Doctoral Theses and Dissertations

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Open Access
A narrative exploration of the right to health in the lives of Indigenous women
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2023-06) Latta, Lori Patricia; Hoeber, Larena; Cooper , Elizabeth; Green , Brenda; Abonyi, Sylvia; McIntosh, Thomas; Forman, Lisa
This study explores, through critical narrative analysis, the understanding of Indigenous women about conditions that they need to be healthy, and how their stories and reflections provide a critique that can inform thinking around the right to health. Literature from varied disciplinary perspectives describes the right to health, and a body of health human rights, as conceptual tools that identify the conditions all people require to be healthy, encompassing not just health care and access to material goods, but equality, culture, power and participation. Literature also provides some critique of human rights, and indicates that their alignment with dominant discourses and powers may be a barrier to their effectiveness for Indigenous people. With reference to Habermas’ theories of communicative action, including the colonization thesis, the lifeworlds of 14 Indigenous women were explored in relation to the institutional discourse of health human rights. The study finds that in the stories that women shared there was some validation of human rights instruments relating to health, which identify as rights violations health harms such as violence, disruption of families, experiences of racism, and lack of support for mental health. However, women’s interpretation of these events often differed from institutional discourse in that they located responsibility for violations less in the people or organizations that harmed them, and more in processes of colonization carried out by successive Canadian governments, that effectively undermined their rights and their health. As they reflected on their stories, women identified a right to knowledge about history and the impact of colonization on Indigenous people as being important to their physical and mental health. Other findings are that a rights-based assessment of women’s health that focuses on experiences of violations and harms may be perceived as deficit-based. To be more meaningful to Indigenous women, a discourse of human rights in health could speak to their strengths and resources, and support broadly defined goals in physical, spiritual and mental health by removing barriers to agency. This study joins a body of other research in finding that explicit rights-based participation in service delivery and health policy development and evaluation may help to avoid abuses in the future, but may require more autonomous forms of governance and service delivery to address longstanding power imbalance and distrust. The study concludes that a discourse of health human rights can better meet the needs of Indigenous women when colonialism is named as a human rights abuse and the primary cause of health inequity that affects their families and communities, reinforcing their life world knowledge with rights-based accountability, and creating common understanding in the public sphere.
Open Access
Aboriginal Communities in Canada and HIV/Aids: The Voices Must Be Heard
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2012-09) McKay-McNabb, Kim Verna; Hampton, Mary; Baydala, Angelina; Shercliffe, Regan; Episkenew, Jo-Ann; Lavalee, Lynn
The purpose of this research was to develop a theory grounded in the life experiences of Aboriginal community members in Canada that describes the ways in which they have been affected by HIV/AIDS. This theory has incorporated the effects of colonization within Aboriginal communities; although historical, effects of colonization have been linked by researchers to many health challenges confronting Aboriginal communities today. This thesis has reviewed the research evidence that suggests the higher prevalence and incidence of HIV/AIDS in Aboriginal communities has roots in historical colonization. The qualitative data collected provides experiential information documenting present-day experience of community members who are affected by HIV/AIDS in Canada. I conducted 20 qualitative interviews with Aboriginal community members from across Canada who have been infected (been diagnosed with) or affected (relative has been diagnosed with) by HIV and AIDS to gain a better understanding of how HIV/AIDS is changing the health landscape within Aboriginal communities. Grounded theory methodology was utilized to analyze the interview data. The participants in this research are made up of a unique group of Aboriginal individuals in Canada and may represent the experience of a portion of the population. As there is a paucity of research about Aboriginal Peoples living with HIV and AIDS in Canada, the results of this research study has contributed to development of a theory describing what it is like for Aboriginal Peoples who are living with or affected by HIV/AIDS and suggestions about culturally relevant methods of healing. This research gave voice to those Aboriginal community members in Canada, who are diagnosed with HIV/AIDS or affected by HIV/AIDS. The theory describes participants’ journeys of transformation where they have learned to embrace their new identities. Life experiences of Aboriginal community members in Canada that were infected by HIV/AIDS (APHAs) or family members affected by having a loved one infected by HIV/AIDS (APAAs) generated a propositional theory. APHAs who participated in the study were significantly open about their identity with HIV/AIDS and most identified with also being affected by HIV. The APHAs were more willing to be open about their diagnosis and were very interested in sharing their life experiences of living with HIV/AIDS. They made up over half of the participants in the study (n=14). Those individuals that were APAA’s were more challenging to recruit, and ultimately, I extended my study by another year to ensure that Aboriginal community members who are affected by HIV/AIDs participated. They made up approximately one third of the participants (n=6). The theory suggests that these individuals are more likely to have not shared their life experiences with other The current propositional theory that emerged suggests that the healing journeys of APHAs and APAAs are significantly different in nature. The tree depicts the emerging theory, a journey on the path to psychological and cultural healing: transformation of identity. The visual depiction includes the transformation of identity that an Aboriginal individual might experience when living with their HIV diagnosis or having been affected by HIV either directly or through a loved one being infected. Two models emerged that depict the journey and the transformations of identity that begin as seeds in the earth and throughout the transformation grow into trees.
