In North American utilities, control area performance of interconnected power systems is assessed by the reliability standards imposed by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC). NERC standards on control area performance define two indices known as Control Performance Standards 1 and 2 (CPS1 and CPS2) to evaluate control area performance in normal interconnected power system operation. Out of the two indices, CPS1 evaluates the performance of a control area with respect to control of interconnection frequency and tie-line power flows. This thesis proposes a novel method to approximately estimate CPS1 for a two area power system using the probability distribution of load change. The proposed method of estimating CPS1 is validated against the time domain simulation method using a simple two-area test system. In the validation process, it is shown that the proposed method could approximately forecast CPS1 within 5% accuracy. The forecasted CPS1 value could then be used by a control area to design its future control strategies to be in compliance with NERC criteria at the minimum cost. These control actions include, but not limited to tuning governors, reducing non-confirming loads, ensuring adequate operating and spinning reserves etc.

The purpose of this study was to design a passive nanostrain Radio Frequency strain sensor that helps to monitor the strain changes caused by traffic in motion on bridges. The phase sensitive interrogation method was applied meaning that the strain changes will be measured by the cavity sensor phase shift. The results revealed that the RF strain sensor could achieve a resolution of a few nanostrain. The principle conclusion was that the designed RF strain sensor has nanostrain sensitivity. Coaxial-Cylinder sensor sensitivity was 8 nanostrain. Cylinder volume resonant cavity sensor sensitivity was 8 nanostrain for high Q and 4 nanostrain for low Q. (BW = 160Hz) These sensitivities were somewhat larger than theoretical estimates due to noise from sauces other than the thermal noise used in the theoretical estimation. Therefore sensors will be useful for Structural Health Monitoring applications.

Financial derivatives play significant role in an investor's success. Financial option is one form of derivatives. Option pricing is one of the challenging and fundamental problems of computational finance. Due to highly volatile and dynamic market conditions, there are no closed form solutions available except for simple styles of options such as, European options. Due to the complex nature of the governing mathematics, several numerical approaches have been proposed in the past to price American style and other complex options approximately. Bio-inspired and nature-inspired algorithms have been considered for solving large, dynamic and complex scientific and engineering problems. These algorithms are inspired by techniques developed by the insect societies for their own survival. Nature-inspired algorithms, in particular, have gained prominence in real world optimization problems such as in mobile ad hoc networks. The option pricing problem fits very well into this category of problems due to the ad hoc nature of the market. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is one of the novel global search algorithms based on a class of nature-inspired techniques known as swarm intelligence. In this research, we have designed a sequential PSO based option pricing algorithm using basic principles of PSO. The algorithm is applicable for both European and American options, and handles both constant and variable volatility. We show that our results for European options compare well with Black-Scholes-Merton formula. Since it is very important and critical to lock-in profit making opportunities in the real market, we have also designed and developed parallel algorithm to expedite the computing process. We evaluate the performance of our algorithm on a cluster of multicore machines that supports three different architectures: shared memory, distributed memory, and a hybrid architectures. We conclude that for a shared memory architecture or a hybrid architecture, one-to-one mapping of particles to processors is recommended for performance speedup. We get a speedup of 20 on a cluster of four nodes with 8 dual-core processors per node.

Most studies on frequent itemset mining focus on mining precise data. However, there are situations in which the data are uncertain. This leads to the mining of uncertain data. There are also situations in which users are only interested in frequent itemsets that satisfy user-specified aggregate constraints. This leads to constrained mining of uncertain data. Moreover, floods of uncertain data can be produced in many other situations. This leads to stream mining of uncertain data. In this M.Sc. thesis, we propose algorithms to deal with all these situations. We first design a tree-based mining algorithm to find all frequent itemsets from databases of uncertain data. We then extend it to mine databases of uncertain data for only those frequent itemsets that satisfy user-specified aggregate constraints and to mine streams of uncertain data for all frequent itemsets. Experimental results show the effectiveness of all these algorithms.

Self-rated health (SRH) is a commonly used measure in surveys. The associations of SRH in Canadian First Nations populations have not previously been fully studied. Univariate, bivariate, and multivariate analyses were conducted to determine how participants rated their health and what factors associated with SRH in a Manitoba First Nation. Respondents rated their health substantially worse than the general Canadian population. Men rated their health worse than women, and older adults rated their health worse than younger adults. In multivariate analyses, sex, hypertension, arthritis, the metabolic syndrome, number of chronic conditions, vision and mobility difficulties, perceived stress, perceived control over health and life, and community conditions were independently associated with SRH. These results suggest that asymptomatic conditions may be incorporated into the SRH of community members and suggest a complex interaction of health-related factors, stressors, and psychosocial factors that contribute to community members’ SRH.

