21793 research outputs found
Sort by
The Unfolding of Ardhanārīśvara
Full text linkAs a deity divided into male and female halves, Ardhanārīśvara has garnered significant attention. Notable academic works center on its visual depictions, its place within poetry and mythological narratives, as well as its philosophical framings. However, a survey of scholarship indicates interrelated issues involving the omission of content concerning the figure in living contexts. In this connection, on chiefly hypothetical or theoretical grounds, Ardhanārīśvara has been framed as uniquely significant to people whose gender identities and/or sexual orientations exist beyond cisgender and/or heterosexual frameworks; work directly engaging associated populations regarding their relationship to the deity is critically lacking. Moreover, information on the conceptualizations and utilizations of Ardhanārīśvara in and around its places of worship is virtually absent within published literature; when devotional sites are mentioned, they are simply acknowledged and receive no sustained consideration.
To account for these issues, three pertinent contexts were identified for examination within this project: Durgā Pūjā festivals observed in Kolkata (into which Ardhanārīśvara is integrated by transgender activists); affairs of the Kinnar Akhāḍā (a religious order mainly comprised of “third gender” membership that has named Ardhanārīśvara their patron god); and life centering on the Ardhanārīśvara temple of Tiruchengode, Tamil Nadu (alongside associated sites). Each involves Ardhanārīśvara within ground realities and receives a dedicated chapter in this dissertation. However, while the impetus for this project was a desire to address the lacunas and shortcomings noted above, it does more than fill holes and ameliorate deficiencies. In addition to contributing to areas of prior scholarly focus and those of cursory attention, new ground is covered through tracing and analyzing active developments within the ongoing history of Ardhanārīśvara. In doing so, it highlights invocations of both tradition and innovation while showcasing a deity strategically engaged, embraced, and employed as a means of securing primarily worldly ends
Rectifying the Implementation Challenges of a Novel Detection Architecture Aiming to Achieve 360° View for FMCW Automotive Radar
No full textOver the past couple of years, drive assisting and autonomous self-driving technologies have always been among the most highly focused topics in academia and industry. In simple words, these technologies are all about highly accurate tracking and sensing the surrounding area up to a certain distance to create a near to real-time 3D/4D view for moving vehicles or objects to be used for different purposes such as self-navigation, safety assurance, collision avoidance, lane keep/change assist, Overspeed/under speed control and others.
Although this crucial technology seems already in good standing, more in-depth research into the details states otherwise. Due to the current high cost of these mainly optional modules, most people cannot afford them. This is because car manufacturers employ many single-purpose detection RADARs and sensors, each designed for one specific task.
It is pragmatic to combine these features and functionalities into a single custom-designed 360° radar at a much lower affordable price. T
In(Visible) Sex: A History of Pornhub
No full text(In)Visible Sex: A History of Pornhub, is the first in-depth academic study of Pornhub’s company history from 2006 to 2023. Using qualitative methods drawn from screen studies and media industry studies—including aesthetic analysis, discourse analysis, and digital ethnography—I examine the transformation of adult media in the personal computer age. This project is historically situated during the proliferation of pornographic content on the Internet and the sexual paranoia this entails. Nevertheless, I shift the focus away from issues of representation, and towards the invisible technologies that platforms like Pornhub helped formalize. To this end, I coin the term (in)visible sex to describe how Pornhub’s use of data collection, surveillance technology, platform governance, and
artificial intelligence, among others, has resulted in a rearticulation of the aesthetic and genre-specific traditions native to pornography. In each chapter, I track this tension between visibility and invisibility through key phases of Pornhub’s company history—from its founding as a tube website, its growing monopoly of ‘free’ pornography as a platform,
and its formalization as a corporation. My analysis bridges scholarship on the production, distribution, and reception of porn film/video with recent work on streaming platforms, critical data studies, and social media. Taken together, this project offers new perspectives on contemporary video practices and Internet
cultures, tracing how sex and sex media "show up" in the era of participatory culture
Balancing Safety and Adoption: A System Dynamics Approach to Regulatory Trade-Offs in Private Autonomous Vehicle Adoption
No full textThe adoption of private autonomous vehicles (AVs) is shaped by a complex interplay of regulatory, technological, and societal factors. This study uses a system dynamics (SD) approach to explore the trade-offs between regulatory safety stringency and AV adoption in urban settings. The model simulates how compliance costs, accident rates, public trust, government incentives, and infrastructure readiness evolve over 30 years. Key feedback loops include public confidence shaped by accidents and media, adaptive regulatory responses to safety trends, dynamic subsidy allocation, and a GHG emission index tracking environmental impact. Infrastructure readiness is modeled based on budget constraints and rising AV demand. Scenario analysis shows that stricter regulations improve safety and public trust but increase costs and suppress adoption. In contrast, higher subsidies and early infrastructure investment boost adoption and reduce emissions, though potentially at the expense of regulatory impact. Results support balanced, time-sensitive policies for sustainable AV integration
Development of Dual Acid/Light-Responsive Imine-based Polymeric Nanocarriers for Drug Delivery
No full textDevelopment of Dual Acid/Light-Responsive Imine-based Polymeric Nanocarriers for Drug Delivery
Kadambari Kadambari, Ph.D.