Open Access
“About Average” A Pragmatic Inquiry into School Principals’ Meanings for a Statistical Concept in Instructional Leadership
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2014-04) Hunter, Darryl Milburn; Dolmage, William R.; Martin, Ronald; Steeves, Larry; Arbuthnott, Katherine; Paquette, Jerald
This mixed methods, sequential, exploratory study addresses the problem, “How significant are statistical representations of ‘average student achievement’ for school administrators as instructional leaders?” Both phases of the study were designed within Charles Sanders Peirce’s pragmatic theory of interpretation. In the first, phenomenological phase, 10 Saskatchewan school principals were each interviewed three times and invited to read aloud three different student achievement reports. Principals generally held a “centre-of-balance” conception for the average, which related to perspectives deriving from their organizational position. Abductive reasoning, a proclivity to act upon “below average” student achievement, leadership through asking leading questions, an inquiry cast of mind, and other pragmatic principles were clearly apparent. No evidence was found that school administrators were constrained by normative statistics into a uniform outlook, nor into purely instrumental behaviour. In a succeeding, overlapping phase based in the psychophysics of perception, Saskatchewan school leaders (principals and vice-principals) (n=210) were randomly assigned to one of four groups and asked to read an achievement report depicting student performance as a distribution of scores on a criterion scale. School leaders’ dispositions to be rational-analytical or intuitive-experiential were measured pre-and post-reading. A MANCOVA revealed small but significant changes in school leaders’ dispositions depending on the way the report was framed. Small but significant interactions between valence and audience on a reader’s rationality were observed. Negatively-framed test scores effected greater changes than positively-framed test scores in diminishing school leaders’ beliefs in their rationality. Principals’ and vice-principals’ dispositions did not differ. I conclude that reading reports which depict student achievements within a normative distribution has little statistical significance in changing leadership practice. However, school principals’ interpretations demonstrate the substantial practical significance of statistics when leading change. School administrators consider average student achievement not with the inferential patterns assumed within contemporary notions of heuristic irrationality, but rather as a reasoned form of inquisitive thinking and behaviour that has been formalized and comprehensively described in North American philosophy for over 100 years.
Open Access
Actionable Three-Way Decisions
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2018-09) Gao, Cong; Yao, Yiyu; Fallat, Shaun; Hamilton, Howard; Hepting, Daryl; Yang, Xue-Dong; Ciucci, Davide
In this thesis, we analyze both the trisecting and acting aspects of three-way decisions. In an evaluation based model of three-way decisions, there are two steps: trisecting and acting. The trisecting step constructs three regions based on an evaluation func- tion and a pair of thresholds. The acting step adopts proper strategies to deal with objects in these regions. For the trisecting step, this thesis examines statistical interpretations for the con- struction of three regions. The interpretations rely on an understanding that the middle region consists of normal or typical instances in a population, while two side regions consist of, abnormal or atypical instances. By using statistical information such as median, mean, percentiles, and standard deviation, two interpretations are discussed. One is based on non-numeric values and the other is based on numeric values. For non-numeric values, median and percentiles are used to construct three pair-wise disjoint regions. For numeric values, mean and standard deviation are used. The interpretations provide a solid statistical basis of three-way decisions for appli- cations. This thesis analyzes a chi-square statistic as a measure for searching for the optimal pair of thresholds for trisecting. An optimization based method for determining the pair of thresholds is to minimize or maximize an objective function that quanti es the quality, cost, or bene t of a trisection. We use the chi-square statistic to interpret and establish an objective function in the context of classi cation. The maximization of the chi-square statistic searches for a strong correlation between the trisection and the classi cation. For the acting step, this thesis introduces actionable strategies to three-way de- cision. We present a general framework of actionable three-way decisions with four change-based actionable models according to action bene t and action cost. Two of the four models provide the bounds of the cost and bene t and the other two models quantify the maximum bene t under limited cost and the minimum cost for a desired bene t, respectively. We design and analyze algorithms for these models. To reduce action cost and increase bene t, we introduce the R4 reduction frame- work for actionable three-way decision. The framework consists of reductions of attributes, attribute-value pairs, classi cation rules, and actions for creating more bene t and reducing cost. The rst three types of reductions are rede ned for the context of three-way decisions and the action reduction is proposed. Attribute reduc- tion removes some attributes from all classi cation rules to reduce the action cost. Attribute-value pair reduction shortens the left hand side of a rule to reduce the ac- tion cost without sacri cing any classi cation power or action bene t. Rule reduction and action reduction remove redundant classi cation rules and actions, respectively, to reduce computational cost. The Addition strategy for reduction is adapted and its correctness is proven. Based on this strategy, an algorithm for attribute and attribute-value pair reductions is designed. Finally, we report experimental results to support the proposed four actionable three-way decision models and the R4 reduction framework.
Open Access
Active Nonlinear Vibration Control of Engineering Structures of Multiple Dimensions
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2015-03) Sun, Lin; Dai, Liming; Henni, Amr; Mobed, Nader; Suh, C. Steve
An active nonlinear mechanical vibration control strategy is developed in the research of the author’s PhD program for the nonlinear vibration control of engineering structures of multiple dimensions. The proposed control strategy has been applied in several wildly applied typical engineering structures, including Euler-Bernoulli beams and axially moving structures. Nonlinear vibrations wildly exist in engineering structures, such as bridge, aircrafts, micro-electro-mechanical devices, and elevator cables. Comparing to linear vibrations, nonlinear vibrations may lead structure failures in short time, and chaotic vibrations among the nonlinear vibrations features unpredictability. Considering the damage and unpredictability of nonlinear vibrations, nonlinear vibrations is ought to be controlled. However, most of the existing active nonlinear vibration control strategies can only be applied to the nonlinear dynamic system of single dimension, while multi- dimensional dynamic systems show the advantages over those of single dimension in dynamic analysis. Therefore, an active nonlinear control strategy has been proposed based on the existing control strategy the Fuzzy Sliding Mode Control (FSMC) strategy, and has been applied in the vibration control of the following engineering structures: Euler-Bernoulli beams subject to external excitation; axially moving Euler-Bernoulli beam without external excitation; retracting Euler-Bernoulli beam without external excitation; axially translating cable; extending nonlinear elastic cable. First of all, the nonlinear vibration and control of an Euler-Bernoulli beam subjected to a periodic external excitation is given as an example to demonstrate how the active nonlinear control strategy is developed and applied for a multi-dimensional nonlinear dynamic system. Then, considering the two typical engineering structures modeled with Euler-Bernoulli beams, the control strategy is applied in the nonlinear vibration control of a micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) beam and a fluttering beam. After that, corresponding to the attentions paid to the axially translating materials, the control strategy is applied in the nonlinear vibration control of four typical axially moving structures. Applications of the proposed control strategy evidently show effectiveness and efficiency of the active control strategy in controlling the nonlinear vibrations of typical engineering structures.
