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The Symbiotic Relation of Milkweed Fibre and Environmental Art Education
Get PDFThrough a methodology of research-creation, this thesis explains how an environmental practice consisting of growing, foraging, and harvesting indigenous plants of North America, primarily milkweed, can translate into an environmental art education within the classroom. It describes the path an art educator and textile artist walked to expose readers to elements of the outdoors, and suggests paths to take to proactively embody environmental practices. It asks: “How can she establish a sustaining environmental art education?’’ With themes of Canadian identity, epistemology, reciprocity, deep ecology, and environmental conservatism, the artist and educator walks the readers through steps of papermaking with milkweed seed pod fibre grown and harvested locally.
À travers une méthodologie de recherche-création, ce mémoire explique comment une pratique environnementale constituant de faire pousser, de récolter, et de cueillir des plantes indigènes de l’Amérique du Nord, principalement l’asclépiade, se traduit en une éducation des arts environnementale au sein d’une classe. Ça décrit le chemin qu’une éducatrice des arts et une artiste textile a pris afin d’exposé les lecteurs aux éléments de la nature, et suggère des voies à prendre de manière proactive en lieu d’incarner des pratiques environnementales. Ça demande: “Comment peut-elle établir une éducation des arts environnementale soutenable?’’ Par des thèmes d’identité canadienne, d’épistémologie, de réciprocité, d’écologie profonde, et de conservatisme environnemental, l’artiste et éducatrice mène les lecteurs au travers des démarches de la fabrication de papier en utilisant la fibre contenue dans les cocons de graines d’asclépiade poussé et récolté localement
digitized dyadic services: the impact of technology on interpersonal services
No full textThe technological advancements connecting service providers with consumers have facilitated the digitization of several markets. In this research, I study how the interactions between service providers and clients are shaped by the digitization of a dyadic service experience traditionally delivered and consumed in person. Consumer research has studied online consumer interactions as technological advancements have shifted our consumption activities toward the digital realm. Specific to technologically reassembled collective practices, consumer research has focused on interactions between consumers with established personal relationships. However, the extant literature does not explain the dynamics of technologically mediated interactions between interpersonal service providers and clients. I ask: how does digitization impact the dynamics of interaction between service provider and client throughout the interpersonal service experience? My data consists of 26 in-depth interviews with therapists and therapy clients and 63 podcast episodes with psychotherapists discussing the impacts of digitization on therapy. Through interpretive analysis of this data, I theorize how to conduct dyadic transformative services by realizing affordances within a hybrid service landscape consisting of the spatial and digital arrangements of service provider and client. I also showcase how connective labor is performed in digitized services where the reduced visibility of body language cues hinders its delivery. I adopt microsociology and interaction ritual theory as theoretical lenses to understand how technological mediation reshapes the interaction dynamics between interpersonal service providers and clients. To account for the digital landscape through which the online dyadic service occurs, I apply affordance theory as an enabling lens to analyze my findings. My findings extend interaction ritual theory by theorizing how both service providers and clients are responsibilized within the hybrid service landscape to reach a successful interaction ritual. My research contributes theoretically by (1) developing a framework showcasing how digitized transformative services are performed via connective labor and maintained by responsibilizing both consumer and service provider, and (2) conceptualizing the connective space as the outcome of successful digitized interactions. My findings are also relevant to practitioners and managers who offer digitized dyadic services or develop the platforms through which commercial or personal interactions are mediated, respectively
The Effects of Sport-Specific Virtual Reality Conditions on Attention and Pain in Healthy Baseball Athletes
Get PDFVirtual reality is no longer a dream, the future is here. Virtual Reality (VR) offers endless potential for individualized rehabilitation for patients and previous research has established use- cases for multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injuries, burn victims and stroke patients. With respect to sports, VR studies have primarily been focused on training skills or rehabilitation for injured soccer athletes. There is a lack of research on VR’s use as a rehabilitation tool for ball sport athletes. This study aimed to investigate whether health care professionals could use VR for injury rehabilitation as a pain management, immersion and flow tool on these athletes. We conducted a within-subjects design to investigate the effectiveness of VR as a distractor from chemically induced pain by Capsaicin, mimicking real injuries, using a