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Title: A linear assignment based conceptual lifecycle assessment method for selecting optimal agri-industrial materials production pathway: A case study on Nigerian yam value chain
Contributor(s): Israel S. Dunmade (author); Library OA fund (funder)
Date issued: 2020; 2020
Description: Lifecycle assessment is a robust tool for comprehensive environmental impact assessment of products and processes. It provides users opportunities to identify the hotspots along the lifecycle of a system and thereby enable them to implement improvement opportunities as deemed appropriate. Production of agri-based industrial raw materials could be energy and water intensive. Such endeavour could take a heavy toll on the environment in terms of resource consumption and environmental pollution. The goal of this study was to develop an easy to use and less data intensive conceptual LCA methodology for selecting optimal pathway along a value-chain under two decision scenarios: the optimal...
Appears in collection(s): Science and Technology

Title: Evaluating and Revising the Digital Citizenship Scale
Contributor(s): Randy Connolly (author); Janet Miller (author); Library OA fund (funder)
Date issued: 2022-08; 2022-08
Description: Measuring citizen activities in online environments is an important enterprise in fields as diverse as political science, informatics, and education. Over the past decade, a variety of scholars have proposed survey instruments for measuring digital citizenship. This study investigates the psychometric properties of one such measure, the Digital Citizenship Scale (DCS). While previous investigations of the DCS drew participants exclusively from single educational environments (college students, teachers), this study is the first with a survey population (n = 1820) that includes both students and the general public from multiple countries. Four research questions were addressed, two of...
Appears in collection(s): Science and Technology

Title: Morphology and relationships of the enigmatic stenothecoid pan-brachiopod Stenothecoides: new data from the middle Cambrian Burgess Shale Formation
Contributor(s): PAUL A. JOHNSTON (author); MICHAEL STRENG (author); Library OA fund (funder)
Date issued: 2021-12-01; 2021-12-01
Description: Bulk sampling of middle Cambrian carbonate units in the lower Burgess Shale Formation (Wuliuan) and the upper Wheeler Formation (Drumian) in Utah have yielded abundant silicified stenothecoids. Previously unreported from the Burgess Shale, stenothecoids discovered include at least two species: Stenothecoides cf. elongata and Stenothecoides rasettii sp. nov. The Utah material is assigned to Stenothecoides elongata. The new stenothecoid material confirms some earlier observations including a set of interior grooves and ridges forming nested chevrons across the midline and a finer set disposed around the interior shell margin. The chevroned grooves are interpreted here as mantle canals and...
Appears in collection(s): Science and Technology

Title: The Need to Act: Incest as a Crime Given Low Priority—A View with India as an Example
Contributor(s): Peter Choate (author); Radha Sharan (author); Library OA fund (funder)
Date issued: 2021-04-01; 2021-04-01
Description: Background: Incest is a form of sexual activity that occurs within family or kinship systems. It is prohibited by religion and law in most countries as well as by social mores or taboos. Data from various parts of the world indicate, however, that it appears to be a relatively common event, although there is reason to believe that the actual frequency is unknown. Most available data focus upon children as victims, although we note that incest also occurs between adult family members. Methods: A systematic review was performed using PRISMA guidelines. With a focus upon India, the search tools of Academic Search Complete, Google Scholar and PUBMED were used to identify articles that legally...
Appears in collection(s): Health, Community and Education

Title: Gender bias in student evaluation of teaching or mirage?
Contributor(s): Bob Uttl (author); Victoria Violo (author); Library OA fund (funder)
Date issued: 2021; 2021
Description: In a recent small sample study, Khazan et al. [1] examined SET ratings received by one female teaching (TA) assistant who assisted with teaching two sections of the same online course, one section under her true gender and one section under false/opposite gender. Khazan et al. concluded that their study demonstrated gender bias against female TA even though they found no statistical difference in SET ratings between male vs. female TA (p = 0.73). To claim gender bias, Khazan et al. ignored their overall findings and focused on distribution of six “negative” SET ratings and claimed, without reporting any statistical test results, that (a) female students gave more positive ratings to male...
Appears in collection(s): Arts

Title: Small samples, unreasonable generalizations, and outliers: Gender bias in student evaluation of teaching or three unhappy students?
Contributor(s): Bob Uttl (author); Victoria C. Violo (author); Library OA Fund (funder)
Date issued: 2021; 2021
Description: In a widely cited and widely talked about study, MacNell et al. (2015) [1] examined SET ratings of one female and one male instructor, each teaching two sections of the same online course, one section under their true gender and the other section under false/opposite gender. MacNell et al. concluded that students rated perceived female instructors more harshly than perceived male instructors, demonstrating gender bias against perceived female instructors. Boring, Ottoboni, and Stark (2016) [2] re-analyzed MacNell et al.’s data and confirmed their conclusions. However, the design of MacNell et al. study is fundamentally flawed. First, MacNell et al.’ section sample sizes were extremely...
Appears in collection(s): Arts

