Laurentian University

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    Multiple-order moments of the transient electromagnetic response of a one-dimensional earth with finite conductance – the Gaussian variation applied to a field example

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    Formulae for the moments of the magnetic field response can be derived for simple models which have conductivities that vary suddenly as a function of depth (thin and thick sheets) or not at all (half space). In a companion paper we have derived expressions for the moments of a conductivity-depth profile that varies smoothly, taking the form of a Gaussian function. In this paper we apply the Gaussian model to data from Russell South, an area in the Athabasca Basin of Canada. The low signal-to-noise ratio in this area means that estimating the overburden thickness is a challenging problem, so this dataset is a good candidate for demonstrating the applicability of our approach. The estimated thicknesses can be compared with drill information, also somewhat problematic as a reliable source of information. If we constrain the Gaussian model to be similar to a thin sheet or a thick sheet at surface, we get estimates of the overburden thickness which are much greater than what is inferred from drill information. However, if the overburden is allowed to vary gradually and the depth and value of the maximum conductivity can vary, then we find that the depth of the most conductive part of the overburden is realistic as it is generally above the base of overburden as determined from drilling. Features of geological interest that are not apparent on the original data can be identified on the derived images

    Body talk and perfectionism in female and male youth: can we shift the focus from appearance to functionality?

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    The current study sought to examine if perfectionism facets that have been linked to body image disturbances in youth predict a higher frequency of body talk with friends, and whether these perfectionistic predispositions influence the extent to which novel educational interventions mitigate the harmful effects of body talk exposure such as lower body satisfaction, self-esteem, higher negative affect and self-objectification. The educational interventions provided education on the dangers of body talk, the opportunity to practice challenging body talk, and exercises to help youth shift away from the harmful appearance focus by appreciating body functionality. An online international sample of youth who self-identified as either female (N = 120) or male (N = 158) between the ages of 13 and 24 years were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 educational intervention conditions that either focused on only body talk, body functionality, both body talk and body functionality, or they received no intervention. Overall, the findings demonstrated that perfectionistic predispositions can influence the degree to which educational interventions might mitigate the effects of body talk exposure. Females higher in perfectionism facets sometimes did not receive the same benefits from the body talk focused interventions as females lower in perfectionism, whereas males higher in certain perfectionism facets at times received benefits from the body functionality intervention. Moreover, female and male youth with higher levels of perfectionistic predispositions were more likely to report engaging in body talk with friends as well as having worse experiences after being exposed to body talk. The results are discussed in terms of future directions.Master of Arts (MA) in Applied Psycholog

    Intermodal connections: a movement oriented approach to placemaking in Downtown Sudbury

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    The urban fabric of the city is the product of its history of development. Each development in history can be seen to improve, revitalize and reshape the city through the definition and redefinition of places, and paths of movement. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, many cities in North America went through a transformation aiming for places in cities with taller, larger, more durable buildings made possible by new building technologies. In the mid-twentieth century, the automobile became a major influence on urban form, often involving extensive demolition and rebuilding of places to accommodate this emerging mode of movement. In the late twentieth century there has been a significant shift in the development of urban fabric. This shift has focused on modes of movement at the human scale, and the experience of places in the city more connected to the natural environment. This thesis examines how to revitalize the City of Greater Sudbury as a whole using intermodal connections, by creating new relationships between places and paths of movement, with an emphasis on human experience and nature as essential contributors to urban form. From this network of Intermodal Connections, architectural and urban placemaking strategies can be implemented with community-oriented programs to bring people back to the Downtown core.Master of Architecture (M.Arch

    Wellness architecture: the magnitude of spatial healing of wellness in workplace culture

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    This study focuses on to the needs of the new generation entering the workforce, with the intention of prioritizing their wellbeing and offering a space that represents work-life balance. It takes on a building at 205 Yonge Street, formerly owned and occupied by the Toronto Dominion’s Bank in Toronto’s Financial and Entertainment District, as a theoretical model for an adaptive reuse project that serves the broader creative community. How can architecture support mental illness and physical wellness in the new workplace? This thesis explores existing knowledge and theory regarding human well-being and the fundamental shifts of workplace culture. Through a series of case studies, it analyzes office designs and their correlation to health. This research seeks to gain an understanding of the body’s relationship to the spatial environment, specifically body movement, the configuration of furniture and the quality of space. By analyzing and synthesizing existing theories and data, the theoretical model demonstrates the potential of new workplace designs to improve physical and mental wellness. The outcome of this thesis is the re-imagination of an inclusive workplace culture that fosters wellness by emphasizing a sense of community among professionals.Master of Architecture (M.Arch