CD146 is a cell adhesion molecule that has been shown to regulate cell adhesion, migration and proliferation of different cell types. It is highly expressed in blood endothelial cells (BECs), but is only lowly expressed in lymphatic endothelial cells (LECs). The PROX1 homeobox gene is a master regulator of lymphangiogenesis and its expression is necessary and sufficient to drive venous endothelial cells into a LEC phenotype. The highly permeable nature of the lymphatic vessels may partially derive from PROX1 mediated repression of CD146 transcription. We hypothesize that PROX1 promotes lymphatic differentiation by repressing CD146 transcription. In gain of function studies, Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells (HUVECs) were infected with adenoviruses encoding EGFP, wild type PROX1 (AdProx1) or a Homeo-Prospero domain deleted version of PROX1 (AdHDPD), which cannot bind DNA. In order to knockdown PROX1, LECs were transfected with PROX1 specific siRNA. When compared to EGFP infected HUVECs, AdProx1 infected HUVECs had decreased CD146 expression both at protein and mRNA levels. In contrast, AdHDPD infected HUVECs had increased levels of CD146 expression. In support of a role for PROX1 in repressing CD146, PROX1 siRNA transfected LECs express higher levels of CD146 as compared to mock transfected LECs or LECs transfected with control siRNA. Based on these results, we predict that CD146 expression is kept at basal levels by an unknown repressor bound to the CD146 promoter. By interacting with this unknown repressor, PROX1 further represses CD146 expression. On the other hand, the DNA binding-deficient ΔHDPD version of PROX1 binds the unknown repressor and sequesters it from the CD146 promoter, thereby relieving the repression of CD146 expression in ECs. Different levels of CD146 expression between BECs and LECs might reflect the structural and functional differences between blood and lymphatic vessels. Since CD146 plays a critical role in EC adhesion, regulation of CD146 expression in ECs might be one of the key factors regulating vessel permeability.

One-dimensional steady flow pollutant transport models assume that the river reach modelled has a uniform cross-sectional shape which manifests as a constant average velocity in the model equations. Rarely do rivers meet this criterion. Their channels are seldom uniform in shape, but rather alternate in a quasi-periodic manner between pool and riffle sections. This bedform sequencing imparts a corresponding variation in the average cross-sectional velocity which is not accounted for in constant velocity transport models. The literature points out that the pool and riffle planform may be the reason for the sometimes poor predictions obtained from these models. This thesis confirms that the fluctuation in average cross-sectional velocity caused by the pool and riffle planform does have a marked effect on transport in rivers. The pool and riffle planform promotes an enhanced decay of a pollutant when a first order biochemical reaction is simulated. This effect becomes more pronounced as flow declines. The reason for this is that travel time in a pool and riffle channel is greater than for a uniformly shaped channel. Current one-dimensional models assume a uniform channel and therefore overestimate the velocity of a substance moving downstream. To show this an equation is developed that describes the variation in average cross-sectional velocity along a pool and riffle channel. The parameters of the equation can be easily evaluated for any river. The equation is incorporated into a mass balance analysis and a new form of the river transport model is derived. Analysis shows that the transport of a substance in a pool and riffle channel is governed by travel velocity which is different from the average cross-sectional velocity used in the traditional advection model. Replacing average velocity with travel velocity provides a simple fix for the traditional model. The new transport model is tested on the Athabasca River with excellent results. The variable velocity model successfully simulates the DO dynamics on a 550 kilometre stretch of the river. This suggests that the model has good potential for simulating pollutant transport in other rivers. Since analysis shows that the effect of the pool and riffle planform on contaminant transport is magnified at low flow levels, the model has good potential for use in determining TMDLs for contaminants, because these regulatory levels are set for low flow conditions.