Open Access
Advanced approaches to ruin probability and novel extensions of Hoeffding Inequalities in insurance mathematics
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2024-01) Soufiani, Elham; Volodin, Andrei; Deng, Dianliang; Sardarli, Arzu; Yao, Yiyu; Hatefi, Armin
In the ever-evolving domain of risk theory, understanding the intricate relationships between ruin probability, risk management, and the complexities of financial mathematics has never been more imperative. This thesis provides a comprehensive exploration into the nuances of ruin probability and its critical importance in the modern financial landscape. By delving deep into the mathematical intricacies, the study generalizes Hoeffding inequalities for random variables belonging to an extended acceptable class. This generalization is pivotal, leading to the establishment of the minimum premium rate. The thesis achieves this through the construction of an exponentially decaying upper bound for the ruin probability, built upon the foundational concepts of Hoeffding’s generalization. Furthermore, the research draws inspiration from seminal works in the field, paying homage to pioneers such as Filip Lundberg and Harald Cramér. While the contributions of these stalwarts have been immense, the contemporary challenges of the financial world demand a fresh perspective and novel methodologies. To this end, the study encapsulates the interdependencies between various financial elements, the importance of understanding negatively dependent or extended acceptable random variables, and the criticality of large deviation inequalities. Moreover, the synthesis of past methodologies with the latest techniques has enabled a more comprehensive understanding of exponentially decaying inequalities. The thesis provides a thorough literature review, chronicling the evolution of thought in the realm of risk theory, bridging the gap between historical foundations and current advancements. In conclusion, this thesis stands as a testament to the importance of rigorous mathematical frameworks in understanding and navigating the complexities of risk management in today’s volatile financial ecosystem.
Open Access
Advanced Numerical Modeling Techniques For Modern Waste Management Systems
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2019-01) Vu, Hoang Lan; Ng, Tsun Wai Kelvin; Jin, Yee-Chung; Piwowar, Joseph; Veawab, Amornvadee; Li, Zhong
This thesis presents original results to the advancement of numerical modelling of a modern waste management system with respect to generation, collection, and disposal of non-hazardous solid waste. The first part of the thesis specifically look at lag times relating to variables that attempt to predict municipal yard waste generation using machine learning approaches. Weekly averaged climatic and socio-economic variables are screened through correlation analysis and the significant variables are then used to develop yard waste models. These models then utilize artificial neural networks where the variables are time lagged a different number of weeks. Optimal lag times for each model varied from 1-11 weeks. The best model used both the ambient air temperature and population variables, in a model with 3 layers, 11 neurons in the hidden layer, and an optimal lag time of 1 week. A mean absolute percentage error of 18.72% was obtained at testing stage. One model saw a 55.4% decrease in the mean squared error at training, showing the value of lag time on the accuracy of weekly yard waste prediction models. The second part of the thesis focuses on geospatial modelling of a dual phase waste collection. A model integrating the handcart pre-collection phase and truck collection phase was proposed. Temporary collection points were first identified using both the maximize coverage and minimize facility location-allocation tools from a list of candidate temporary collection points and constraints. A total of 30 scenarios were considered in order to investigate the interrelationships between the model parameters, with respect to the total operation costs and maintenance system costs. The scenario with 11 temporary collection points and a maximum handcart collection distance of 500 m gave the lowest overall cost in the study area. The results suggest a single temporary collection point in the study is able to serve about 2,590 people in an area of 0.11 km2. It is found that the number and distribution of temporary collection points greatly affected the cost effectiveness in both pre-collection and collection phases. In the third part of thesis, landfill gas data was collected at semi-arid landfills, and curve fitting was carried out to find optimal k and L0 or DOC values using LandGEM, Afvalzorg Simple, and IPCC first order decay models. Model parameters at each landfill were estimated and compared using default values. Methane generation rates were substantially overestimated using default values (with percentage errors from 55 to 135%). The mean percentage errors for the optimized k and L0 or DOC values ranged from 11.60% to 19.93% at the Regina landfill, and 1.65% to 10.83% at the Saskatoon landfill. Finally, the effect of different iterative methods on the curve fitting process was examined. The residual sum of squares for each model and iterative approaches were similar, with the exception of iterative method 1 for the IPCC model. The default values in these models fail to represent landfills located in cold semi-arid climates. The fourth part of the thesis focuses on the development of a systematic approach for modelling of WMS. ANN time series was first applied to forecast the amounts of recyclables and garbage in the year 2023 at the target study area. MAPE of 10.92% to 16.51% were obtained for the forecast. Both the amount of recyclables and garbage appeared to decrease with time. Truck travel distance of the optimized routes were found sensitive to the composition and density of the materials. The use of dual-compartment trucks reduced total travel distances by 10.30% to 16.00%. However, single-stream trucks were likely to be more efficient in terms of total collection time.
