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Redeveloping the houseboat community of Yellowknife: an exploration into the pertinence of true sustainability in northern communities
No full textRedeveloping the Houseboat Community of Yellowknife: An Exploration into
the Pertinence of True Sustainability in Northern Communities confronts current
issues surrounding climate change and the potential solutions for one northern
city, Yellowknife, NT. It strives to redevelop and adapt existing housing typologies in
accordance with green building certification systems to achieve true sustainability
without shortchanging the North. The architecture of the North is often expensive,
unsustainable, poorly constructed, and ill-suited to the climate, putting its occupants at a disadvantage. In Yellowknife, this is no different, and yet this resilient, creative, and driven community has begun to develop its own solutions. There are currently many homes that are offgrid and carry themes of material re-use,
mobile architecture, and generational expansion. In order to achieve regional relevancy,
three existing housing typologies will be the focus of this thesis and serve as a basis for the design. These will be the houseboats, the manufactured home, and the “shack,” all of which are located within the
neighborhood of Old Town, the oldest and most unique neighborhood in Yellowknife.
The strengths and weaknesses of each one of these typologies have been analyzed,
both in terms of sustainability and cultural significance. Six of the most popular green building
certification systems were analyzed using a matrix of twenty-two critical factors of
sustainability to ensure that the best systems would be used for this project. The
reality was that one system could not cover everything, and so Passive House an Living Building Challenge will be used to measure the success of the sustainability of this project and guide the design. The
use of a green building certification systems serves as a tool to guide future practitioners but also helps to legitimize the efforts made in the North and give them a new way to rate the local built environment.
The final design will combine all of the above to develop a renovation response for one of the existing houseboats. New construction is rare in the North, and often produces copious amounts of greenhouse
gases due to travel required for both materials and personnel. There is also a great
deal of sequestered carbon in the existing buildings and a long history in Yellowknife
of retrofitting existing buildings through out their lifetime. The mistakes and knowledge gained from this first exercise will be used to develop a second design, this time a new build. This will use only recycled materials accessible to the local community, challenging designers perceptions of teriality. There will also be a community component to the house design, as there has been some contention between the
houseboaters and the broader community of Yellowknife with respect to local sustainability. As a whole, the main focus will be to develop a method that takes architecture that has been developed regionally and makes it as sustainable as possible. This thesis focuses on the uniqueness of this community and how a solution can be
developed so that the North can come to demand more from its architecture
After the dust settles: a qualitative study of underground workers exposed to an aluminum dust prophylaxis
No full textFrom 1943 to 1980, some underground gold and uranium workers in Ontario were required to
inhale aluminum powder, up to approximately 30 minutes daily, for silicosis prevention.
This qualitative descriptive study explored the perceived impact of exposed workers to the
aluminum powder. Sixteen respondents from Northeastern Ontario participated in interviews
which were transcribed verbatim and analyzed thematically.
Themes that were constructed on a personal impact level included: 1) compulsory exposure, 2)
hesitancy to complain, 3) feelings of betrayal, and 4) concern about health impact and dying.
Themes on an organizational impact level included: 1) confidence and trust in company, 2) lack
of knowledge, and 3) need for compensation and formal apology.
Workers’ perceived that their long-term health was impacted by exposure on a personal and
organizational level. The latest information from this study on McIntyre powder will enhance the
knowledge within the occupational health and safety system
Limites des apprentissages au laboratoire des sciences infirmières : l’apport d’une grille d’évaluation pour offrir des soins holistiques en situation linguistique minoritaire
Get PDFDans le souci d’arrimer la théorie à la pratique en sciences infirmières, le
programme des sciences infirmières de l’Université Laurentienne offre aux étudiantes
l’apprentissage des techniques des soins (TDS) au laboratoire avant d’être avec les
patients/clients, en situation réelle. Pour s’assurer que les étapes de la TDS apprises
étayent les soins holistiques du patient/client, la présente étude développe une grille
d’évaluation d’apprentissage de TDS intégrant la philosophie de soin holistique et
répondant aux besoins des étudiantes francophones en situation linguistique minoritaire.