Title: Parental perception of neonatal transfers from level 3 to level 2 neonatal intensive care units in Calgary, Alberta: qualitative findings
Contributor(s): Aliyah Dosani (author); Prashanth Murthy (author); Shafana Kassam (author); Baldeep Rai (author); Abhay K. Lodha (author); Library OA fund (funder)
Date issued: September 2021; September 2021
Description: Background Retro-transfers from level 3 to 2 NICUs in Alberta’s regionalization of neonatal care system are essential to ensure the proper utilization of level 3 NICUs for complex neonatal cases. Parents often experience distress that relates to the transfer of their neonates to another hospital. Limited information is available regarding parental perceptions of distress during transfers for neonates requiring care between NICUs in the current Canadian context. The objective of this study was to investigate: 1) what caused parents distress and could be changed about the transfer process and 2) the supports that were available to help ease parental distress during the transfer process....
Appears in collection(s): Health, Community and Education

Title: Carbon and Nutrient Stoichiometric Relationships in the Soil–Plant Systems of Disturbed Boreal Forest Peatlands within Athabasca Oil Sands Region, Canada
Contributor(s): Felix Nwaishi Mount Royal University (author); Matthew Morison (author); Janina Plach (author); Merrin Macrae (author); Richard Petrone (author); Library OA fund (funder)
Date issued: May 2022; May 2022
Description: Peatlands store carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P), and the stoichiometric relationship among them may be modified by ecosystem disturbances, with major implications for boreal peatland ecosystem functions. To understand the potential impact of landscape fragmentation on peatland nutrient stoichiometry, we characterize the stoichiometric ratios of C, N and P in the soil–plant systems of disturbed boreal forest peatlands and also assessed relationships among site conditions, nutrient availability, stoichiometric ratios (C:N:P) and C storage in four sites that represent the forms of disturbed peatlands in the Athabasca oil sands region. Our results showed that nutrient...
Appears in collection(s): Science and Technology

Title: FEHCA: A Fault-Tolerant Energy-Efficient Hierarchical Clustering Algorithm for Wireless Sensor Networks
Contributor(s): Ankur Choudhary (author); Santosh Kumar (author); Sharad Gupta (author); Mingwei Gong Mount Royal University (author); Aniket Mahanti (author); Library OA fund (funder)
Date issued: 2021-07-02; 2021-07-02
Description: Technological advancements have led to increased confidence in the design of large-scale wireless networks that comprise small energy constraint devices. Despite the boost in technological advancements, energy dissipation and fault tolerance are amongst the key deciding factors while designing and deploying wireless sensor networks. This paper proposes a Fault-tolerant Energy-efficient Hierarchical Clustering Algorithm (FEHCA) for wireless sensor networks (WSNs), which demonstrates energy-efficient clustering and fault-tolerant operation of cluster heads (CHs). It treats CHs as no special node but equally prone to faults as normal sensing nodes of the cluster. The proposed scheme...
Appears in collection(s): Science and Technology

Title: Prior oxygenation, but not chemoreflex responsiveness, determines breath‐hold duration during voluntary apnea
Contributor(s): Christina D. Bruce (author); Emily R. Vanden Berg (author); Jamie R. Pfoh (author); Craig D. Steinback (author); Trevor A. Day (author); Library OA fund (funder)
Date issued: 2021-01; 2021-01
Description: Central and peripheral respiratory chemoreceptors are stimulated during voluntary breath holding due to chemostimuli (i.e., hypoxia and hypercapnia) accumulating at the metabolic rate. We hypothesized that voluntary breath‐hold duration (BHD) would be (a) positively related to the initial pressure of inspired oxygen prior to breath holding, and (b) negatively correlated with respiratory chemoreflex responsiveness. In 16 healthy participants, voluntary breath holds were performed under three conditions: hyperoxia (following five normal tidal breaths of 100% O2), normoxia (breathing room air), and hypoxia (following ~30‐min of 13.5%–14% inspired O2). In addition, the hypoxic ventilatory...
Appears in collection(s): Science and Technology

