Carleton University Institutional Repository
Not a member yet
20816 research outputs found
Sort by
An Analysis of FSM Mutation Operators
No full textMutation analysis is extensively used for the comparison of state-based testing methods that work from a finite state machine (FSM); In this thesis, we report on results from an experiment during which we compared different mutation operators used to generate FSM mutants. We randomly generated multiple synthetic FSMs and selected real-world FSMs; We created all the possible mutants from a complete set of FSM mutation operators; We generated multiple test suites using a pool of test paths; We executed all those test suites on FSM mutants while using different types of oracles, and compared mutation operators using a metric we define. Results help us identify mutation operators that lead to easy-to-reveal faults, possibly too easy to help discriminate between test suite construction techniques, as well as study the impact of various oracle strategies. We have developed a tool infrastructure called μFSM that automates the whole process of this experiment
To What Extent is the Canadian Charitable Sector a Politically Expressive Sector?
No full textThis thesis asks: to what extent is Canada’s nonprofit sector a politically expressive sector? To address this question, I propose three sub-questions, with each framing a study. These questions are addressed using data sets covering the provinces of Ontario and Alberta from 2003-2017. The combined results show that the charitable sector is indeed an outlet for aggregating and expressing collective identities, but that the degree to which this happens depends on the political context. In the first study, the question is: do private family foundations express these identities through their granting? Findings show that there are geographic differences in how politically aligned foundations grant and that politically aligned family foundations are much more likely to give to religious missionary charities while non-political foundations are much more likely to give to mainline Christian congregations, while both groups of foundations are less likely to give post-secondary institutions. When looking at charity revenue from government in the second study, the research question is: how does government funding for charities change when the party in power changes? Or, more specifically, when electoral district representatives and governments change, which nonprofits gain new funding and which nonprofits lose funding and to what extent do these changes reflect the interests of the new government? Ontario, which has a competitive and diverse political environment, experiences more of the effects suggested by the literature: changes in funding reflect partisan identity as governments and local representatives change. In Alberta—where the political culture is quite stable, less competitive, and where politics tends to be dominated by ideologically conservative within-party concerns rather than between-party competition—there is less change in funding to charities around elections and changes in government. In the third study the question is: are contributions to political parties and charities positively or negatively correlated expenditures? The results show they are positively correlated and that the factors associated with higher likelihoods of charitable donations also correlate with higher likelihoods of political contributions
The Role of Glucose Regulated Protein (GRP78) in Deferoxamine and Buthionine Sulfoximine in Human Embryonic Kidney (HEK293T) Cells
No full textConventional Cancer therapies often rely on the activation of apoptosis. Glucose Regulated Protein 78 (GRP78) is an endoplasmic reticulum protein that can be expressed on the surface of tumor cells where it enhances cell survival. Unfortunately, many cancer cells are resistant to apoptosis highlighting the importance of investigating other cell death pathways. Methuosis and ferroptosis are newly described non-apoptotic forms of cell death. Deferoxamine (DFO) and buthionine sulfoximine (BSO) are agents reported to induce methuosis and ferroptosis, respectively. This study investigated the relationship between these drugs and GRP78 in HEK293T cells. In this model, DFO and BSO did not alter GRP78 expression alone or in combination with either overexpression or siRNA mediated knockdown of GRP78. Furthermore, neither DFO nor BSO decreased cell survival measure by MTT assay. Therefore, this model was not optimal to address the role of GRP78 in methuosis or ferroptosis and further study is recommended
Organic Wavelength Shifter (Tetraphenyl Butadiene) deposition system using multiple sources for DarkSide-20k
No full textFor a long time, researchers have been pursuing the direct detection of dark matter through various detector technologies. Darkside-20k is a detector that aims at using an LAr target to detect the scattering of dark matter particles. The core of the detector will have a dual-phase time projection chamber filled with UAr. Both the acrylic anode and cathode plates of the TPC barrel will be coated with Tetraphenyl Butadiene to wavelength-shift the 128 nm argon scintillation light to approximately 420 nm. This wavelength shifting is crucial for the SiPM-based readout system, enabling the detection of light. For Darkside-20k, a system with multiple point sources using thermal vacuum evaporation to coat the TPC barrel and the anode and the cathode film is proposed. The vacuum system required to carry out the coating was also designed. The model designed achieves the required uniformity, which has been confirmed with test data
Unveiling Urban Vulnerabilities: Exploring Property Crime Patterns and Risk Factors in Intermediate-sized cities in Southern Ontario
No full textThis thesis investigates property crime in three intermediate-sized Ontario cities (Hamilton, Kitchener - Waterloo Cambridge, and Windsor) using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and spatial-quantitative analysis. The study identifies hot spots, explores spatial patterns, and examines correlations with various establishments, income inequality, and land use. Key findings reveal a consistent link between property crime rates and the presence of alcohol stores and cannabis stores across the study areas. Notably, no significant correlation was found with bars and clubs. Strong associations with various land uses emphasize urban planning's role. The study contributes insights for targeted policing, urban planning, and social services. The spatial-quantitative approach advances understanding and lays groundwork for evidence-based crime prevention in these cities
Effects of Different Stress Amplification Rates on Moment Resisting Frames with Reduced Beam Sections
No full textNumerical studies have been carried out using strain rate dependent material properties with different flow stress amplification factors to assess steel MRFs with RBS. Two steel heats, one having yield strength close to nominal yield strength of CAN/CSA G40.20/21 350W steel and other closer to probable yield strength of 385 MPa were used as bases for material properties generation to different flow stress amplification factors. Various methods of scaling material properties to a target flow stress amplification factor (DAF) were developed and assessed. The material properties were scaled to the target DAF of 1.16 and 1.32 at strain rate of 1.0/s. Dynamic non-linear time history analyses subjected to a suite of ground motions were conducted on three story MRF with different RBS cut ratios subjected using the scaled material properties to evaluate the effects of stress amplification factor, material strain rate dependency and flange width reduction ratio on structural response