Pour élaborer une nouvelle grille d’évaluation répondant à ces besoins, cet outil est
constitué de 5 catégories et composés de 22 critères de performance. Ainsi, de
professeures et enseignantes, se sont prononcées sur la pertinence et le contenu de
l’instrument utilisant la technique du groupe nominal et la technique Delphi; les
techniciennes de laboratoire sur la fidélité interobservateurs avec le coefficient de
corrélation intraclasse très significatif
Recidivism and treatment behaviour among high-risk/high-need sexual offenders with psychopathic traits
Get PDFTreatment of offenders with psychopathic traits has been a widely debated topic for decades. The
current study examined the influence of psychopathy and treatment behaviour on recidivism. The
sample included 117 high-risk sexual offenders admitted to the Regional Treatment Centre Sex
Offender Treatment Program (RTCSOTP) while serving a federal sentence of two years or more.
Offenders were grouped based on their scores on the Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R)
and treatment behaviour. With an average follow-up time of 82.62 months, sexual and violent
recidivism rates of offenders scoring high and low on the PCL-R could not be distinguished posttreatment. When examining general recidivism and any recidivism, recidivism rates of offenders
scoring high on psychopathy and who demonstrated good treatment behaviour were not
significantly different than those of offenders scoring low on the PCL-R regardless of treatment
behaviour. Implications for treatment are discussed
Slips trips and falls in Northern Ontario underground hard-rock mines
Get PDFUnderground mining environments are dark, wet, and have uneven terrain that can create
a risk for slips, trips, and falls (STFs). Ontario hard-rock mine workers are legally required to
wear personal protective equipment (PPE). Underground miners also work in a dark and dusty
environment with uneven terrain, many work shiftwork, and many work on or around large
equipment. There is limited research on STFs in underground mining (Dobson et al., 2015) and
to my knowledge workers in underground hard-rock mines have not been surveyed about their
perceptions of STF risk factors. This study was conducted to advance understanding of risk factors for STFs in
underground mines in Northern Ontario, with an aim to provide recommendations for
underground safety guidelines, training procedures and future research. 152 underground
workers from 2 mine sites in Northern Ontario completed a survey regarding STF in
underground mining. The survey contained 16 open-ended and 6 closed-ended questions that
addressed demographics, working roles, and perceptions of STF risk factors pertaining to
personal, environmental, work task and PPE related factors. Closed-ended questions were coded
and analyzed in SPSS. Open-ended questions were analyzed using the Braun and Clark. (2019)
method of thematic analysis The top 10 identified risk factors included uneven terrain, puddles/holes, poor lighting,
slippery surfaces, fatigue, getting in/out of equipment, clutter in the walkway, poor vision,
walking long distances, and poor balance. Workers identified work environment as the primary
component of STF risk, as 5 of the top 10 risk factors indicated are a sub-set of environmental
factors. When asked what contributed to the risk of STF 29 of 152 underground workers discussed housekeeping and maintenance of roadways. 54.6% (n=83) of workers strongly agreed
that climbing on/off equipment was also a major risk factor for STFs and ranked it 6 out of 10.
Workers also identified fatigue as a risk factor as it was ranked 5 out of 10. 54% (n=82) agreed
and 30.3% (n=46) strongly agreed that their personal level of fatigue was a risk factor for STFs.
Responses indicated that 80.9% (n=123) and 52% (n=79) of workers felt that they were more
likely to experience a STF towards the end of their shift and beginning of their shift respectively.
Workers also indicated that they aware of the risk factors in their workplace as 59.3% strongly
agreed to this statement.
Future research on the top 10 identified risk factors (uneven terrain, puddles/holes, poor
lighting, slippery surfaces, fatigue, getting in/out of equipment, clutter in the walkway, poor
vision, walking long distances, poor balance) would be beneficial to further understand how each
factor affects a worker’s risk of experiencing a STF
One does not TAKE a sauna; one GOES to the sauna
No full textBathing was once about an empathetic relationship
with nature; exposing oneself to the environment and
letting nature becoming a part of oneself to cleanse
and purify the body and mind. As a society, we live
in a world where the acceleration of technology has
connected us with a digital world that is always at our
fingertips; with speed and efficiency at the forefront.
Even our bathing process has been accelerated.