Open Access
Advances in Representation and Learning of Temporal Event Sequences
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2020-08) Mirbagheritabatabaei, Seyedmohammad; Hamilton, Howard; Zilles, Sandra; Mouhoub, Malek; Volodin, Andrei; Keselj, Vlado
This thesis focuses on representation and learning of two types of temporal event sequences. The first type is a sequence of interval-based events, called an e-sequence, where every event can have a duration, and the second type is a sequence of pointbased events, where events have no durations. For interval-based event sequences, we propose the coincidence eventset representation (CER) to represent interval-based events along with their durations. This representation is especially designed for pattern mining problems. We incorporate both internal and external utilities into e-sequences and formulate the problem of high utility pattern mining of e-sequences. We present a sound and complete algorithm called HUIPMiner to discover high utility patterns from e-sequence datasets. We introduce the L-sequence downward-closure property (LDCP), which is utilized in our pruning strategy to reduce the search space. We then demonstrate that the HUIPMiner algorithm generates all high utility patterns. We propose a feature-based framework called FIBS for the e-sequence classification problem. In FIBS, features from an e-sequence dataset are extracted based on two representations: vectors of the relative frequency of event labels and vectors of the temporal relations among event intervals. We also propose a heuristic filter-based strategy to avoid selecting irrelevant features. We show the superiority of the FIBS performance in terms of classification accuracy compared to state-of-the-art competitors. We propose three novel distance-based approaches for full-length matching of esequences. The first approach, ERF, is based on the Euclidean distance between relative frequency representations of two e-sequences. The second approach, EPC, is based on the cosine distance between position code representations of two e-sequences. The third method, WLC, uses a weighted linear combination of the ERF and EPC measures. We demonstrate that WLC outperforms ERF, EPC, and existing state-ofthe- art methods in terms of nearest neighbor classification accuracy. For point-based event sequences, we build an ensemble model that predicts the time of occurrence of the next point-based event. The ensemble model comprises nine other methods that are able to perform the prediction task. We demonstrate that the prediction results obtained by the ensemble method are more accurate than the results obtained by most individual methods.
Open Access
Affect, Affective Contagion and Decisions in Agile Development
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2018-09) Alhubaishy, Abdulaziz Abdurabuh; Benedicenti, Luigi; Gelowitz, Craig; El Darieby, Mohammed; Mouhoub, Malek; Bagheri, Ebrahim
During the past decade, research on how affects—including emotions, moods, and feelings—influence software developers’ performance has increased. In software development, this influence has been considered and investigated mostly in terms of individual developers. Agile development, which requires collaboration and communication, can be more prone to the influence of affects on both individuals’ and teams’ decisions. There is a lack of a tested model in the literature that explicitly reflects the influence of developers’ affects when they make decisions in Agile. Furthermore, there is no explicit evidence of the influence of positive or negative affective contagion on software teams’ cooperation or level of conflict. Therefore, this thesis develops an improved understanding and theorizes the role of affects and their contagion in Agile decision-making processes. This thesis contributes by answering the main research question, which is: how are affects and their contagion related to decision making in Agile environments? To answer this question, the thesis adopted the explanatory sequential design method, which is considered a mixed-methods approach. Within sequential design, we applied survey research as quantitative design to test the role of affects and affective contagion, and to generalize the findings, and constructive grounded theory as qualitative design to collect and analyze data, and to understand the contributing factors for the quantitative model. A total of 249 valid survey responses were collected and examined. These responses were analyzed to understand the current awareness of the impact of affects and affective contagion on Agile decisions, cooperativeness, and conflicts. Both expert and novice Agile members confirmed the influence of affects and affective contagion on Agile team decisions, cooperativeness, and conflicts; however, novices’ acknowledgement of the role tended to be significantly less than that of expert Agile members. Furthermore, the PANAS scale was provided to Agile team members to extract the most influential affective states that play a role in Agile decisions. The results showed that being determined, inspired, active, and attentive were the four positive affective states that most influence Agile individuals and teams. On the other hand, being upset and distressed were the two most influential negative affective states. Then, parts of the survey data were used to test the measurement and structural models of affect and affective contagion; and the I-PANAS-SF scale was adopted to measure participants’ affective states. The measurement models were built and tested against the collected data. After reaching an acceptable model fit with the measurement model, the structural models were built and tested against the collected data. All research hypotheses were supported by testing for the significance of direct and indirect paths. We also examined the mediators in an aggregated model and confirmed the mediation of cooperativeness and conflicts between affects and affective contagion and decision quality. A total of 16 in-depth interviews were collected and analyzed, and the constructivist grounded theory approach was adopted. As a result, a general framework, which we named “ The Framework of Affects and Affective Contagion as Influential Factors on Agile Decision-Making Processes,” was introduced and discussed. The framework articulates seven concepts; namely, conceptualizing positive and negative affects, conceptualizing positive and negative affective contagion, linking affects and affective contagion, recognizing situations in which affects influence individuals, recognizing situations in which affective contagion influence teams, acting on affects to influence affective contagion, and work- and non-work-related factors.
Open Access
An Afrocentric Cultural Study of Buum Oka Dance Yaounde and Perceptions of its Relevance to African (-Canadian) Students Between the Ages of 18 and 25 in the City of Regina
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2017-04) Jing, Thomas; Montgomery, Ken; Carter, Claire; Triggs, Valerie; Kipling Brown, Ann; Lewis, Patrick; Welsh, Kariamu
This is an Afrocentric cultural study of Buum Oku Dance Yaounde in Cameroon and perceptions of its relevance to African (-Canadian) students between the ages of 18 and 25 in the City of Regina. The study is pitched against a national backdrop in which African (-Canadian) students experience disproportionately high school drop/push out rates. This is just one of many others problems associated with various forms of racist discourses and practices which harken back to the days of black enslavement. An enduring legacy of slavery and Western colonialism has been the continuous distortion of African history and culture, which are sometimes used to justify marginalization, injustice and various forms of oppression. An Afrocentric approach to this study seeks in part to counter colonial and oppressive discourses, thus serving as a tool for emancipation. The study ascertains whether the introduction and promotion of cultural practices such as Buum Oku Dance could serve as a tool for effective resistance and emancipation. Drawing mainly on written and oral sources, the inquiry has used Johnson’s (1986/87) “circuit of cultural production” of the dance, that is, its historical production, its representation and audience reception to determine to what extent such a dance could serve as tool for liberation. Its findings, based mainly on interviews of six students, three males and three females, from the City of Regina, illustrate the perceived relevance of the dance in creating community, reinforcing family values and traditions, promoting greater cultural and gender inclusion and equality, in asserting group identity and in combating low self-esteem and high dropout rates. These actions constitute forms of resistance which illustrate the possibilities of dance as a credible tool for human liberation from oppression.