Concordia University, 2025
Stimuli-responsive degradable amphiphilic block copolymers (SRD-ABPs) have been extensively explored as promising building blocks in the construction of smart nanoassemblies exhibiting controlled/enhanced release of encapsulated molecules including therapeutics. A recent advance involves the development of dual SRD-ABPs designed with cleavable linkages responsive to two stimuli, typically acidic pH and light. Herein, we report a new approach to achieve dual acidic pH/light responses with a single labile linkage employing conjugated benzoic imine chemistry. As a proof-of-concept, a well-defined poly(ethylene glycol)-based SRD-ABP containing conjugated benzoic imine pendants in the hydrophobic block was synthesized by reversible deactivation radical polymerization and post-polymerization modification. The synthesized copolymer self-assembled in aqueous solution to form colloidally stable nanoassemblies, consisting of acid/light-degradable hydrophobic cores surrounded with hydrophilic coronas. Upon exposure to acidic pH and UV/visible light, the nanoassemblies degraded through change in hydrophobic/hydrophilic balance of micelle cores.
Extending this strategy, conjugated aromatic imine bonds are unique in their ability to respond to both acidic pH through acid-catalyzed hydrolysis and to visible light through photo-induced E/Z isomerization, thus enabling dual responsiveness with a single chemical group. We report a robust strategy to fabricate core-crosslinked nanogels bearing extended conjugate aromatic imine linkages, exhibiting controlled degradation in response to dual acidic pH and visible light. The strategy involves pre-crosslinking a poly(ethylene glycol)-based block copolymer bearing reactive imidazole pendants with a diol crosslinker bearing extended conjugate aromatic imine, followed by dispersion of the crosslinked polymer in aqueous solution. The fabricated nanogels are non-cytotoxic, colloidally stable, and capable of encapsulating curcumin. They exhibit controlled/enhanced release of curcumin in acidic pH and
iv
under visible light irradiation, with synergistic release under dual stimuli. Furthermore, curcumin-loaded nanogels reduce cell viability in a controlled manner, unlike the free drug.
We further report aqueous nanocolloids based on step-growth conjugated poly(benzoic imine)s (M-PCs) bearing aromatic imine bonds on the backbones with absorption in the visible range (λ = 420 nm). These nanocolloids, fabricated with polymeric stabilizers, display excellent colloidal stability in physiological environments. They undergo disintegration upon degradation of the M-PC backbone under acidic pH and visible light irradiation. These results demonstrate the potential of extended aromatic imine-based nanoplatforms for dual acid/visible light-responsive therapeutic delivery with controlled/enhanced release of encapsulated drugs
More than Making Milk: Challenging Autonomous Subjectivity and Linear Time in Textile Art about Breastfeeding from the COVID-19 Pandemic
No full textInstead of seeing infancy as the beginning of a life rooted in linear time, and from which the subject gradually establishes itself as separate from the mother, a concept of time that accounts for the ongoing interrelationships between subjects and the reliving of past rituals in the present sees motherhood as a state that is constantly in renewal and selves as interdependent upon each other. In this thesis, I argue that embroidery works by Katie Errington Davies and Kesso Saulnier, which are a material form particularly poised to evoke the physicality of bodies, have great potential to visually manifest these challenges to hegemonic notions of selfhood and time particularly in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, whose stay-at-home orders had potential to highlight relationships and labours of care but ultimately reiterated Western concepts of individual isolation and linear time. Like breastfeeding and other labours of care that involve the repetition of an act like feeding or diaper changing, embroidery enacts and records such repetition in the form of a stitch, and is an art form that is particularly accessible to mothers and has a long history with the institution of motherhood. . .