Bathing was once a process of a public session
lasting an entire morning or afternoon, and now
done by taking a ten minute shower in isolation,
completely removed from nature. The journey
within bathing is intended to be accompanied by
friends, family, neighbours and welcomed guests
as a community exercise of social discourse and
collective purification. Public bathing was near
extinction after World War II with the emergence
of urban sprawl accompanied by the development
of larger homes. In particular, the sauna shifted
from an open communal experience, to a private
and isolated action within the confinements of the
dwelling. As a society, technology has us cognitively
processing at rapid speeds and for long durations, influencing a pandemic of stress and mental health
issues globally. People need more opportunities to
step away where time stands still and technology
is muted, to detox and cleanse their mind of the
stresses of the day. Bathing is about a journey of
spiritually and physically immersing the body’s
sensuality in a relationship with nature, to cleanse
both the body and the mind. The framework of
public bathing is more necessary than ever and
with the city of Sudbury already having a deeply
rooted sauna culture from Finnish immigration in
the late nineteenth century, now is an appropriate
time to re-introduce a public sauna as an outlet
to cleansing. An opportunity arises to connect
to the lake culture that already exists in Sudbury,
by experiencing the journey to a floating sauna
located in the heart of Sudbury on Ramsey Lake.
This can further support the summer canoe culture
and the winter ice fishing culture already identified,
as a community nexus built on linking the journey
with nature, as a social hub, and most importantly
cleansing the body and the mind
Contribution de l’approche relationnelle à la compréhension de la conversion religieuse
No full textLa conversion religieuse est un objet de recherche complexe qui a suscité l’intérêt de plusieurs
disciplines. Ces connaissances monodisciplinaires semblent nécessaires pour comprendre un
tel objet. Par contre, elles demeurent insuffisantes pour restituer la conversion religieuse dans
sa réalité. Ce découpage a occulté sa conception dans sa réalité complexe. Il a en outre conforté
un pouvoir à des catégories qui rappellent les approches holistique ou individualiste.
L’approche interactionniste a contribué à la compréhension de la conversion religieuse. Elle a,
en revanche, réduit la temporalité à une linéarité qui laisse conjecturer une éventuelle
conversion religieuse. Dans la recension des écrits, nous avons constaté que la complexité de
cet objet de recherche a été soulignée, mais elle n’a pas été pensée. Sans incliner cette étude
vers un système religieux en particulier, nous avons entrepris une réflexion intégratrice sur la
conversion religieuse. Pour y aboutir, nous avons adopté la théorie relationnelle (Donati,
Laflamme et Vautier). L’objectif de cette étude est d’observer la relation de la psyché à la
religion. Pour ce faire, nous avons eu recours à l’appareil conceptuel de Laflamme, à savoir :
historicité, socialité (micrologique et macrologique) et émoraison. Nous avons adapté le modèle
trialectique de Vautier à la conversion religieuse afin de décrire le champ relationnel qui
découle des relations dialectiques : converti-système religieux, système religieux-événement et
événement-converti. L’analyse des données qualitatives en provenance de 34 sujets interviewés
(17 convertis, huit réaffiliés et neuf croyants non pratiquants) a confirmé une relation de la
psyché à la religion. Pour les convertis et les réaffiliés, la relation a évolué du dogmatisme vers
un dynamisme. La relation des croyants non pratiquants à la religion a évolué du dogmatisme
vers un pragmatisme. Cette évolution est confortée par une auto-éco-organisation de cette
relation. L’analyse qualitative des données qui proviennent des convertis et des réaffiliés par le
modèle trialectique a mis en évidence une relation événementielle. La temporalité observée est
donc propre à la conversion religieuse. Cette étude empirique a permis d’émanciper la
compréhension de la conversion religieuse de l’hégémonie de la logique causaliste et de
considérer la relation dans sa réalité en réintroduisant l’événementiel
The Charlton community food hub: enhancing food accessibility in Charlton and Dack, ON
No full textThis thesis examines how both architecture and agriculture can enhance food accessibility
in Northeastern Ontario. Extensive research, case studies, and multiple site visits have uncovered both the needs of the communities and the solutions required to increase the
region's agricultural capabilities. Architectural responses within this thesis revolve around
three themes which include education, community, and technical design. With climate
change becoming an increasing threat to the rural life, this thesis also presents architectural
and agricultural solutions that provide for a sustainable environment in an educational
manner. This final design proposal explores the redevelopment of an abandoned school
and its accompanying site in the municipality of Charlton and Dack, ON. The adaptive-reuse
project transforms the school into a community space that serves as a multipurpose hub
centered around producing and promoting fresh and sustainable local food. It is through this
architectural proposal that the thesis is able to respond to local food accessibility in the region
while promoting educational, communal, and technological values
The potential of architecture to address homelessness in Northern Ontario
No full textWhat is architecture’s potential to
address homelessness in northern Ontario?