Title: Simulation in Social Work: Creativity of Students and Faculty during COVID-19
Contributor(s): Christina Tortorelli (author); Peter Choate (author); Marissa Clayton (author); Naya El Jamal (author); Sukhman Kaur (author); Katherine Schantz (author); Library OA fund (funder)
Date issued: 2021; 2021
Description: Simulation learning plays an important role in social work education, allowing students to explore how theory and practice parameters can be integrated into actual situations they are likely to experience in the field. The arrival of COVID-19 and the sudden cessation of in-field practicum opportunities raised challenges for students to gain needed practice experience. Simulation offers an opportunity to enhance learning in place of some direct experience when that is not available. This paper reports on a simulation development practicum, where students, not able to be in an agency, sought out ways to achieve learning through the development and implementation of simulation learning. This...
Appears in collection(s): Health, Community and Education

Title: Dietary restrictions in endurance runners to mitigate exercise-induced gastrointestinal symptoms
Contributor(s): Jill A. Parnell (author); Kim Wagner-Jones (author); Robyn F. Madden (author); Kelly Anne Erdman (author); Mount Royal University Innovation Grant (funder); Library OA Fund (funder)
Date issued: 2020; 2020
Description: Background: Endurance runners frequently experience exercise-induced gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms, negatively impacting their performance. Food choices pre-exercise have a significant impact on the gut’s tolerance to running, yet little information is available as to which foods runners restrict prior to exercise. Methods: A questionnaire designed to assess dietary restrictions pre-racing and gastrointestinal symptoms was administered to 388 runners. Fisher’s exact tests determined differences in gender, age, performance level, and distance with follow-up multivariable logistic regression modeling. Results: Runners regularly avoided meat (32%), milk products (31%), fish/seafood (28%),...
Appears in collection(s): Health, Community and Education

Title: Cosolutes Modify Alkaline Phosphatase Catalysis through Osmotic Stress and Crowding Mechanisms
Contributor(s): Oksana A. Yavorska (author); Lukas Syriste (author); Chantal M. du Plessis (author); Maryam Yaqoob (author); Kyle Loogman (author); Michael Cordara (author); John K. Chik (author); Library OA fund (funder)
Date issued: September 30, 2021; September 30, 2021
Description: Examining the effects of different cosolutes on in vitro enzyme kinetics yielded glimpses into their potential behavior when functioning in their natural, complex, in vivo milieu. Viewing cosolute in vitro influences on a model enzyme, calf intestinal alkaline phosphatase, as a combination of competitive and uncompetitive behaviors provided quantitative insights into their effects on catalysis. Observed decreases in the apparent specificity constant, Kasp, caused by the presence of polyethylene glycols or betaine in the reaction solution, indicated interference with enzyme–substrate complex formation. This competitive inhibition appeared to be driven by osmotic stress. Dextran 6 K and...
Appears in collection(s): Science and Technology

Title: Towards Secure Fog Computing: A Survey on Trust Management, Privacy, Authentication, Threats and Access Control
Contributor(s): Abdullah Al-Noman Patwary (author); Ranesh Kumar Naha (author); Saurabh Garg (author); Sudheer Kumar Battula (author); Md Anwarul Kaium Patwary (author); Erfan Aghasian (author); Muhammad Bilal Amin (author); Aniket Mahanti (author); Mingwei Gong (author); Library OA fund (funder)
Date issued: 2021-05-14; 2021-05-14
Description: Fog computing is an emerging computing paradigm that has come into consideration for the deployment of Internet of Things (IoT) applications amongst researchers and technology industries over the last few years. Fog is highly distributed and consists of a wide number of autonomous end devices, which contribute to the processing. However, the variety of devices offered across different users are not audited. Hence, the security of Fog devices is a major concern that should come into consideration. Therefore, to provide the necessary security for Fog devices, there is a need to understand what the security concerns are with regards to Fog. All aspects of Fog security, which have not been...
Appears in collection(s): Science and Technology

Title: The responsiveness and validity of the Rotator Cuff Quality of Life (RC-QOL) index in a 2-year follow-up study
Contributor(s): Caitlin D. Richards (author); Breda H.F. Eubank (author); Mark R. Lafave (author); J. Preston Wiley (author); Aaron J. Bois (author); Nicholas G. Mohtadi (author); Library OA fund (funder)
Date issued: 2022-07; 2022-07
Description: Background: The Rotator Cuff Quality of Life (RC-QOL) index was developed to evaluate quality of life in patients with rotator cuff disease. This study provides additional psychometric testing in accordance with the Consensus-Based Standards for the Selection of Health Measurement Instruments guidelines. Methods: This was a 2-year follow-up study on 66 patients (mean age, 59 ± 10 years) originally presenting with chronic full-thickness rotator cuff tears to a tertiary care center. The methodology involved testing internal consistency, content validity, and criterion validity. Responsiveness was evaluated using 3 strategies: 1) standardized response mean of the raw change scores; 2) Guyatt...
Appears in collection(s): Health, Community and Education