A Comprehensive Study of Wind-Driven Rain (WDR) Loading on Building Facades
No full textWind-Driven Rain (WDR) loading on building facades is a critical environmental factor. The adverse effects of WDR include material degradation, frost damage, salt efflorescence, and structural failures, requiring accurate WDR assessment methods for sustainable building design. This Ph.D. dissertation provides a comprehensive investigation into WDR loading through a combination of state-of-the-art reviews, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling, ISO semi-empirical model refinements, and Machine Learning (ML)-based approaches.
First, a systematic review of WDR studies, summarizing experimental, numerical, and semi-empirical methodologies while highlighting key influencing factors such as meteorological and geometrical parameters, and identifies limitations in current methodologies, particularly the ISO model's performance in urban settings.
The second part focuses on CFD modeling of WDR, using OpenFOAM, for a mid-rise residential building in Vancouver, Canada. Four different steady-state RANS models (i.e., standard k-ω, realizable k- ε, RNG k- ε, and standard k- ε) are compared and validated against wind-tunnel and on-site field measurements. The results indicate that the standard k-ω RANS model without incorporating turbulent dispersion provides slightly better performance and is therefore selected for subsequent analyses. Moreover, two WDR modeling techniques (i.e., Lagrangian Particle Tracking (LPT) and Eulerian Multiphase (EM)) are evaluated. Comparative analysis reveals that the RANS-EM provides more accurate predictions with lower computational costs, making it a preferable approach for urban WDR assessment.
The third part examines the impact of upstream buildings on WDR by modifying the Obstruction Factor within the ISO model. Significant discrepancies, up to a factor of five, are found between ISO predictions and modeled WDR by CFD. A refined Obstruction Factor is proposed to enhance the model’s accuracy in urban areas.
Finally, ML models are applied to further refine the ISO model. A CFD-generated dataset is used to train six different ML models (e.g., Artificial Neural Network (ANN)), resulting in an improved Wall Factor that accounts for a broader range of building geometries and meteorological conditions. Validated against field measurements, achieves up to 53% error reduction compared to the original ISO model.
This dissertation contributes to the development of climate-resilient building designs and offers practical improvements for WDR calculation on building facades in urban areas
Beyond the traditional functional frameworks: novel perspectives on functional structure in fish communities
No full textFunctional ecology offers a powerful lens to describe and understand ecological communities and the processes that structure them. Central to this framework is the concept of functional traits, defined as measurable characteristics of individuals or species that approximate their ecological niches. By examining patterns in species traits, functional ecology provides insights into the processes that shape ecological communities and how these processes influence biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.
However, common practices in functional ecology often overlook key dimensions of functional structure. In this thesis, I identify several of these blind spots and propose ways forward, using a dataset of more than 700 lake-fish communities from Ontario, Canada, as a case study. First, I revisit the widely used metric of functional dispersion, a measure of trait dissimilarity among co-occurring species, and explore how trait selection influences its patterns. I developed two trait-pooling strategies: one based on prior knowledge of trait function, and another using a novel algorithm that separate traits that maximizes and minimizes variation in functional dispersion. Both approaches strengthen the development of a priori hypotheses about the processes shaping the structure of ecological communities and improve the predictive performance of environmental models for functional dispersion. Second, I introduce the concept of community functional integration, defined as the pattern and strengths of trait correlations within communities, to examine how these relationships vary across communities and influence community structure. Through two empirical analyses, I demonstrate that functional integration captures important, overlooked variation in functional structure and provides novel ecological insights. Finally, I assess temporal and spatial variations across three dimensions of functional structure - functional composition, dispersion, and integration – alongside taxonomic composition. Each dimension of community functional structure had their unique temporal shifts. We also conducted a spatial analysis to understand at which scale these shifts were structured: temporal shifts in functional composition and community functional integration could be explained by broad and fine scale spatial patterns, underscoring the importance of both broadscale and local processes in the temporal changes in the communities’ functional structure. Together, these findings call for an expanded view of functional ecology that integrates trait relationships and temporal-spatial dynamics to more fully understand community structure and its drivers. This work broadens the functional ecological framework by highlighting underexplored dimensions of trait structure. In doing so, it contributes new tools and perspectives for uncovering the mechanisms that shape biodiversity across space and time
Parametric Analyses of Suspension Plasma Spraying Coating Buildup Using a Computationally Efficient Numerical Model
No full textSuspension Plasma Spraying (SPS) has emerged as a promising coating technique for producing nano-structured, and fine-grained surfaces in the aerospace, and energy sectors. However, predicting the final coating morphology remains a challenge due to the complex interplay of parameters, such as particle velocity, temperature, injection configuration, substrate geometry, and plasma dynamics. Experiments have contributed valuable insights, but remain resource-intensive, time-consuming, and limited in scope.