This question came from a personal
experience: volunteering in a soup kitchen in
downtown Sudbury throughout my studies at
Laurentian University. This experience, over
the last six years, has permeated through my
architectural education. Homelessness is a
complex phenomenon that architecture alone
is unable to solve; nonetheless, architecture
does have the potential to facilitate responses
to homelessness in collaboration with other
professions on interdisciplinary teams.
Attitudes against those living in
extreme poverty, historically categorizing
those ‘undeserving’ of assistance, can be seen
today in the physical, social, and legal realms
of the built environment. There is not one, but
many, common experiences of homelessness.
The current literature provides a definition
of homelessness as the exclusion from the
physical, social, or legal domains of ‘home’.
This definition portrays homelessness as a
spectrum dependent on exclusion. Hostile
architecture and the selective enforcement of
municipal by-laws are contemporary examples
of exclusion that penalize those experiencing
homelessness. These examples can be mapped
in Sudbury, Ontario, to demonstrate how
specific architectural elements are spatially
connected to areas of high contact between
housed and homeless individuals. These
contact zones, when designed improperly, can
ignite prejudice and lead to conflict, ultimately
reinforcing stigma. Meanwhile, the theory of
intergroup contact postulates that contact
between out-groups and in-groups also carries
the potential to mitigate stigma and prejudice
under prescribed conditions. The physical
mediation of these conflict zones is tested
in downtown Sudbury through two installations where the nuances of this process
are observed, documented, and applied to the
full building scale.
The process of designing a fullscale building proposal includes an indepth site analysis to understand the local
sociodemographics of homelessness and
where a site could best be located. Upon
site selection, programs are analysed using
a needs assessment through the secondary
analysis of transcribed interviews of individuals
experiencing homelessness. The needs
expressed by people with lived experience are
cross-referenced with the existing services
in Sudbury to propose new programs to fill
the service gaps in the city. A process is then
developed whereby a phased introduction of the
project brings together relevant stakeholders,
leverages their connections in project planning,
creates an interface for meaningful community
engagement, and develops the site in phases
to avoid gentrification. The architecture is
described as a mediator of the physical, social,
and legal dimensions of both the site and
individuals’ experiences of homelessness.
Visioning is explored by how it may be inhabited
by both those who are housed and experiencing
homelessness, including those who have exited
homelessness and secured housing. Finally,
a future is imagined whereby individuals can
find sustainable exits from homelessness. The
continued life of the building demonstrates
how it has been designed to meet the needs
of its residents and not any one particular
circumstance. The contribution of this
work is the development of a new mode of
practicing architecture that is fundamentally
interdisciplinary, allowing physical buildings to
maximize their positive effect on the life in and
around the
Midwives integration of manual vacuum aspiration for postabortion care in the Kinshasa and Kongo central provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo
No full textIllicit abortion in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) results in the deaths of tens of
thousands of women each year. There is great humanitarian potential for a return on
investment if midwives are properly supported in integrating post-abortion care into their
practice. In 2017, over 350 Congolese midwives were trained in the use of manual vacuum
aspiration (MVA), an inexpensive and lifesaving post-abortion procedure. Yet, to date there is
little understanding of its integration into midwifery practice in the DRC. The overarching
aim of this thesis was to conduct collaborative research with the Professional Association of
Congolese midwives (SCOSAF) in the provinces of Kinshasa and Kongo Central that would
assist Congolese midwives to increase their practice of MVA, while modeling an equitable
research partnership based on mutual trust and collaboration. The thesis has three chapters
that build on each other and serve to demonstrate the unique substantive, methodological and
theoretical contributions of the research. Substantively, the dissertation provides initial insight
into those midwives who have integrated MVA post training compared to those who have not,
as well as an exploration of those strategies used to successfully incorporate it into practice.
Furthermore, the dissertation provides a model for conducting collaborative abortion research
with midwifery associations and offers an advocacy tool that the midwifery association of
SCOSAF can use to influence their expertise in midwifery led post-abortion care in the DRC.
Methodologically, the dissertation introduces a novel combination of a mixed method case
group comparison using a positive deviant approach. By applying a positive deviant
assessment to the research, the dissertation provides a solution-based approach to uncovering
the practical ways in which midwives can be supported in integrating post-abortion care into
their practice. Lastly, the dissertation advances understanding of Congolese midwives’
integration of post-abortion care into practice through the proposition of a theoretical model
that is aligned with regional knowledge