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Graphic narrative and design in mining and apocalypse
No full text“Is there valid application in processing architectural design in the method
of graphic narrative? This thesis explores utilizing the language of graphic
narrative to blur boundaries between apocalypse, mining, and architecture.
Set in the abandoned Stobie-Frood mine of Sudbury, Ontario, the narrative in
tandem analyzes the past, present, and apocalyptic driven future of the design.
By including the three-time sequences in time, the structure transcends all
and becomes a character itself in this narrative. The purpose of creating this
connection between the method, topics, and design is to create a boundless
universal language that can explore larger scale issues such as adaptive reuse,
natural energy systems, and subterranean architecture. The graphic narrative in
this thesis offers a portal into the architecture world, one that can be understood
by architects and non-architects alike.
Paramedic perspectives of community paramedicine and quality of work life in Northern Ontario, Canada
No full textThe purpose of this study was to understand the perspectives of paramedics regarding
community paramedicine (CP) and their quality of work life (QoWL) in Northern Ontario,
Canada. Paramedics from eight emergency medical services (EMS) were recruited to participate
in an online survey that was distributed to them via REDCap software. The survey contained
several CP-specific questions and the 23-Item Work-Related Quality of Life Scale. The findings
indicated that the vast majority of paramedics are in favour of CP, however repeated service
interruptions, a lack of training, and patient data tracking were identified as issues that should be
mitigated to ensure successful CP program development in the future. There was a statistically
significant relationship between paramedic participation in CP and QoWL. These findings have
implications for EMS employers and decision-makers related to the effectiveness of CP program
activities, and they provide emerging insight into the relationship between QoWL and CP in
Northern Ontario
The impacts of environmental changes on peatland microbial community structure and function
No full textNorthern peatlands store approximately 30% of the world’s soil carbon, and are also
responsible for contemporary fluxes of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane
(CH4), making them important players in the global carbon (C) cycle. These greenhouse gas
emissions are mediated by peat-dwelling microbes; however, the environmental factors
governing the structures and functions of peat microbial communities are still poorly understood.
In order to better understand these dynamics, I examined the effects of two forms of
environmental change on peatland microbial communities. Firstly, to gain fundamental
knowledge of the drivers of microbial community shift due to natural peatland succession, I
examined the effects of long-term peat transplantation from a rich fen to a late-successional poor
fen. This allowed me to evaluate the relative effects of solid phase chemistry and substrate
(largely determined by the parent material/vegetation) versus aqueous chemistry (influenced
more by groundwater or precipitation sources), on peat microbial communities. My results
suggest that solid phase chemistry, particularly total nitrogen (TN) and C:N, may be important in
determining the makeup of peatland bacterial communities. Secondly, I examined the effects of
soil warming simulating projected climate change in a poor and an intermediate fen on peat
microbial respiration and CH4 production as the preliminary stage of a multi-year, large-scale
field experiment. Soil warming did not lead to any effects on CO2 production or CH4 flux during
peat incubation
Cultivating mindfulness for university students
No full textMental health wellness in post-secondary institutions is a growing concern as students are
prone to experiencing mental health related challenges such as stress, anxiety, and depression.
Educational institutions lack comprehensive support services in order to effectively meet
students’ mental health care needs. Post-secondary institutions have the obligation to ensure that
mental health supports are in place in order to help students effectively manage their stress,
enhance their psychological well-being, and develop coping skills so that they can achieve
academic success. My study explored the suitability and the effectiveness of the Holistic Arts- Based Program (HAP) with university students. HAP is a 12-week arts-based mindfulness-based
intervention (MBI). Arts-based mindfulness methods can help to promote health and
psychological well-being. Furthermore, they are fun, engaging, and can help facilitate a deeper
understanding of emotions, thoughts, and feelings. Fifteen students participated in two different
HAP groups. Pre- and post-HAP individual interviews were conducted, and students completed
the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire, and the Ryff Psychological Well-Being scale. Paired
t-tests indicated a statistically significant increase in participants’ level of mindfulness and
psychological well-being after taking part in the program. Results of the qualitative thematic
analysis revealed four main themes: (1) the benefits of HAP in a group format, (2) the cultivation
of mindfulness, (3) the benefits of making art, and (4) the impact of HAP on participants'
relationships with others. I conclude that HAP can contribute to the improvement of students’
mental health by providing them with effective coping strategies in order to more effectively
manage the stressors associated with university life. Post-secondary institutions are encouraged
to consider implementing HAP as a strengths-based mental health promotion initiative.Masters in Social Wor
Projective architecture: an approach to building an immersive Art Centre for Sudbury, Ontario
No full textThis research explores the design for an art centre in Sudbury, Ontario in which the architecture
is not only activated or animated by its community but also inspires its community to be more active
within the city’s culture. Drawing upon the concept of Projective Architecture as coined by Sarah
Whiting and Robert Somol, the proposed art centre would respond to and with its surrounding
context to focus on its effects on the social condition of the surrounding community.1
The proposed
institution would facilitate the community’s engagement by a layering of substrates, filters, light, film
and video projections, by an interactive exterior screen-like facade system, to reveal the movements
of the art centre and its art film-making residency program artists. This second-skin surrounding
the abandoned General Hospital building in Sudbury would facilitate views to the landscape beyond
connecting the visitors with the surrounding Northern city through an unusual and interesting lens.
