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Toronto Waterfront’s Revitalization: Planning Policy’s Evolution and Commitment to Public Space Over Time
No full textThis paper explores public space along Toronto’s waterfront through an evolution of strategies, plans, and reports from 1999 to present day. I discuss the industrial history of the waterfront prior to its redevelopment. Additionally, I examine the fragmented land ownership structure of the waterfront land which has posed unique challenges to its redevelopment due to a lack of consensus or support. There is a particular focus on what public space is and how it can be positively linked to wellbeing and quality of life. My research question aims to understand how the public and private are negotiated in the redevelopment plans of the Toronto waterfront over time, with a focus on the commitment to preserve and enhance public spaces through an examination of language and priorities. Through an analysis of strategies, plans, and reports and conversations with professional planners I developed an understanding of how public space has been prioritized. Throughout this research it has become apparent that public space has always been a primary consideration in planning the waterfront but has shifted in terms of how it is presented. From 1999 to 2023, the language surrounding public spaces has evolved from “green”, “parks”, and “public access” to “wellbeing”, “public realm”, and “gathering places”. This shift demonstrates the way public space is no longer being thought about simply as a park asset with public access, but as a space that is part of a greater public realm made up of connecting streets, parks, sidewalks, and trails that contribute to wellbeing, providing a place for social gathering. Within the last week of completing this paper, the waterfront reached a new milestone, opening Biidaasige Park in Ookwemin Minising, bringing 40 hectares of new parkland with public access
The Specters Of Three Victorian-Era Giants Are Haunting Public Health: The Relevance Of Chadwick, Virchow And Engels's Contributions To Public Health In The 21st Century
No full textThree Victorian-era public health giants Edwin Chadwick, Rudolph Virchow, and Friedrich Engels, each in their own way, considered the social origins of health and illness and wrote about the social conditions that threaten or promote health; the conditions now referred to as the social determinants of health. Revisiting these Victorian-era thinkers through a critical materialist lens can assist our understanding of how the issues they identified over 170 years ago continue to haunt present day society. This dissertation considers the continuities between the different approaches of these three thinkers and present-day conceptualizations of health, social determinants of health, and means of promoting health. It raises questions about why their findings continue to be considered – for better or for worse – by both the mainstream public health community and those working within the critical social science tradition.
This dissertation consists of three parts. The first part examines these three Victorian-era thinkers’ contributions to public health through an analysis of biographies and primary documents. The second part is a scoping review of contemporary literature that evoked these writers from 2000 to 2023 – a period of increased interest in their writings – in 12 influential academic health and health history journals to understand their relation to present day academic writings. The third part is a thematic analysis of 11 interviews with contemporary scholars that evoke these historical figures. These interviews identified why and how these historical figures and their ideas are seen as relevant to contemporary health equity discourses.
The study finds the ideas and works of these historical figures continue to influence contemporary discussion of health. Virchow’s concern with public policy continues to be the most evoked in contemporary discourse, yet Engels’s influence is increasing, and Chadwick’s is waning. Chadwick’s focus on government-led public health reform of sanitation, Virchow’s advocacy for political reform, and Engels’s critique of capitalism persist in modern public health discourses of settings and environments, public policy, and critical political economy respectively. While progressive political reforms are possible, it may be that health equity can best be achieved through reform or transformation of the economic system
Development of Acrylamide/Acrylic acid Superabsorbent Polymer (SAP) Particles for Water Applications
No full textWater contamination, particularly from bacterial sources, poses significant risks to public health and environmental safety. Low bacterial concentrations in water samples often go undetected by conventional methods, increasing these risks and highlighting the need for efficient sample enrichment techniques. This research investigates the use of superabsorbent polymer microparticles (SAP-MPs) and their nanocomposites with MXene nanosheets for enriching bacterial samples. The study first focuses on developing innovative microfluidic platforms for real-time characterization of SAP-MPs. Subsequently, advanced MXene/SAP-MP nanocomposites are introduced for enhanced bacterial enrichment and water analysis.
The study is structured into four objectives. The first objective involves the design and fabrication of a novel microfluidic device for high-resolution, real-time characterization of SAP-MPs. This device enables detailed single particle analysis of swelling behaviors, including volume swelling ratio (VSR) and swelling rate (SR). The second objective investigates the effect of particle size, crosslinker concentration, acrylic acid concentration, and neutralization degree on the swelling behavior of SAP-MP. Results revealed a ~40% and ~300% reduction in equilibrium VSR (VSReq) and SR with increased crosslinker concentration, respectively, while increasing acrylic acid concentrations enhanced VSReq and SR by ~200%. A ~300% increase in VSReq was observed with smaller particle sizes, marking the first single-particle-scale study of this phenomenon. The third objective demonstrates the synthesis of MXene/SAP-MP nanocomposites using the Breathing-In-Breathing-Out (BI-BO) method, achieving successful integration of MXene nanosheets without compromising swelling behavior. Finally, the fourth objective evaluates bacterial enrichment performance, revealing a 10-fold enrichment efficiency and 90% recovery efficiency under optimized conditions.
