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Open Access
Media Hegemony: The Portrayal of Rohingya Refugees in the Canadian Print Media
(2024-06-28) Chowdhury, Tanjima; Peric, Sabrina; Yessenova, Saulesh; Apentiik, Rowland
The Rohingya, a predominantly Muslim ethnic group in Myanmar's Rakhine state, gained global attention in 2017 due to the Myanmar military's genocide. This study focuses on how the Canadian media portrays the Rohingya minority after their displacement from Myanmar and resettlement in Canada. The primary objective is to analyze how different news outlets depict the Rohingya community, with a secondary goal of contrasting media narratives with the actual experiences of Rohingya migrants in Canada. My research emphasizes prioritizing refugee perspectives both theoretically and methodologically, aiming to engage these voices in dialogue with prevalent stereotypes and misrepresentations. My goal is to understand how our perceptions of these migrants are produced and how they influence refugee settlement. Based on their age, gender, and family background, the fieldwork with the Rohingya people revealed differences of opinion amongst the community about their portrayal in the media. Further, the data shows how different the resettlement journey is for each of these people in a foreign land. The media analysis demonstrated that the Rohingya were often portrayed as helpless victims, rarely discussed Rohingya history, and prioritized refugee camp stories with a significant absence of the Rohingya women's voices in the news. Ultimately the study displays the implication and significance of bringing refugee narratives into the mainstream media as people still fail to understand the crisis on a deeper level.
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Embargo
Optimization of Autonomous Goods Delivery Systems in Urban Areas
(2024-06-21) Lamb, Jacob Steven; Wirasignhe, Chan; Waters, Nigel; DeBarros, Alexandre; Saidi, Saeid
The freight sector is growing: disruptions in this sector have accelerated and are coming under more public scrutiny than other technological changes in the past. Autonomous goods delivery technologies are such a disruption, vehicles with no human on-board that can travel along roads, sidewalks, or in the air. Without the constraint of a human driver, many different forms and functions of vehicle can be created. It is uncertain the type or design of autonomous vehicle that will be best suited for exactly what scenarios, the strategies that will be used to operate them, and the supporting infrastructure changes that will be needed to best accommodate them. This thesis provides planning tools for this change that industry and government can utilize for better, quicker, and more transparent decisions. These methods also allow for sensitivity analysis and the impacts of technology changes to be considered and investigated. The impacts that uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) and sidewalk autonomous delivery robots (SADRs) will have on the optimal locations of micro-fulfilment centers (MFCs) and mothership vans (MSs) are analyzed. It is found that the sensitivity of the relationship between stock-turnover by area and the optimal number of MFCs is a barrier to the adoption of UAV and MFC systems. Moreover, delivery time-windows are shown to be a primary motivating factor in the adoption of UAVs and the areas of a region that are most cost-effective for the switch to UAV and MFCs are the areas furthest from existing logistics centers. For SADRs working with MS, two distinct deployment strategies are identified and compared, then the breakeven cost points for these strategies are analytically determined and expressed in a decision matrix table. A series of sensitivity analysis scenarios shows how exurbs and further suburbs of urban areas are most cost-effective to move to MS with SADR systems. Finally, UAVs and SADRs are compared simultaneously, and a mixed fleet system considered and optimized with conventional vans. The numerical study of Singapore shows that increasing the autonomy of UAVs and SADRs is a key barrier for more widescale adoption.
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Open Access
Educational Achievement and Adaptive Functioning in Survivors of Childhood Cancer
(2024-06-27) Stokoe, Mehak; Wilcox, Gabrielle; Nordstokke, David; Schulte, Fiona; Schroeder, Meadow; Shanahan, Marie-Claire
Many more survivors of childhood cancer are surviving and thriving today. In Canada, there are approximately 30,000 survivors, and treatment advances have helped to improve survival rates. However, survivors still face challenges that arise after treatment completion. Examples of challenges include difficulties with behavioral or emotional regulation as well as impaired attention and cognitive functioning. These challenges affect broader functional outcomes such as lower adaptive functioning and lower rates of completing higher education. Thus, in this thesis I aimed to summarize the current literature in adaptive functioning and educational outcomes (i.e., reading, writing, and math) and to examine these factors in survivors of childhood cancer (SCC). Chapter 1 of my thesis is a brief introduction about childhood cancer, education achievement, and the factors that affect educational achievement in SCC. Chapter 2 provides a literature review on pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and non-central nervous system solid tumors (non-CNS ST), late effects of cancer treatment, educational outcomes and adaptive functioning in ALL, non-CNS ST, and brain tumors (BT). Chapters 3 and 4 of my thesis have been prepared for publication and address four primary aims across these manuscripts. Chapter 3 aimed to examine group differences in adaptive functioning among pediatric survivors of ALL, non-CNS ST, BT, and healthy controls (HC). The second aim of this manuscript was to explore whether age at diagnosis, male sex, and lower socioeconomic status predicted lower adaptive functioning. Chapter 4 aimed to examine group differences on the Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT-5) between survivors of ALL and non-CNS ST and to examine the association between conceptual skills and WRAT-5 outcomes.