Film and video art, haptic diagramming, conceptual object making and immersive installation art all
served in the research-creation process to determine the aesthetics and ideologies of the proposed
art centre. Focused on an active reciprocal engagement between the community and emerging arts
artists, the centre seeks to breed new genres of Northern Ontario art
Northern Ontario camp informing architecture
No full textThis thesis explores the idea of Camp in Northern Ontario and how it can inform architecture in the
region. The work examines Camp through four categories: History, Community, Placemaking, and
Sentiment. Six types of camps are analysed through drawing and text, which is based on personal
experience, and through text-based research. A set of site and building design guidelines are developed from this analysis. A speculative cohousing project at Whitewater Lake in Azilda, Ontario, is
chosen as an architectural typology and site to test an architecture informed by Camp. Using these
design guidelines, the cohousing project contributes to maintaining a sense of place through its history
and its making processes, providing a shared sense of community and creating a sentiment that is
rooted in the collective memory of Camp. The final result indicates what an architectural regionalism can mean for Northern Ontario and how it will improve the way people interact with their built
environment and communities
Risk factors for mode of delivery
Get PDFMode of delivery and the effects of birth trauma were investigated. First, a
literature revealed the need for further examination of a specific mode of delivery
(operative vaginal birth [OVB]). Secondly, an integrative review explored the
concept of birth trauma as it relates to healthcare provider actions and behaviours
via the following research question: What is known about the relationship between
healthcare provider actions and women’s perceived birth trauma? Thirdly, a
retrospective study was conducted that built on the literature review to answer the
following research question: What infant, maternal, healthcare provider, and
regional characteristics put a woman at risk for experiencing an OVB? The final
section concludes the project by reflecting on the work completed, interpreting the
results for nursing and other healthcare providers, and providing recommendations
for future research. This thesis sets the groundwork for future research as it
includes the first study to explore unique risk factors for OVB for women in
Ontario, Canada. As well as, uncovering the impact that healthcare provider
actions and behaviours have on a woman’s birthing experience. The knowledge
built in this project has the ability to inform healthcare providers who care for
women during the antenatal period, labour and childbirth as well as health policy
informing women’s health and wellness
Faster markov blanket with tabu search for efficient feature selection of microarray cancer datasets
Get PDFIn the field of medical science, particularly for diseases caused due to genetic reasons, the proper
classification of genes is necessary to prescribe a cure for the same. Genes are required to be classified
as per any particular characteristic that influences the cancer. Feature selection methods have been
recognized as being important in this domain. This process assumes more importance wherein
datasets containing a large number of variables (genes) are considered. In this thesis, we focus our
work on the Tabu search technique combined with the Markov Blanket algorithm for feature selection
and classification of microarray gene expression data. The HITON implementation of the Markov
Blanket algorithm for feature selection was implemented and compared with the HITON plus Tabu
search method on microarray gene expression datasets. We propose HITON with Tabu search for
feature selection algorithm to obtain high classification performance for high dimensional microarray
cancer datasets. Higher accuracy was achieved by applying Tabu search with HITON algorithm when
tested with three classifiers - KNN, SVM, and NN. The proposed algorithm HITON + Tabu with
SVM achieved 99.40% classification accuracy for the Prostate dataset, whereas HITON with SVM
gave 98.04% classification accuracy, an increase by 1.36% accuracy using HITON + Tabu algorithm.