This research advances the fundamental characterization of SAPs and their applications, including water treatment, biosensing, and environmental monitoring
Factors in Perceptual Shape Completion
No full textHumans rely on bounding contours to segment scenes and recognize objects in our 3D world, despite the challenge of occlusions that partially block objects in the visual field. Our ability to perceptually complete these occluded contours, filling in missing fragments, plays a crucial role in object recognition. Previous research has assessed local and global methods for shape completion based on their objective accuracy, but not in relation to human perceptual completion. In this thesis, observers viewed partially erased bounding contours, simulating occlusion, and adjusted the position of a dot along a virtual line where the contour would likely continue. The missing intervals ranged from 10% to 50% of the total shape. Analysis of objective error and bias revealed that humans use more than local cues in shape completion, indicating a complex integration of information to perceptually restore missing contours
Urban change detection: assessing biophysical drivers using machine learning and Google Earth Engine
No full textUrban areas are experiencing rapid transformations, driven by population growth, economic development, and policy changes. Understanding and monitoring these dynamic changes is crucial for sustainable urban planning and management. This study leverages machine learning and Google Earth Engine to investigate urban dynamics and its interactions with biophysical conditions in the Kaduna River Basin (KRB), Nigeria. This study utilized a dataset of 192 points, initially extracted from Google Earth Engine, to analyze urban transitions between 1987 and 2020, incorporating biophysical and environmental variables such as population density, precipitation, and surface temperature. The dataset was processed in R using the CARET package, with missing data imputed via K-nearest neighbors (KNN), categorical variables transformed using One-Hot Encoding, and numerical variables rescaled for consistency. A tenfold cross-validation approach was used to train and validate machine learning models, including random forest, support vector machine, KNN, and multivariate adaptive regression splines, ensuring optimal model performance. Model evaluation metrics such as overall accuracy, kappa, F1 score, and area under the curve confirmed the reliability of the models in identifying the biophysical factors influencing urban changes. The findings revealed overall accuracy of 0.80, 0.73, 0.71, and 0.72 and kappa statistics of 0.60, 0.46, 0.42, and 0.45 for random forest (RF), multivariate adaptive regression splines, support vector machine, and KNN, respectively, with RF emerging as the most accurate model (80%) for predicting urban change patterns in KRB. Land cover changes reveal rapid urban expansion (154.81%), declining water bodies (− 95.79%), and vegetation growth (174%). Machine learning models identify population density and water stress index as key urban change drivers, with climate factors like temperature and precipitation playing crucial roles. The results of this study offer valuable insights into the processes driving urban transformation and present a robust methodology for monitoring and predicting future urban development. This study aids in the creation of strategies for sustainable urban growth and the mitigation of adverse environmental impacts.Open access funding provided by University of the Free State
The Creatures of the Province Doctrine and the Neoliberalization and De-Democratization of Local Governance in Toronto from 1996-2023
No full textIn 2022, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced new legislation, the Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act. The Act enshrined something once unthinkable to people living in the City of Toronto: granting the mayor the power to veto decisions made by the City Council while requiring the council to summon a super-majority (two-thirds) of votes to overrule the mayor. Any new local bylaw passed seen as clashing with “provincial priorities” could be vetoed by the mayor, creating a direct political link on all local issues between the municipal mayor’s and provincial government premier’s offices. This dissertation questions broad assumptions about, and examines and theorizes to what degree, this type of governing was a stark break from, or a continuation of, the longstanding norms pertaining to liberal democratic institutions and intergovernmental governance between the Government of Ontario and the City of Toronto. Using three case studies over the period from 1996 to 2023, the dissertation focuses on three Ontario premiers: Mike Harris (1996-2002), Dalton McGuinty (2003-2006), and Doug Ford (2018-2023). The argument put forth is that in the neoliberal era, the provincial government has routinely utilized the creatures of the province doctrine to restructure liberal democratic institutions and undercut democratic decision-making processes within the City of Toronto. This was done in the name of the neoliberalized notion of “efficiency” through centralizing power and insulating neoliberal austerity measures from critique
Subversive Mundane: Pop Music & the Islamic Republic of Iran
No full textThe thesis claims that the expansion of a grand ideology to the practices of everyday life by an interventionist regime endows popular culture an explicit emancipatory power, elevates the mundane, and transforms it to an implicit political statement uttering against the initial ideal of the grand narrative which becomes shattered, depoliticized, and fragmented on a daily basis
Exploring Opportunities to Enhance Engagement in Home-Based Stroke Rehabilitation Through the Design of Instrumented Objects