    Transformation of magnetic data to the pole and vertical dip and a related apparent susceptibility transform: Exact and approximate approaches

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    The dipolar character of magnetic data means that there is a high and a low associated with each source. The relative positions and sizes of these highs and lows vary depending on the magnetic latitude or the inclination of the earth’s magnetic field. One method for dealing with this complexity is to transform the data to what would be collected if the inclination were vertical (as at the magnetic pole), a process that is unstable at low magnetic latitudes. Unfortunately, remanent magnetization adversely impacts the success of this transformation. A second approach is to calculate the analytic-signal amplitude (ASA) of the data, which creates a single positive feature for each source or edge, with the shape being only weakly dependent on the inclination and the presence of remanent magnetization. The ASA anomalies can appear to be relatively broad, so features sometimes merge together on map views of the ASA. A subsequent transformation of the ASA using an appropriate transforming tilt angle can generate a magnetic field of a body that is at the pole and has a vertical dip. The transformation is exact for contacts when calculated from the first- order ASA, but the sign of the transformed data can be incorrect depending on whether you are over one edge or the other edge of a discrete source body. Another approximate transfor- mation of the zeroth-order ASA does not have this issue and gives good results on synthetic data provided that any noise is handled appropriately. The resulting maps outline the magnetic source bodies and have amplitudes proportional to an apparent magnetic susceptibility. On field data from Black Hill, South Australia, the approximate transformation generates an image that is simple to interpret and enhances some features less obvious on other enhancements of the data

    Monte Carlo simulated heat transport in semiconductor nanostructures

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    Nanoscale energy transport is a topic of considerable interest as heat transport at these scales can no longer be accurately predicted by diffusion theory. An alternative approach is to use the Boltzmann transport equation, but this equation is challenging to solve in the case of phonon transport, and its exact resolution is currently one of the open research subjects in mathematics. A program has been developed to study nanoscale heat transport by solving the Boltzmann transport equation using two variations of a phonon Monte-Carlo method. The first variation is primarily derived from the works of Mazumber and Majumber (2001). The second variation follows the process of Peraud and Hadjiconstantinou (2012). While both variations follow methodology from existing works, the implementation details are unique. The simulation procedures differ from existing methods by incorporating a ‘system evolution’ algorithm that allows temperatures throughout the system to be periodically updated while simulating phonons one-by-one. The resulting software can rapidly simulate heat transport in relatively complex geometries. The Monte Carlo portion of the software is implemented using parallelized C++ code. Simulating phonons one-by-one makes the parallelization scheme natural and straightforward, although more sophisticated parallelization schemes may result in further computational speedup. The user input is a self-documenting JSON file generated via a Python script. The software is used to study thermal transport through various silicon and germanium nanostructures. Benchmark simulation testing shows that the temperature profiles produced by the simulations largely agree with analytical results and results from the literature, as does the predicted thermal conductivity. However, the thermal conductivity is quite sensitive to the relaxation rates that are used. While both variations of the phonon Monte Carlo method presented in this study strike a good balance between accuracy and efficiency and retain an intuitive connection to the problem physics, a noticeable difference in computational efficiency and precision is observed. With the exceptions of low-temperature ranges and possibly systems with extreme temperature differences, the second variation should be preferred when considering computational performance and precision.Master of Science (M.Sc) in Computational Scienc

    Effects of bone structural unit (BSU) geometry and material properties on crack growth through idealized trabecular microstructures

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    Bones containing large proportions of trabecular bone tissue such as the hip, wrist, and spinal column are highly susceptible to fracture. These fractures occur more frequently in the older populations, putting a large burden on the healthcare system and the society as a whole. Bone fracture prediction methods rely heavily on bone quantity measurements when predicting fracture risks. However, research has shown that only using bone quantity as the main predictor fails to identify a large number of patients with a high risk of bone fracture. Recent studies have shown that with age, the microstructure of the trabeculae changes as the patchwork of bone structural units (BSU), also known as trabecular packets, reduce in size due to the remodeling process. Unfortunately, little is known about the mechanical consequences of these changes on the trabeculae’s ability to resist cracking. Smaller BSU with age may reduce fracture risk due to crack blunting or redirection. Conversely, smaller BSU results in a larger proportion of brittle cement line which could provide more preferential paths for crack growth. The present work used extended finite element method (XFEM) crack modeling techniques, which have recently been applied to simulate crack growth in cortical bone, to model crack propagation through idealized trabeculae in 2D. The material properties for the BSU and cement line, as well as the size of the BSU themselves, were varied through parametric studies. Smaller BSU were found to accelerate crack growth within bone. Other geometric parameters like aspect ratio and angle of crack deflection were also identified as major contributors to the bones ability to resist cracks. Future work should investigate more representative BSU geometries to further clarify the role these structures have on fracture risk.Master of Applied Science (MASc) in Engineering Scienc