For Leukemia dataset, HITON + Tabu with KNN achieved 99.83% classification accuracy, whereas
HITON with KNN gave 98.81% classification accuracy, an increase by 1.02% accuracy using
HITON + Tabu algorithm. For the Lung Cancer dataset, HITON + Tabu with SVM achieved 92.36%
classification accuracy, whereas HITON with SVM gives 89% classification accuracy, an increase
by 3.36% accuracy using HITON + Tabu algorithm. In addition, the proposed algorithm can be
generalized to solve various other optimization problems
Cellular mechanisms associated with chemotherapy induced ribosomal RNA disruption in ovarian cancer cells
Get PDFThe degradation of RNA is a ubiquitous process prevalent in all cells; employed
to maintain nucleotide turnover, maturation, and quality control of RNA. A recent breast
cancer clinical trial demonstrated that the degradation of ribosomal RNA (rRNA) in
tumour biopsies, referred to as RNA disruption, could serve as a potential biomarker for
patients receiving chemotherapy treatment. Given that most, if not all, chemotherapy
treatments are associated with toxic side effects, the ability to differentiate early in
treatment between patients whose tumours respond to chemotherapy versus patients
whose tumours do not would be a very useful tool to prevent needless toxicity in nonresponding patients. Further research, in vitro, demonstrated that this phenomenon was
reproducible using a number of different chemotherapy agents in a variety of cancer cell
lines. While studies have indicated measuring RNA disruption can be a useful tool in
clinical diagnosis, the mechanism(s) of RNA disruption in response to chemotherapy
treatment are not well understood. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of
Nonfunctional RNA Decay (NRD), RNase L, autophagy, and apoptosis in chemotherapyinduced RNA disruption.
Treatment of A280 ovarian carcinoma cells with a proteasome inhibitor did not
reduce chemotherapy-induced RNA disruption, suggesting that NRD does not play a role.
However, treating A2780 cells with the synthetic dsRNA Poly I:C and a small molecule
RNase L activator (RLA), induced an rRNA disruption pattern comparable to that of
docetaxel (DXL). Furthermore, A2780 cells transfected with the RNase L inhibitor
ABCE1 reduced rRNA disruption in response to DXL or RLA treatment, demonstrating a
potential link between RNase L and RNA disruption. Immunoblot experiments revealed that DXL and RLA induced elevated levels of protein associated with the activation of
autophagy (LC3-II) at 12, 24, and 48 hours after treatment. DXL and RLA also induces
increased levels of proteolytic products associated with apoptosis (PARP) at 12 and 24
hours post-treatment. DXL and RLA-induced RNA disruption was strongest at 48 hours,
suggesting that that DXL and RLA-induced RNA disruption are not concurrent with
autophagy and apoptosis. The results of the study provide greater insight into the
mechanisms associated with chemotherapy-dependent RNA disruption, which could be
helpful in the future in improving the accuracy of the RNA disruption assay as a
chemotherapy response biomarker
L'identité professionnelle: mieux saisir le concept
Get PDFCe mémoire de maîtrise vise à explorer le concept d’identité professionnelle tel qu’il est rapporté
dans la plupart des écrits en travail social. Malgré le fait que l’identité professionnelle soit un thème
tout de même assez évoqué en travail social, il semblerait qu’à ce jour, le concept reste flou au plan
sémantique. En autres mots, il n’y ait pas de définition stabilisée de l’identité professionnelle en
travail social. La recherche sur ce thème reste pertinente, car plus les chercheurs étudient ce
concept, mieux ils arrivent à comprendre l’identité professionnelle, et par ricochet, la pratique
professionnelle et les travailleurs sociaux eux-mêmes.
Dans ce mémoire, nous nous intéresserons particulièrement au flou sémantique entourant le
concept d’identité professionnelle. L’objectif de cette étude est précis : il vise à explorer comment
les experts définissent l’identité professionnelle en travail social, mais aussi en enseignement1
.
Ce mémoire vise, enfin, à sensibiliser les lecteurs, et spécifiquement les travailleurs sociaux,
quant à la complexité du thème même de l’identité professionnelle, la réalité des multiples
définitions de l’identité professionnelle, ainsi que des enjeux reliés à l’identité professionnelle dans
l’exercice de la profession.Maîtrise en service social (M.S.S.