Open Access
Age Differences in Pain Responses
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2020-07) Shackleton, Delaine Ariele; Hadjistravropoulos, Thomas; Sykes Tottenham, Laurie; Oriet, Christopher; Wickson Griffith, Abigail; Martel, Marc O.
One in five Canadians report experiencing chronic pain, which is associated with numerous negative psychological and physical consequences (Schopflocher et al., 2011). Older adults are more likely to experience pain than younger people and the degree of pain-related interference increases with age (Thomas et al., 2004). This is concerning given that pain is routinely underassessed and undertreated in older persons (American Pain Foundation, 2008; Kaye et al., 2010; Lautenbacher, 2014; Malec & Shega, 2015). Researchers have found many age-related differences in pain responses, such as pain perception and reporting and attitudes toward pain (Gibson & Farrell, 2004; Gibson & Helme, 2001; Lautenbacher et al., 2017; Tumi et al., 2017; Yong et al., 2001). Coping is thought to play an important role in the pain experience (Chan et al., 2012; Keefe & Williams, 1990; LaChapelle & Hadjistavropoulos, 2005; Sorkin et al., 1990; Watkins et al., 1999). Despite researchers having examined the influence of coping on pain, there is a lack of research comparing younger and older adults’ coping with pain, while measuring multiple facets of the pain experience (e.g., pain threshold/tolerance, non-verbal facial expressions of pain, and self-reported pain intensity/unpleasantness), during a controlled experimental pain-task. The goal of this investigation was to examine age differences in a variety of pain responses in real time by comparing older and younger adults’ verbal and nonverbal pain responses during a thermal pain task. Real-time coping strategies were measured through the use of a ‘think aloud’ protocol that was analyzed and coded based on empirically-supported coping categories. It was hypothesized that there would be age differences in pain responses (i.e., pain threshold, pain tolerance), coping, and pain attitudes. Non-verbal pain/emotional expressions were not expected to differ as a function of age (Hadjistavropoulos et al., 2002; Hadjistavropoulos et al., 2000; Kunz et al., 2008; Prkachin, 2009; Sheu et al., 2011). Drawing from the communications model of pain (Craig, 2009; Hadjistavropoulos & Craig, 2002; Hadjistavropoulos et al., 2004; Hadjistavropoulos et al., 2011; Prkachin & Craig, 1995), and in line with previous research suggesting that specific coping strategies play an important role in pain outcomes (Harland & Georgieff, 2003; McCormick et al., 2015; Monticone et al., 2014; Robinson et al., 1997), it was expected that coping would mediate the relationship between age and pain outcomes. As expected, there were age differences in coping, with younger adults using more Coping Self-Statements, Ignoring Sensation, and Other real-time coping strategies than older adults. In a retrospective measure of coping (i.e., the CSQ-R), younger adults endorsed more Coping Self-Statements and older adults indicated using more Praying. Also as expected, use of “CSQ-R Adaptive Coping” strategies was related to lower pain ratings, whereas use of “CSQ-R Maladaptive Coping” strategies was related to higher pain ratings. Results from mediation analyses revealed that older adults made less use of “CSQ-R Adaptive Coping” strategies than younger adults, which was related to older adults having higher self-reported pain ratings than younger adults. No age differences were found in pain threshold/tolerance or pain attitudes (i.e., stoicism and cautiousness). Although there were age-differences in the specificity of facial responses—e.g., specific action units related to pain—there were no age-differences in global facial expressions of pain intensity. Results from this investigation add specificity to the communications model of pain. Furthermore, findings may contribute to the advancement of pain treatment protocols and age-specific guidelines for the management of pain.