Title: Blood glucose concentration is unchanged during exposure to acute normobaric hypoxia in healthy humans
Contributor(s): Jason S. Chan (author); Alexandra E. Chiew (author); Alexander N. Rimke (author); Garrick Chan (author); Zahrah H. Rampuri (author); Mackenzie D. Kozak (author); Normand G. Boulé (author); Craig D. Steinback (author); Margie H. Davenport (author); Trevor A. Day (author); Library OA Fund (funder)
Date issued: 2021-08; 2021-08
Description: Normal blood [glucose] regulation is critical to support metabolism, particularly in contexts of metabolic stressors (e.g., exercise, high altitude hypoxia). Data regarding blood [glucose] regulation in hypoxia are inconclusive. We aimed to characterize blood [glucose] over 80 min following glucose ingestion during both normoxia and acute normobaric hypoxia. In a randomized cross-over design, on two separate days, 28 healthy participants (16 females; 21.8 ± 1.6 years; BMI 22.8 ± 2.5 kg/m2) were randomly exposed to either NX (room air; fraction of inspired [FI]O2 ~0.21) or HX (FIO2 ~0.148) in a normobaric hypoxia chamber. Measured FIO2 and peripheral oxygen saturation were both lower at...
Appears in collection(s): Science and Technology

Title: On wide sense stationary processes over finite non-abelian groups
Contributor(s): Thangarajah Pamini (author); Zizler Peter (author)
Date issued: 2017
Description: Let X be a real-valued wide sense stationary process over a finite non-abelian group G. We provide results on optimal orthogonal decomposition of X into real-valued mutually orthogonal components and using this decomposition we develop a test for correlation of X over the group G. Applications of these results to the analysis of variance of the carry-over effects in the cross-over designs in clinical studies are given. Our focus will be on groups S[subscript 3], S[subscript 4], and A[subscript 4].
Appears in collection(s): Science and Technology

Title: A Reading-Writing Assignment Based on Popular Literature To Enhance Learning about Microbiology
Contributor(s): O'Connor Tracy (author)
Date issued: 2019
Description: In order to stimulate engagement in microbiology, a reading-writing assignment based on a narrative popular science book was created for a one-semester introductory microbiology course. In order to encourage critical thinking, students were required to formulate a question related to the book to research and report on. Active learning was supported by guidance and feedback at each stage of the assignment. The assignment components were graded according to a rubric based on the learning outcomes: reading comprehension, question formulation, literature research, synthesis, and written communication. Median scores for the assignment components indicated that students successfully...
Appears in collection(s): Science and Technology

Title: Prospective: A Data-Driven Technique to Predict Web Service Response Time Percentiles
Contributor(s): Amannejad Yasaman (author); Krishnamurthy Diwakar (author); Far Behrouz (author)
Date issued: 2019
Description: Delivering fast response times for user transactions is a critical requirement for Web services. Often, a Web service has Service Level Agreements (SLA) with its users that quantify how quickly the service has to respond to a user transaction. Typically, SLAs stipulate requirements for Web service response time percentiles, e.g., a specified target for the 95th percentile of response time. Violating SLAs can have adverse consequences for a Web service operator. Consequently, operators require systematic techniques to predict Web service response time percentiles. Existing prediction techniques are very time consuming since they often involve manual construction of queuing or machine...
Appears in collection(s): Science and Technology

Title: Understanding Atrocities: Remembering, Representing and Teaching Genocide
Contributor(s): Amarasingam Amarnath (author); Basso Andrew R. (author); Burnett Kristin (author); Chambers Lori (author); Cohen Laura Beth (author); Hay Travis (author); Jacobs Steven Leonard (author); Markotic Lorraine (author); Minslow Sarah (author); Mounsef Donia (author); Muller Adam (author); Powell Christopher (author); Sarkissian Raffi (author); Murray Scott W. (author); Scott W. Murray (editor)
Date issued: 2017
Description: Understanding Atrocities is a wide-ranging collection of essays bridging scholarly and community-based efforts to understand and respond to the global, transhistorical problem of genocide. The essays in this volume investigate how evolving, contemporary views on mass atrocity frame and complicate the possibilities for the understanding and prevention of genocide. The contributors ask, among other things, what are the limits of the law, of history, of literature, and of education in understanding and representing genocidal violence? What are the challenges we face in teaching and learning about extreme events such as these, and how does the language we use contribute to or impair what can...
Appears in collection(s): Arts