sample of Canadian baseball athletes. Our research questions focused on investigating to what extent being immersed in a sport-specific activity had on how much flow and immersion was experienced, thereby reducing pain even greater than a non-sport specific activity. We randomized the order of three tasks, a non-baseball computer condition (Two-Back), an easy VR baseball practice condition and a challenging hard VR baseball game condition. While the results showed a decrease in pain, they were not statistically or clinically significant. However, our results did show that VR conditions produced a statistically significantly higher and comparable level of immersion and flow for both difficulties, when compared to the Two-Back task. For clinicians who want to immerse an athlete in their sport outside of the field of play, this research shows that Virtual Reality is a valid option
Foraging Behaviours in Urban Wildlife: Squirrel Route Choices and Wildlife Trash Foraging
Get PDFUrbanization impacts wildlife survival by altering foraging decisions and introducing anthropogenic food sources, like waste. Foraging behaviours are critical to animal survival, and understanding these decisions provides insights into species adaptation and resilience, which can inform biodiversity conservation strategies. While the physical impacts of ingesting waste are well-documented, the nuanced behavioural aspects are often overlooked. This thesis explored foraging route choice among Eastern gray squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) through an experimental field study on wild urban squirrels, compared these data with Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata), and investigated how anthropogenic food sources alter foraging strategies in urban vertebrates through a literature review. In Chapter 2, I used a 1mx2m multi-destination, Z-shaped foraging array to collect 62 foraging trials on squirrels at Mount Royal Park in Montreal. Comparing these data with macaque data from Joyce et al. (2021), I found that squirrels (1) foraged more slowly, (2) exhibited a higher rate of platform revisiting, and (3) chose routes consistent with heuristic use at a similar rate to macaques. Observations also indicated that garbage and human food waste were an important part of the squirrels’ diet, leading to Chapter 3's exploration of how urban trash affects wildlife behaviour. I found that urban species foraging on waste modify their behaviours in various ways, including adopting new behaviours, changes in foraging methods, timing, energy budgets and social behaviours. My research enhances our understanding of urban mammal foraging behaviour and my literature review highlights the specific behaviours urban species adopt to thrive in urbanized settings
A Study of the Relationship Between the TikTok Algorithm and Content Creators: The Effects of the Digital Machine and Human Interactions
Get PDFThis thesis explores the intricate dynamics between TikTok’s algorithm and content creators by examining the interaction between digital materials and human agency. TikTok, a social media giant, is known for its personalized and engaging content. The platform transforms how digital content is created and consumed through its advanced machine-learning algorithm, AI. The study is inspired by the theoretical perspectives of New Materialism, Networked Individualism, and the Virtual Self, which provide a deep understanding of the interplay between technology and human behavior. With three methodological approaches, including digital autoethnography, digital ethnography, and semi-structured interviews, this research explores how TikTok’s algorithm is influenced by content creators. While content creators try to manipulate the algorithm to boost their exposure and engagement, the algorithm, at the same time, changes their content and creative abilities. This suggests a complex mutual relationship. Moreover, this study adds to the wider discussion of algorithmic transparency, and the impact of AI on digital platforms. It highlights the need to further study the power structures embedded in digital technologies. Overall, we gain insights into digital interactions' evolving nature and algorithms' impact on cultural production and individual agency
‘How to Become a Part Without Falling Apart?’ Introducing Creative Activities in The Pedagogy of Ten 'Welcome Class' Elementary School Teachers in Montreal, Quebec
Get PDFThis educational action research aimed to explore how applied theatre and visual
activities can be tailored to meet the needs of Welcome Class teachers' pedagogy and be easily
implemented. The collaborative research process involved introducing ten 'd’accueil' Montreal
public elementary school teachers to a wide selection of drama games and performative and
visual activities during two research workshop sessions in the spring of 2024. To improve
communication and understand the socioemotional and linguistic needs of their immigrant,
refugee, and asylum seeker students, the teachers applied new activities in their classrooms
between the first and second workshop sessions. They maintained an 'Activity Journal' to
document their personal process of facilitating, noting students' reactions and outcomes, and
reflecting by sharing with the researcher and their peers and offering modifications to the
activities. This collaborative method enabled and encouraged participants to share experiences,
support each other with resources, and enrich their curricula.