Open Access
Agent Trust Management Based on Human Plausible Reasoning and Rough Sets: Application to Agent-based Web search
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2013-12) Abedinzadeh, Sadra; Sadaoui, Samira; Mouhoub, Malek; Mehrandezh, Mehran; El-Darieby, Mohamed; Vassileva, Juilita
Nowadays, there is a growing need to manage trust in open systems. Service providers can autonomously join and leave the open system at any time. Thus, an open system may contain untrustworthy service providers. In order to handle the autonomy of providers, multi agent systems are used to develop open systems. In a virtual society, which consists of several autonomous agents, trust helps agents to deal with the openness of the system by identifying the best agents capable of performing a specific task, or achieving a specific goal. In this research, we first introduce ROSTAM, a new approach for Agent Trust Management (ATM) based on the theory of Rough Sets. ROSTAM is a generic ATM framework that can be applied to any kinds of multi agent systems. However, the features of the application domain must be provided to ROSTAM as trust attributes. By collecting the values for these attributes, ROSTAM is able to generate a set of trust rules by employing Rough Sets theory. ROSTAM then uses the trust rules to extract the set of the most trusted service agents and forwards the user’s request to those agents only. After getting the results, the user must rate the interaction with each trusted agent. The rating values are subsequently utilized for updating the trust rules. We apply ROSTAM to the domain of crosslanguage Web search. The resulting Web search system recommends to the user the set of the most trusted pairs of translator and search engine in terms of the pairs that return the results with the highest precision of retrieval. We also present ScubAA, a novel generic ATM framework based on the theory of Human Plausible Reasoning (HPR). ScubAA recommends to the user a list of the most trusted service agents, associated to the context of the request, and forwards the request to those trusted services only. ScubAA determines an agent’s degree of trust in terms of a single personalized value derived from several types of evidences such as user’s feedback, history of user’s interactions, context of the submitted request, references from third party users as well as from service agents, and structure of the society of agents and users. ScubAA infers the third party references by applying the HPR transformation functions on its Knowledge Base (KB) and by considering the current context. Moreover, ScubAA constantly improves the KB by generating new trust relations between users and service agents. ScubAA also identifies the similarity relations between service agents and between users along with their degree of certainty and adds them to the KB. We apply the proposed HPR-based ATM framework to the domain of Web search. The resulting ATM system recommends to the user a list of the most trusted search engines ranked by their degrees of trust. Finally, we conduct a theoretical comparison between ScubAA, ROSTAM, and four other trust management systems in the literature. This comparison highlights some of the most important features that trust management systems take into account. We explain each feature and discuss whether or not these systems utilize each of them. Moreover, by employing a statistical method, named ANOVA, we compare the results produced by ROSTAM and by two different implementations of ScubAA (based on Dempster-Shafer theory and mathematical average) with the values of precision of retrieval. The results of this comparison reveal that there are no statistically significant differences in the variance of the trusted values of ROSTAM and ScubAA compared to the real values of trust.
Open Access
An Agent-Based Wellness Visualization System
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2013-05) Soomlek, Chitsutha; Benedicenti, Luigi; Chan, Christine; Paranjape, Raman; Malloy, David; Migliardi, Mauro
This research presents the conceptual design of a personal wellness indicator and the proof of concept. An agent-based wellness indicator is an information visualization system designed to present wellness information to people in a simple graphical format complemented by anomalies found, simple descriptions, suggestions and supporting tools. The visualization system is designed to give people a better understanding of their wellness conditions and fast access to relevant information, which could potentially help them improve their wellness levels. The wellness and decision-support information of individuals are also visualized to their caregivers by elaborating the data provided by existing resources. The wellness indicator system is constructed from an operational wellness model we developed. The model allows an automatic measuring system to calculate the wellness level for a number of indicators resulting in an overall wellness level. These results can be presented in a simple graphical format. The proof of concept is developed by utilizing the unique characteristics of software agents. The software has been evaluated by following the steps provided in the framework for testing a wellness visualization system. The evaluation is carried out by both general users and healthcare professionals. The results show positive feedback on various aspects of the wellness visualization system. In addition, the results confirm that the wellness indicator system can help people have a better understanding of their personal state of well-being and can support healthcare professionals delivering wellness services.
Open Access
AHP-Based Methodology for a Complex Decision Support in Extreme Programming
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2014-01) Alshehri, Sultan Abdullah J.; Benedicenti, Luigi; El-Darieby, Mohamed; Henni, Amr; Mouhoub, Malek; Deters, Ralph
Extreme Programming (XP) is one of the most successful methods in software development. It offers a set of practices designed to work together in order to provide value to the customer. The XP process emphasizes simplicity, feedback, and encouragement among team members. During the XP lifecycle, developers and customers regularly encounter situations in which they need to make decisions or evaluate factors that will affect the development process and team productivity. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) can analyze complex decisions and help accomplish XP values and fulfill team needs. This research describes a framework for the application of AHP to XP to resolve conflict and evaluate influential factors by structuring the decision making process. AHP seems promising for use in XP for the effective resolution of conflict and the achievement of effective decisions during the software development process. In this research, more than 10 areas related to XP practices that could benefit from the AHP technique are elaborated upon. Planning game, simple design, metaphor, pair programming, refactoring, and testing are some XP practices whose quality depends on decisions, and thus are ideally suited for AHP. First, in the planning game, two areas were investigated: prioritizing the user stories and ranking the prioritization techniques. Second, AHP explored two areas in the XP simple design practice: selecting the best simple design tool for the XP team and prioritizing the CRC cards as a common simple design tool. Third, in the pair programming practice, AHP was used for two purposes: selecting the best matching pairs and deciding if the pairs should have the same characteristics or be different. Fourth, in the practice of refactoring, AHP was used to rank the refactoring techniques based on the internal and external quality attributes. Fifth, the AHP was applied to help make decisions about the level of automated testing and ranking the software release indicators. The AHP is a structure technique based on mathematical models that analyzes various tangible and intangible attributes in order to accomplish a specific goal. It has been applied in numerous fields and many engineering applications. The AHP provides a framework that structures decision problems in order to provide mathematical judgments built on knowledge and experience. AHP has been very useful in software development, where complex decisions occur routinely, and especially useful for unstructured or light processes, like agile processes. The overall results show that in the XP environment, AHP received positive feedback from all participants in terms of the quality of the decisions, team performance and communication, and user satisfaction.
