses.Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Natural Resources Engineerin
Numerical studies for membrane viscous effects on red blood cell dynamics in flows
No full textIn this thesis, three-dimensional simulations are performed to investigate the effects of
membrane viscosity on behaviors of red blood cells (RBCs) in simple shear flow and the
migration processes of viscoelastic capsules in tube flow. The lattice Boltzmann method is
used as the fluid solver, whereas the immersed boundary method is employed to capture
the dynamic interaction between the flow and membrane. The RBC membrane follows
the Skalak constitutive law for elasticity, and the resistances to area dilation and bending deformation are also included. In addition, the membrane viscosity is incorporated
using the recently developed finite difference scheme. The methodology and computer
programs are validated carefully by conducting several benchmark test simulations.
The lateral migration of viscoelastic capsules in tube flow is investigated in details with
various combinations of viscosity ratio, membrane shear viscosity and capillary number.
In general, the migration process starts with an initial transient phase, where the capsule
deformation and migration velocity suddenly increase from zero to a maximum value.
Following that, the deformation and migration velocity gradually reduce as the capsule
moves toward the tube centerline. The capsule also performs continuous rotation during
the migration, and the rotation gradually slows down with the capsule migration. The
interior-exterior fluid viscosity contrast and the membrane viscosity have similar effects
in reducing the capsule deformation and inclination angle to the flow direction; however,
a strong membrane viscosity may introduce significant oscillations in the capsule deformation, inclination, and migration velocity. Due to the reduced capsule deformation, the
migration velocity and capsule rotation become slower for capsules with higher viscosity
contrast and/or membrane viscosity. Moreover, the influence of membrane viscosity on
the migration dynamics intensifies at higher capillary number.
In addition, tank-treading behaviors of RBC in simple shear flow is scrutinized over a
wide range of shear rate and exterior fluid viscosity. Detailed comparisons of the tanktreading frequency, deformation, and inclination angle of the cell with experiments are conducted by considering different combinations of membrane and interior fluid viscosities. According to the results, tank-treading frequency diminishes with both membrane
viscosity and internal fluid viscosity, although elevating the interior viscosity alone does
not sufficiently retard the tank-treading motion to achieve favorable agreement with experimental results. This stronger impact of membrane viscosity has also been noticed for
the cell deformation and inclination angle. In particular, including membrane viscosity is
essential to reproduce experimental results for the cell orientation. Furthermore, the results indicate that a reasonable agreement can be obtained in comparison to experiments
even without applying the shear-thinning model for membrane viscosity. Hence, more
supporting evidence is required to justify necessity and applicability of shear-thinning
models for membrane viscosity of RBCs. Suggestions for future research have been proposed as well.Master of Applied Science in Engineering Scienc
Wood is good: informing wood architecture through the investigation of craft in furniture
No full textThe act of craftmanship, specifically woodworking, gives a sense of accomplishment
that is therapeutic. Improving the well being of someone who is part of this maker
culture yields positive benefits to the state of their mental health from making as a
form of therapy in a nonclinical manner. The final project will be a community oriented
woodshop, located in the downtown of Sudbury, Ontario. This is a methodology driven
thesis, where the primary method is learning through making; specifically, the design
and construction of an intricate workbench as the most important experiment. The
focus of the research is to investigate how the design and craft of furniture can inspire
and inform contemporary wood architecture at varying scales. This architecture will
be didactic in nature, exemplifying craft through the tectonic connections of complex
wood joints that embody the inherit potential of wood as a building material.Master of Architecture (M.Arch