The research outcomes revealed constant struggles teachers encounter, such as a lack of
communication with families due to linguistic and cultural differences related behaviours, pre-
and post-migration traumatic outbursts, and a lack of personal support from their institutions
Comparing second language English speakers’ engagement with and perception of collaborative versus competitive board games from a self-determination theory perspective
Get PDFInternational students pursuing further studies in English-speaking countries often encounter many challenges. However, few solutions have been proposed to connect them with other international students and increase their psychological needs satisfaction and engagement during L2 interaction. Drawing on Deci and Ryan’s (1985) self-determination theory and adapting Philp and Duchesne’s (2016) model of task engagement, this study compared the effects of a collaborative (Mysterium) and a competitive (Camel up) commercial board game on 54 international students’ perceived basic psychological needs satisfaction of autonomy, competence, and relatedness on their engagement during board game interactions with other international students in an English-medium university in Canada. Adopting a counterbalanced design, transcripts of players’ interactions were analyzed in terms of three dimensions of engagement: cognitive, social, and emotional. Post-game questionnaires on psychological needs satisfaction and on overall engagement with board game interactions, as well as interaction data were analyzed through Wilcoxon signed-rank tests to compare the two types of board games. The relationships between psychological needs satisfaction and aspects of task engagement and were analyzed through Spearman’s rho correlation analyses. Two groups of international students’ responses to open-ended post-game questionnaires about needs satisfaction and factors affecting their engagement, focus group interviews, and transcripts of interactions were analyzed through the lens of self-determination theory.
The findings showed that participants playing the competitive board game experienced significantly higher level of autonomy than playing the collaborative board game, whereas participants playing the collaborative board game experienced significantly higher level of relatedness than playing the competitive board game. In terms of engagement with the board games, they had significantly higher level of cognitive engagement while playing the collaborative board game than the competitive board game, which was manifested in both their actual language use and questionnaire responses. However, although they reported significantly higher level of social engagement while playing the collaborative board game than playing the competitive board game, they produced significantly fewer responsiveness instances while playing the collaborative board game than playing the competitive board game. With respect to the link between BPN and aspects of engagement with the board game, it was found that international students who felt satisfied with their psychological needs of autonomy were emotionally engaged with the two types board games, whereas those who felt satisfied with their psychological needs of relatedness were socially engaged with both types of board games. Additionally, playing the collaborative board game enhanced their feeling of relatedness, which additionally made them emotionally engaged in English interaction with international students from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Moreover, their feelings of competence were associated with responding to peer players’ utterances and contribution (coded measure of social engagement). The study found that peer support and collaboration played a key role in satisfying the players’ psychological need of relatedness, regardless of board game types. Game design also played a crucial role in fulfilling or thwarting their psychological need of autonomy and competence for both competitive and collaborative board games. As for factors affecting L2 English international students’ engagement, the most prominent influencing factor for engagement with the two board games is game design, followed by game type. Collaboration with and support from peer players also played an important role in their engagement with the board games, especially the collaborative board game. Based on research results, implications for study abroad education were discussed
Advancements in Topic Modeling: Integrating Bi-Directional Recurrent Attentional Models, Neural Embeddings, and Flexible Distributions
Get PDFA primary objective in natural language processing is the classification of texts into discrete categories. Topic models and mixture models are indispensable tools for this task, as they both acquire patterns from data in an unsupervised manner. Several extensions to established topic modeling frameworks are introduced by incorporating more flexible priors and advanced inference methods to enhance performance in text document analysis. The Multinomial Principal Component Analysis (MPCA) framework, a Dirichlet-based model, is extended by integrating generalized Dirichlet (GD) and Beta-Liouville (BL) distributions, resulting in GDMPCA and BLMPCA models. These priors address the limitations of the Dirichlet prior, such as its independent assumption within components and restricted covariance structure. Efficiency is further improved by implementing variational Bayesian inference and collapsed Gibbs sampling for fast and accurate parameter estimation.