Open Access
An experimental study of police interactions with persons with mental illness using simulation technology
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2024-03) Hembroff, Chet Cameron; Arbuthnott, Katherine; Krätzig, Gregory; Yamamoto, Susan; Pennycook, Gordon; Jones, Nicholas; James, Stephen
Mass deinstitutionalization and repeated reports of the use of force during police responses to person(s) with mental illness (PMI) have resulted in public and political debates about police mistreatment of PMI and motivated requests for police reform. As police interactions with PMI continue to increase it is important to understand police decision making, how officers perceive and interact with PMI, and the role of policing during mental health crises. Research examining police records or police-civilian interactions in the field has produced mixed results in the rates of use of force during interactions with PMI. The current study used a laboratory experiment to control environmental variances in police interactions to add to the understanding of police useof- force during interactions with PMI. Study 1 compared perceptions of PMI between law enforcement students and university undergraduate students. Study 2 compared law enforcement students’ behaviour during a use-of-force scenario with either a PMI or healthy civilian, preceded by a dispatch report with or without information of the presence of mental health issues. Behaviours assessed include use-of-force choices, intervention response times, risk assessment, and communication tactics. The results of the studies found no significant differences between law enforcement and civilian students’ attitudes of mental health and the attitudes of law enforcement students did not influence their behaviour during the use-of-force scenarios. Use-of-force response times revealed that OC spray (i.e., pepper spray) use was delayed when interacting with the simulated PMI. While other intervention methods were rarely used, participants who used their pistol were not influenced by the mental health manipulations. Participants’ risk assessments and communication strategies were observed to vary between experimental conditions and in different contexts. Having prior information of mental health issues or responding to a PMI resulted in lower ratings of the risk of harm to others and situational factors, and higher ratings of risk to oneself. These results demonstrate that law enforcement students were not applying risk assessments equally across contexts as they are taught. These conditions also resulted in increased attempts to engage in conversation and to offer assistance. The results of this study demonstrate that law enforcement students had a tendency to wait longer before deciding to use force and used de-escalating communication when responding to a mental health crisis, while those who interacted with the healthy individual made more attempts to gain compliance and control using commands and earlier force. Overall, the students’ communication focused on police commands in all conditions and may indicate that more training on de-escalation is still needed. These results demonstrate a tendency towards de-escalation with PMI, particularly in use-of-force responses, as well as how law enforcement students are applying their training and the gaps that may still be present during interactions with PMI.
Open Access
Analysis of Lakewater Isotopes in the Northern Great Plains: Insights From Long-Term Monitoring and Spatial Surveys
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2018-10) Haig, Heather Ann; Leavitt, Peter; Wissel, Bjoern; Simpson, Gavin; Hodder, Kyle; Weger, Harold; Stadnyk, Tricia
General circulation models predict that the precipitation deficit of the Northern Great Plains (NGP) will become more pronounced in the future, and that human adaptation to future climate change will require a greater understanding prairie hydrology in order to maintain freshwater ecosystems. One method for disentangling hydrological complexities is to use stable isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen in water to measure the hydrological properties of lakes, including their water balance. In this thesis, I present a long-term (2003-2016), bi-weekly record of water isotopes during summer to assess the differences between instrumental and isotopic measures of hydrology, and determine the variability in lakewater isotopes at the sub-annual and interannual scales. Insights from this long-term record were then applied to a spatial survey of over 100 lakes to quantify the spatial diversity of hydrologic parameters in lakes of the Canadian NGP and investigate the relationship between catchment characteristics and water balance of individual basins. Overall, lake-specific ratios of evaporation to inflow (E/I, %) from direct measurements (mean (μ) = 15.0%, standard deviation (σ) = 20.7) agreed well with isotopic estimates using headwater basin models (μ = 15.3, σ =7.8). Isotope-instrument agreement was improved (μ =12.6 vs. 6.2%) when basin-specific isotope models that considered local connectivity to upstream water bodies were used in calculations. In my assessment of isotope variability, seasonal variation in water isotope values routinely exceeded that at annual scales and demonstrated rapid changes in water sources within a single season, particularly in systems with water residence times <1 year. Inter-annual variability was regulated mainly by large hydrological events that caused isotopic source waters to become more similar across the Qu’Appelle River watershed. A spatial survey of 100+ prairie lakes revealed that isotopic values of inflow to basins was more similar to that of rainfall (δI, μ = -13.5‰, σ = 2.0) than to snow, and further showed that the flow regimes of most lakes (71%) were categorized as open despite the scarcity of channelized surface inflows. Mean water yield 100.8 mm yr-1 (σ= 181.0) and runoff coefficients 22.1% (σ= 45.9) were elevated relative to average conditions in the region, suggesting that lakes were an important feature capturing water on the prairie landscape. Together, these three studies provided a comprehensive assessment of the hydrological status of lakes in the Canadian NGP, and can be used to inform future research and management projects.
Open Access
Analysis, Modeling and Enhancement of LTE-A Heterogeneous Networks in a Real-World Environment
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2021-06) Gao, Haijun; Paranjape, Raman; Laforge, Paul; Al-Anbagi, Irfan; Gerhard, David; Mago, Vijay
During the past decades, cellular networks have been greatly developed. An increasing number of devices such as tablets and mobile phones are connected to cellular networks. The heterogeneous networks (HetNets) play an important role in serving users with different requirements and huge data demands. LTE-A HetNets have been extensively studied for many years. However, most research works have focused on theoretic studies of LTE-A HetNets. Only a few researchers have a chance to access and study the actual HetNets. A big gap exists between theories and actual applications for cellular networks. It is essential to understand the mechanism of HetNets in real-world environments for better network performance. Building a traffic model that is more suitable for the real-world environment is necessary not only for network operators to provide better service and save costs, but also for users to have better experience with strong received signals. This thesis analyzes and evaluates measured data from a real-world LTE-A HetNet, models user traffic in the actual environment, and optimizes the HetNet using the developed models. In this thesis, the real-world LTE-A HetNet is studied in detail. Both the aggregate data and UE (user equipment)’s data are investigated. The main goal is to study the actual environment, understand the mechanisms of the actual system, and model and optimize the users’ actual data traffic in the real-world environment in this thesis. The aggregate data (cell level data) for the HetNet at the University of Regina are analyzed and modeled in detail for all the cells in the actual HetNet. Four indicators are introduced to evaluate the performance of cell level data. In addition, a series of data collection activities are performed at the University of Regina to better understand the real-world LTE-A HetNet. These tests are intended to analyze and evaluate the baseline of the network and measure the dynamic response of the system when the network settings are adjusted. The activities include handover tests with adjusting A3 event handover parameters and indoor cell-splitting tests with interference mitigation techniques (e.g., Almost Blank Subframe (ABS)). The characteristics of the actual scheduler of the HetNet are analyzed in depth by comparing allocated resource blocks of each test device. The performance of different typical and popular schedulers (e.g., Proportional Fair) is compared with the measured data from the real-world. A fairness guaranteed scheduler is proposed to maintain the fairness of user throughput since the fairness is a crucial indicator. This innovative scheduler is developed using the generalized proportional fair (PF) scheduler and control theory. A simulation model is developed to predict user downlink data rate in a dynamic environment with algorithms and measurement. Some indicators are also proposed for the model. Furthermore, both enhancement strategies and algorithms are proposed for the HetNet to increase cell throughput of the overall networks. This model is useful to predict user data rate more accurately and to help the network operators produce effective cell planning and provide seamless service to users. Studying the actual cellular networks will bring more insights about how the actual network behaves and will be beneficial for the deployments of 5G networks in the future, because many features in LTE-A (e.g., small cells) are also crucial to the 5G networks.