    A polysomnographic investigation of the relationship between self-reported anxiety sensitivity and rapid eye movement sleep fragmentation

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    Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is reported to play several roles in cognitive, memory, and emotion-related processes, and to be sensitive to the effects of anxiety-related disorders. The impact that anxiety sensitivity (AS; i.e. one’s susceptibility to experience beliefs that anxious symptoms will generate harmful physical, cognitive, or social consequences) might have on REM sleep has seldom been investigated. This study explored the relationship between AS (global and subtypes) and REM fragmentation. Fifty-six participants were included in main analyses; polysomnograms were conducted to obtain REM fragmentation data, and the ASI-3 was administered to assess AS. Although global AS was not predictive of higher REM fragmentation, some AS subtypes were significantly linked with the outcomes. Overall, findings suggest that subtypes of AS may be better predictors of overall sleep dysfunction. Further investigating specific components of AS and their influence on sleep may assist with improving psychological treatment interventions designed for sleep.Master of Arts (MA) in Applied Psycholog

    Student and community insights on interprofessional health education

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    In Northern Ontario, interprofessional education (IPE) is offered at the undergraduate level to improve collaborative healthcare delivery and access to services for vulnerable people. However, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) expressed concern about the lack of convincing evidence of the beneficial effects of IPE interventions leading to enhanced patient care. The IOM also noted an absence of comprehensive explanations regarding how students experience collaborative learning. My study aimed to understand whether the teaching of six interprofessional competencies to undergraduate students attending a northern academic institution enhances 1) perceived interprofessional collaboration and 2) students' awareness and sensitivity regarding the needs of vulnerable people. This mixed-methods study, integrating certain principles of action research, was conducted within the context of an IPE program involving 67 participants from two cohorts, 2019 and 2020. The sequential explanatory mixed-methods design included a retrospective prepost self-assessment survey and interviews with students and community members. The results showed that the IPE program supported an understanding of IPE within both classroom and community settings. Following participation in the IPE program, statistically significant differences in pre-post scores were identified for each of six interprofessional competency domains. Three forms of qualitative data supported the analysis; these included interviews with students, interviews with two community partners and students’ anonymous written reflections. Qualitative analysis revealed that classroom and community experiences enhanced the understanding of competencies and supported collaboration as well as connection amongst students from diverse disciplines. The analysis also revealed an enhanced awareness of community members' lived realities. The results demonstrated that students and the community benefitted from the educational IPE program. The participants showed increased collaboration and motivation to work with vulnerable populations. Participation in the IPE program also increased awareness, sensitivity, and advocacy for the diverse needs of community members. Student-led health promotion organizations emerged as a sustainable and flexible experience that enabled students to integrate various IPE experiences, advance collaboration and enhance their ability to work with underserved populations. Key limitations of the study stem from the impacts of COVID-19 which limited access to community partners. In addition, relatively small sample sizes for the quantitative surveys (n=44) limit the generalizability of these findings. Moreover, the study design did not allow for an examination of gender, age or cultural differences. Future studies could address these issues as well as examine the long-term effects of IPE education on post-graduation experiences.Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Human Studie

    Weaving Indigenous knowledge and western science to investigate the impacts of railways on wildlife

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    Railways have been documented to cause mortalities for many different species, but overall, the ecological impacts of railways are under-researched and poorly understood. To date, railway ecology research has mainly focused on large mammals, but to develop effective railway mitigation, it is important to understand risks for underrepresented taxa. My aim was to use a Two-Eyed Seeing approach that weaved Indigenous knowledge and western science to improve understanding of railway ecology for understudied species and to help guide future mitigation efforts. In partnership with two First Nations, community members were invited to share Indigenous knowledge (IK) of wildlife-railway interactions to inform study design, then I conducted weekly visual surveys over three field seasons along two 3.6 km sections of railway in Eastern Georgian Bay, Ontario, recording the locations of live and dead wildlife. I recorded 462 observations of individuals from 42 different species, of which 76% were found dead, and 24% were encountered alive, findings complemented by shared IK. Reptiles and amphibians were the most severely impacted taxa, accounting for 87% of observed mortalities. Additionally, I identified hotspots of turtle and anuran interactions, and found that the locations of interactions were related to adjacent habitat use and railway features. Ultimately, this study highlights the value of collaborative research that uses complementary knowledge systems, indicates that reptiles and amphibians may be particularly susceptible to railway mortality, and identifies areas to target future mitigation both locally and in relation to broad scale landscape features for turtles and anurans.Master of Science (MSc) in Biolog

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