This thesis presents a comprehensive numerical model, developed in MATLAB, for simulating coating buildup in SPS processes. The model is designed as a flexible computational tool to support researchers, and engineers in exploring process-structure relationships, and optimising spray parameters. It simulates particle motion, temperature-dependent flattening, spray gun motion, and surface evolution over time. The framework accommodates injection schemes, incorporates plasma jet fluctuations, and integrates a broader set of particle distribution datasets to enhance generalisation.
Compared to prior models, this work expands the design space by enabling simulations across multiple substrate geometries, and injection configurations. Model outputs include deposition coverage, and morphological growth trends that align with observed experimental behaviours, such as columnar structures, and shadowing effects. The model is used to analyse the effects of interpeak distances of asperities, particle velocity distributions, spray gun traverse velocities, and database representative times on the final coating microstructures, thus better informing users on the impact of parameters on microstructural features such as porosity, density, and column formation.
Overall, the simulation framework provides a cost-effective and scalable alternative to experimentation. It contributes to the digitalisation of SPS process development and lays the groundwork for future integration with data-driven optimisation techniques, CFD-based plasma torch simulations, and intelligent control strategies for optimisation
SOCIO-EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCES OF MOBILITY-IMPAIRED INDIVIDUALS: Introducing Design Principles in Wheelchair Development
No full textAmong the challenges individuals with mobility issues, such as wheelchair users, face—physical accessibility, being one—their socio-emotional needs, which are latent and shaped by interconnected underlying factors, have been less explored and addressed. These factors collectively influence the socio-emotional experience of wheelchair users. Existing research typically examines these needs from a single disciplinary perspective, such as sociology, psychology, or engineering, with a focus on urban navigation. However, studies rarely integrate the social and psychosocial needs of wheelchair users into the engineering and design process, whether for the environmental needs or the wheelchair design itself.
To address this gap, this thesis aims to introduce socio-emotional design principles through an interdisciplinary approach. Achieving socio-emotional design principles require a holistic perspective that incorporates descriptive semantic concepts, as well as environmental, cultural, socio-psychological, and aesthetic dimensions, to ensure the design meets users' socio-emotional needs, promotes inclusivity, and fosters positive social perceptions.
Based on the research's overarching objectives, this manuscript is organized into five chapters and ten sections. After elaborating on the problem statement and providing a general framework for understanding the wheelchair users’ experience, this research initially introduces the interdisciplinary theoretical framework, consisting of three axes and two grounding layers, to ensure a comprehensive approach to wheelchair users. Then it explores and tracks the socio-emotional dynamics of wheelchair users, highlighting the relevant factors that influence their interactions and the impact of these factors on their experiences. Third, the research explores how wheelchair design influences users' socio-emotional interactions, focusing on two key layers: the external human-machine interface for safety and communication, addressing practical needs, and the socio-emotional aspects of design, supporting psychological well-being. Finally, regarding the review and empirical studies introduce ten socio-emotional design principles, along with one consideration, under the proposed interdisciplinary framework. Additionally, design concepts are introduced to demonstrate how these principles can be applied in practice. Overall, this research advances disability studies by advocating inclusive strategies to improve the social experiences of individuals with mobility challenges. It also establishes a framework for designing advanced mobility aids, contributing to the fields of engineering and industrial design