Can Canadians Afford to Adapt to Climate Change? A Survey and Simulation Analysis of a Mid-Rise Archetype Building using Canada-Wide Extreme Weather Events
No full textExtreme weather events are predicted to continue increasing in frequency and intensity, raising concern about the resilience and adaptation of buildings. A survey was conducted polling 403 Ottawa residents regarding their impacts and willingness to pay (WTP) concerning the May 2022 derecho weather and power disruptions. The findings reveal how the severity of impacts from the event affects residents’ WTP. This thesis aims to develop general steps to understanding and quantifying the impact of power outages caused by extreme weather events using a recently developed method for simulating a building’s thermal performance. Three locations across Canada and nine developed weather events are used to propose a reusable framework for building practitioners to assess the effects of building upgrades on performance metrics and improve resilience. The most impactful resilient upgrade was the photovoltaic panel and battery system and colder weather events were more vulnerable and saw more improvements with upgrades
The Role of the Detail in the Historic City: The Interdetails of Barcelona Ciutat Vella
No full textThe story of the city is the story of its parts—its neighbourhoods, its blocks, its buildings, its bricks-and-mortar, its inhabitants. Or at least that has been its story for the popular imagination as for historians. Urbanism, not isolated from scholarly trends, since its emergence as a discipline with Ildefons Cerdà’s General Theory of Urbanization (1867), has regarded the city as a whole made up of disparate parts; this view was later challenged in publications by architects and urbanists who looked at the city as more than the sum of its parts. The city is now viewed as a process rather than an object, especially in its layering and interconnecting of the natural and cultural, tangible and intangible, local and international. Considering these evolving views, I will look at historic cities at three scales: city, building and construction detail. The detail, in this context, will be the focus: an assemblage of components, tangible and intangible, whose relationships continuously change. In particular I will examine the city of Barcelona (the first European city to acquire the label of “historic”) and its most characteristic tectonic element, the volta de maó de pla, tile vault or Catalan vault. I will present the volta de maó de pla as an interdetail—intimately linked in a network with the evolution and development of Barcelona’s historic city—and discuss how it plays an essential part in its conservation and maintenance. I propose to show this on the three-point scale mentioned above, of city, building, detail, in order to highlight the importance of preserving the fine-grained details of the city’s making, placing and dimensioning, and its conservation today. Joining the built tangible with the natural and cultural intangible, I will describe a cycle that places the historic city in its landscape, recalling its craft knowledge and relating its traditional role of habitation to its site and built environment. I will argue that the most pressing conservation challenge for today’s historic city is to determine how the cycle of recovery and renewal can be balanced in the context of the whole, harmoniously contained in its parts—the city is in the details
Analyzing Speed Disparity in Mixed Vehicle Technologies on Horizontal Curves
No full textVehicle technologies are rapidly evolving due to their multidimensional advantages. Different vehicle technologies like connectivity and automation on the same roads with the driver-controlled vehicles in an environment of mixed vehicle technologies may increase speed disparity. Previous studies have indicated that speed disparity measures and traffic collisions are inextricably related. Therefore, identifying the relationships between speed distribution measures of different vehicles and road geometry can help identify instances of speed disparity resulting from mixed vehicle technologies and identify the effectiveness of potential countermeasures. This research used speed prediction models in three different regions to analyze the speed behaviour of connected vehicles (CVs), automated vehicles (AVs) and vehicles with no connectivity or automation (NCVs) on horizontal curves on freeways and major arterials. Safety Pilot Model Deployment (SPMD) dataset in Michigan, USA were used to model CV speed behaviour at various points on horizontal curves in major arterials and freeways. Because the data involved repeated trips by same drivers in their instrumented vehicles, LME modelling was utilized in model development. In addition, speed data collected on major arterials and freeways in Ontario, Canada, using instrumented NCVs were used to develop similar LME models for NCVs. This research also used AVs speed prediction model available in the literature to model the speed behaviour of AVs on horizontal curves in Spain. A methodology is then presented to estimate speed disparity measures on horizontal curves with no control and with different control strategies or countermeasures. The results indicated that the mixed vehicle environment can cause the combined standard deviation of all vehicles (σ_c) to considerably increase on arterials and freeways under no control, which would in turn increase the collision experience. Countermeasures were proposed, which showed the potential in reducing σ_c and reduce the negative safety impacts of the mixed vehicle environment. Sensitivity analysis confirmed that speed compliance rates of the driver operators of CVs and NCVs with the speed advisories in the proposed countermeasures have insignificant impact on the speed disparity measure σ_c
Hindu Cosmic Relations and Meditative Spaces: Aligning the Ideal with the Real
No full textThis thesis examines sacred Hindu architecture, specifically temples, as spaces of mediation between the body, building and the Cosmos. Through a series of detailed case study drawings, and an exploratory video investigating nested sacred scales, the project studies the measurements of the Hindu temple and its translation into Western society. The drawings depict temples in a variety of scales and analyze space through sensory and bodily measurement. They inform the design of a network of meditative spaces across urban sites in Canada that preserve the spatial complexities and trans-scalar relationships documented in the case studies and video exploration. This thesis negotiates the spatial ideals and pure geometries of sacred Hindu spaces, while accommodating the irregularity of the sites through the design of ephemeral Hindu meditative spaces. “Yatha Pinde Thatha Brahmande, Yatha Brahmande Thatha Pinde” (What obtains in the microcosm, obtains in the macrocosm; and vice versa) - Yajur Veda Shlok