No full textThis thesis explores opportunities to enhance patient engagement in stroke rehabilitation through the design of an instrumented object aimed at improving fine motor skills at home. Using a Research through Design approach, the study focuses on the development of MorlensRehab, a sensor-based device that incorporates occupational therapy exercises. The prototype was used in a co-creation workshop to identify and better understand the needs and experiences of a diverse group of stakeholders, including rehabilitation patients, caregivers, healthcare providers, and technology developers. A thematic analysis of the workshop data uncovered key themes such as motivation and engagement, monitoring health and wellness, and social connectedness, highlighting factors that influence the adoption of technology in rehabilitation. Insights from the workshop also provided recommendations for more user- friendly iterations of MorlensRehab and emphasized the importance of developing an ecosystem of supporting products that can enhance patient engagement and the adoption of rehabilitative technologies
Triggered Town: Situating Communal Violence And Dissonance In The Wake Of The Gujarat Earthquake
No full textThis thesis investigates the intertwined narratives of the 2001 Gujarat, India earthquake and the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom in Ahmedabad. It examines the impact of these events on the city's urban population to explore the intersections of natural disasters, religion, caste violence, and rapid urbanization. Focusing on the rise of Ahmedabad's middle class, the study uses personal interviews with Hindu upper-castes and upper-middle-class earthquake victims to explore their evolving attitudes towards the environment, state politics, inter-community relationships and political amnesia. And more specifically, it seeks to delve into how this section of civil society who were impacted by both events, albeit differently, have interpreted and responded to them over the long term. It reveals how memories can be shaped and reconstructed with effective state-propagated distortions which in turn have led to widespread denial of social realities and contributed to then-chief minister Narendra Modi’s electoral victories. Over two decades, the influence of the Sangh Parivar and political leader Narendra Modi has fostered economic pride and aspirations among these citizens, overshadowing the city's traumatic seismic history together with religious, class and caste divides. As increasing climate induced disasters loom over India together with authoritarian supremacist threats to India's secular democracy, this research aims to highlight the potential contemporary crises that inland urban metropolises such as Ahmedabad are likely to face given their tumultuous environmental and political histories
Autism Spectrum Disorder In Girls: Sex Differences, Subtypes, And Symptom Structure
No full textThe present study investigated how autism spectrum disorder manifests in female children through three separate studies. Two separate datasets were used. The Surrey Place (SP) dataset (N=1725) was composed of children screened to participate in an intensive treatment program. The SFARI dataset (N=2757), is a collection of data representing autistic children who participated in the Simons Simplex Collection (SSC; Fischbach & Lord 2010). Each study boasts a large sample of autistic females (n=301, and n=375, respectively). The datasets differed from one another in many important ways, such as the characteristics of the sample, method of data collection, and the measures used.
Study 1 comprised an investigation of sex differences between female and male autistic children across a wide range of developmental and diagnostic characteristics. Groups of male and female children were compared using frequency data, correlations, and Multivariate Analysis of Covariance. Results of this study showed significant differences based on sex. That is, boys tended to have higher FSIQ, Non-Verbal IQ and adaptive abilities than girls. No differences were found in terms of total autism symptom scores. Boys were found to have higher levels of RRBIs and Self Injurious Behaviour.
Study 2 used Latent Profile Analysis to explore subtypes within the sample of girls; that is, autistic girls with specific characteristics that cluster together, and likewise within the samples of boys. Results indicated three distinct profiles (or classes) for the SP dataset and these were similar in boys and girls. Class 1 consisted of children who were slightly younger than the sample mean, with adaptive scores close to the sample mean, and autism scores that showed mild to moderate symptoms of autism. Class 2 again consisted of younger children with better adaptive skills, and mild to no autism symptoms. Class 3 consisted of older children, with lower adaptive skills, and more severe autism symptoms. The SFARI sample included more developmental variables and allowed for a more nuanced analysis. As a result, many possible combinations of profiles emerged. Using LPA fit statistics and clinical judgement, a five-profile solution was deemed to best fit the data. Visual comparison across the profiles for girls and boys found that four of the five profiles were largely similar across boys and girls. One of the five profiles showed unique and distinct profiles for girls and boys.
Study 3 used confirmatory factor analysis to investigate the symptom structure of autism between females and males, based on factor structures reported in previous research. Overall, the factor structure was found to be largely consistent for males and females.
These results suggest that sex differences in the current study were minimal, although some subtle differences were noted. More research is needed to better understand the unique qualities of autistic females. Neuro-affirming diagnostic measures and more representative research samples may allow for the discovery of more sex differences