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Open Access
Exploring Comfortable Coexistence with Autonomous Pods in Pedestrian Spaces
(2024-06-26) Luchak, Iryna; Sharlin, Ehud; Zhao, Richard; Finn, Patrick
The rapid advancement of autonomous vehicles (AVs) marks a significant milestone in transportation technology, revolutionizing mobility and urban planning. AVs promise to improve road safety, reduce traffic congestion, and contribute to environmental sustainability. As AVs become increasingly adept at navigating complex environments, challenges arise in integrating them into existing infrastructures, making it crucial to study their coexistence with people and how they are perceived. Pods, also known as low-speed autonomous transport systems (L-SATS), are emerging in pedestrian areas like airports and malls to help solve the last-mile problem. Nonetheless, their introduction into pedestrian-centred spaces presents new challenges for researchers in ensuring the comfortable sharing of these spaces with people. This thesis explores and investigates factors contributing to comfortable coexistence between pods and incidentally copresent persons (InCoPs) in pedestrian spaces. Through our exploration, we make several contributions. We begin by examining autonomous vehicles in urban spaces, including a preliminary exploration of situated visualizations, proxemics, and technology acceptance, which leads us to the notion of pods in pedestrian spaces. We then propose a design space for pods in pedestrian spaces, reflecting on various aspects of coexistence between InCoPs and pods. Our dimensions describe the pedestrian space, pod interactions, and the physical design of pods. Using the initial design space dimensions as a foundation and inspiration in design, we build a virtual reality (VR) testbed to facilitate research on the coexistence between pods and InCoPs. We design ten scenarios in the pedestrian space testbed. We conduct a user study, analyzing the significance of different variables, including pod quantity, pod group formation, passenger presence, and InCoP position. We provide insights on factors enhancing InCoPs' comfort, emphasizing the importance of an improved sense of control, space and freedom to move, passenger awareness, and the social behaviours of other pedestrians. By examining key factors that contribute to InCoP coexistence alongside pods, this thesis aims to offer initial research insights into the future integration of pods in pedestrian spaces to improve the comfort of InCoPs.
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Open Access
The Effect of COVID-19 on Natural Killer Cell Function
(2024-06-26) Dagar, Arushi; Mody, Christopher Hugh; Corcoran, Jennifer A.; Jenne, Craig
COVID-19 has caused more than 7 million deaths, and according to the World Health Organization, it continues to result in more than 1000 reported deaths per week at the time of this writing. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the immune response to COVID-19 since the virus has the potential to become endemic, like influenza A. Natural killer (NK) cells are essential for immune defence against viral infections and play a critical role in COVID-19. While it is well documented that infected patients have a reduction in lymphocytes and NK cells, gaps in knowledge exist regarding the function of NK cells. To study the function of NK cells in COVID-19 patients, peripheral blood was obtained from patients admitted to the medical (non-ICU) wards at the Foothills Medical Centre with a positive COVID-19 test. I demonstrated a decrease in the mature cytotoxic subset of NK cells within the peripheral blood of patients hospitalized with COVID-19. I also observed a notable decrease in the cytotoxic function of NK cells against tumour targets. I examined the sequence of events within NK cells that lead to killing in a stepwise manner. I found reductions in the intracellular levels of effector molecules, the degranulation of cytotoxic granules, and the extracellular concentrations of released effector molecules. I identified alterations in intracellular granule trafficking required to position the granules for release. I found alterations in the expression of multiple NK cell receptors, suggesting inhibitory signalling. Additionally, males with COVID-19 showed more pronounced NK cell defects than healthy males, which may partly be due to receptor expressions. My findings highlight defects in cytolytic effector molecules, granule trafficking and release, and increased expression of inhibitory receptors in hospitalized COVID-19 patients, in addition to a sex difference in cytolytic function, which contributes to defective NK cell function in COVID-19.