Enhancements to the Bi-Directional Recurrent Attentional Topic Model (bi-RATM) are made by incorporating GD and BL distributions, leading to GD-bi-RATM and BL-bi-RATM models. These models leverage attention mechanisms to model relationships between sentences, offering higher flexibility and improved performance in document embedding tasks.
Extensions to the Dirichlet Multinomial Regression (DMR) and deep Dirichlet Multinomial Regression (dDMR) approaches are achieved by incorporating GD and BL distributions. This integration addresses limitations related to handling complex data structures and overfitting, with collapsed Gibbs sampling providing an efficient method for parameter inference. Experimental results on benchmark datasets demonstrate enhanced topic modeling performance, particularly in handling complex data structures and reducing overfitting.
Novel approaches are developed by integrating embeddings derived from Bert-Topic with the multi-grain clustering topic model (MGCTM). Recognizing the hierarchical and multi-scale nature of topics, these methods utilize MGCTM to capture topic structures at multiple levels of granularity. By incorporating GD and BL distributions, the expressiveness and flexibility of MGCTM are enhanced. Experiments on various datasets show superior topic coherence and granularity compared to state-of-the-art methods.
Overall, the proposed models exhibit improved interpretability and effectiveness in various natural language processing and machine learning applications, showcasing the potential of combining neural embeddings with advanced probabilistic modeling techniques
Concordia University at 50: A Collective History
Get PDFConcordia University at 50: A Collective History celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the merging of Loyola College and Sir George Williams University in Montreal in August 1974. Distinct from traditional institutional histories, this volume approaches Concordia University’s history from the ground up by sharing a plurality of voices from across the university over time. Fifty contributions from faculty, staff, students, and alumni, present stories of a vibrant community and its activities in a multilayered collection of professional and personal reflections, essays, and oral histories conducted with participants and observers of key events.
Providing insights into the early political pressures that inspired Concordia’s formation and the growing pains of the merger among its four faculties, as well as the development of new programs such as dance, theological studies, and études françaises, this book is a testament to an urban university formed by its many constituents and by the multilingual city and the complex province that is its home.
Enriched with copious and colourful archival documents, photographs, and public artworks that grace these urban campuses, Concordia University at 50 highlights the great range of activities, causes, innovations, and debates that emerge from educational institutions but extend well beyond the classroom
Screen Time Management Journey: Understanding Objectives, Knowing Trigger Points and Forming Curtailment Strategies
No full textThe pervasive integration of smartphones into daily life has reshaped how individuals engage with technology, presenting opportunities and challenges for screen time management. This research explores the dual nature of smartphone affordances through the lens of affordance theory, focusing on how these devices support user’s objectives but also hinder their well-being. The study examines individual's digital habits through interpretive analysis of the data, which consists of semi-structured, in-depth interviews with twelve participants aged 23 to 54 recruited from social media platforms. From understanding the initial benefits to potential negative impacts due to overuse, the study provides a nuanced understanding of how smartphone affordances can contribute to adverse outcomes. The research identifies key objectives driving smartphone use: self-care, information, communication, entertainment, and companionship. It explores how these objectives can lead to negative effects, explored as physical, emotional, and behavioural precipitating elements. It proposes curtailment strategies, including self-restraint, self-surveillance, network management, and other non-digital strategies. The theoretical contributions include an enhanced conceptualization of affordances in digital consumption and disconnection, demonstrating how the same smartphone functionalities can lead to varied positive and negative experiences, depending on usage. This paper offers practical insights for stakeholders to develop, promote, and implement effective screen time management strategies