Open Access
Analytical and Semi-Analytical Models for Composite Reservoirs with Complex Well Completions
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2016-04) Idorenyin, Etim Hope; Shirif, Ezeddin; Torabi, Farshid; Zeng, Fanhua; Idem, Raphael; Henni, Amr; Volodin, Andrei; Mouhoub, Malek; Azaiez, Jalel
With the current increasing productivity and the proliferation of shale and tight sand resource plays in Canada, and North America in general, the need to understand and characterize these resource plays, for the purpose of recovery optimization, has taken center stage in reservoir management. It is, however, important to note that these hydrocarbon environments are fundamentally different from conventional reservoirs for which there is an abundance of high-yield technical know-how. In a technical sense, these plays are not reservoirs but source rocks; their permeabilities are in the micro- to nano-darcy range. Hence, they cannot sustain economic hydrocarbon production unless they are engineered using unconventional stimulation methods like multi-stage hydraulic fracturing, for instance. As a result, traditional reservoir modeling methods fail, or give misleading results at best, when used to study these hydrocarbon plays. The objective of this research work is to develop rigorous (and yet) practical analytical and semi-analytical models for multi-well performance in petroleum reservoirs, with a view to simulating and forecasting production from unconventional resources. The models will address flow in different reservoir systems (homogeneous reservoirs and composite reservoirs) produced by various well completion types, including vertical, horizontal, fractured vertical and multiply fractured horizontal wells. It is also worth mentioning that most reservoir studies ultimately dwell on numerical simulation because of the flexibility and ease with which geological features can be incorporated in numerical simulation models. However, field-wide simulation studies are resource intensive and time consuming. In addition, the results obtained are heavily dependent on the quantity and quality of data available. It is therefore advisable and much more affordable to carry out simulations of this magnitude only when an initial performance study has been conducted and initial estimates of reservoir parameters have been obtained from the more tractable analytical and semi-analytical models. The models presented in this research work are practicable for reliable investigation of flow behavior in both conventional and unconventional reservoirs, and also provide results that can be used to seed the more involving numerical simulation.
Open Access
Analytical Coupling Methodology of Fluid Flow in Porous Media Within Multiphysics Domain in Reservoir Engineering Analysis
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2020-01) Yuan, Wanju; Zhao, Gang; Jin, Yee-Chung; Jia, Na; Ng, Kelvin Tsun Wai; Chi, Guoxiang; Moore, Robert G.
Fluids flow in porous media are usually affected by multiphysics domains. Thermal, mass transfer, and hydraulic domain will all significantly affect the features of fluids flow in porous media. Thermal fluids coupling problems occur almost in every area of reservoir engineering such as geothermal energy development, and heavy oil recovery. Mass transfer is another important mechanism that should be considered in solvent based heavy oil recovery and unconventional enhance oil recovery methods. This research focuses on using analytical source and sink function method applied in heat transfer and mass transfer to simulate two domain coupling model. Based on thermal source and sink function derived in this thesis, convective heat is treated as a simple special form of source and sink function. The calculation of transient convective heat amount in Laplace domain problem has also been solved innovatively in this dissertation. Sensitivity analysis on segment size from computing prospect, thermal diffusivity and velocity from system prospect are analyzed to help understand the heat transfer process integrating conduction and convection mechanism. Secondly, this convective source function methodology is applied in a 2D model of geothermal energy recovery process. A typical geothermal energy recovery well pair is simulated by the innovative coupling methodology. Different well pair locations and fractured wells are examined through this model referring to the enhanced geothermal system technology for hot dry rock reservoir. Big jumps from heat transfer to mass transfer are made to analytically model the solvent injection process for heavy oil recovery. Multi-mechanisms including diffusion and dispersion, viscosity reduction, oil swelling are considered analytically and integrated into the two domain coupling model. Solvent-based Post Cold Heavy Oil Production with Sand (CHOPS) with single fracture structure is also modeled by this methodology. The mass transfer proves to have significant influence on fluids flow in porous media. Heavy oil thermal based recovery methods such as SAGD have complicated interactions phenomenon between thermal domain and pressure domain. Viscosity reduction, fluids thermal expansion and heat loss to caprock will significantly affect the operation energy efficient and environment footprint. Sensitivity analysis of key parameters affecting the thermal injection process are also conducted.
Open Access
Another Radio is Possible: Community Radio, Media Reform and Social Change in Thailand
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2007-12) Elliott, Patricia W.
An exploration of the political and cultural impact of community radio in Thailand, and of the global implications of challenges to the prevailing model of state-controlled broadcast frequency monopolies.