This thesis explored the opportunities to reduce energy demand and renewable energy feasibility at an off-grid science “community” called the Experimental Lakes Area (ELA) in Ontario. Being off-grid, ELA is completely dependent on diesel and propane fuel supply for all its electrical and heating needs, which makes ELA vulnerable to fluctuating fuel prices. As a result ELA emits a large amount of greenhouse gases (GHG) for its size. Energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies can reduce energy consumption and consequently energy cost, as well as GHG. Energy efficiency was very important to ELA due to the elevated fuel costs at this remote location. Minor upgrades to lighting, equipment and building envelope were able to reduce energy costs and reduce load. Efficient energy saving measures were recommended that save on operating and maintenance costs, namely, changing to LED lights, replacing old equipment like refrigerators and downsizing of ice makers. This resulted in a 4.8% load reduction and subsequently reduced the initial capital cost for biomass by $27,000, by $49,500 for wind power and by $136,500 for solar power. Many alternative energies show promise as potential energy sources to reduce the diesel and propane consumption at ELA including wind energy, solar heating and bio-mass. A biomass based CHP system using the existing diesel generators as back-up has the shortest pay back period of the technologies modeled. The biomass based CHP system has a pay back period of 4.1 years at $0.80 per liter of diesel, as diesel price approaches $ 2.00 per liter the pay back period reduces to 0.9 years, 50% the generation cost compared to present generation costs. Biomass has been successfully tried and tested in many off-grid communities particularly in a small-scale off-grid setting in North America and internationally. Also, the site specific solar and wind data show that ELA has potential to harvest renewable resources and produce heat and power at competitive rates compared to diesel and propane.

This research investigates the travel paths of pedestrians along residential frontage roads in the immediate vicinity of bus stops. This investigation was performed to characterize association between seasonality, age, gender, physical impairments and travel path selection. For the purposes of this research, a pedestrian travel path is defined as the physical route chosen by transit users on their walking journey immediately before boarding or after alighting the transit bus, along residential frontage roads in the immediate vicinity of bus stops. A study site screening process that encompassed multiple site visits, Automated Passenger Counting / Automatic Vehicle Location and Geographic Information Systems data analyses identified four study sites (with two bus stops each). At these sites, unaware bus stop users were observed and their travel paths were classified into one of three categories: (a) pedestrian walking on the frontage road; (b) pedestrian walking on the outer separation; or (c) pedestrian walking on the main road. The required sample was collected during eight months, and was divided into ‘no-snow’ and ‘snow’ seasons. After performing statistical tests of association to the travel path selections of bus stop users, the research found that seasonal effects are statistically significant, indicating that there is a higher number of people walking on the main road during the ‘snow’ season. There was also a statistically significant difference in pedestrian path choices regarding site characteristics. When comparing the study sites, the only site that provided a splash strip was found to have a significantly higher amount of people walking along the outer separation, where the splash strip is provided, and which is used by pedestrians as a sidewalk. This finding indicates that if pedestrian facilities were provided along outer separations, they may have an impact on the path chosen by pedestrians when traversing frontage roads. There was not enough evidence to find a statistically significant relationship between pedestrian walking paths and gender, age or ambulatory capabilities.

Participatory Irrigation Management (PIM) was adopted in Thailand in 2004 to encourage the efficient use of water in the agricultural sector. PIM refers to the participation of water users at all phases of irrigation management such as planning, operation, maintenance, monitoring, and evaluation. The purpose of this research was to understand the relationships between public participation, learning, and the implementation of more sustainable water practices through PIM in Thailand. Two integrated water user groups (IWUGs) were selected from the Krasiew Reservoir, Suphanburi Province. Data collection included document review, semi-structured telephone interviews, semi-structured face-to-face interviews, observation, and informal meetings. Case study data showed that after the water allocation and delivery schedule were developed and agreed on by the Joint Management Committee for Irrigation members, the final water delivery pattern at each canal was made by a majority vote among members at an IWUG general meeting. The final water allocation strategy at each canal was based on a discussion among IWUG committee members. Water user group (WUG) chiefs and WUG members were responsible for designing their own water allocation pattern and schedule for ditches. Results showed that participating in PIM activities fostered both instrumental and communicative learning among PIM participants. The instrumental learning outcomes included: new skills and information; the development of political, legal, economic, social, or administrative procedures; a determination of the cause-effect relationships; and task-oriented problem solving. The communicative learning outcomes involved: a better understanding of the issue at hand; a more critical understanding of themselves or situations; insight into the interests of others; communication strategies and methods; and comparative reflection. Findings also revealed that local farmers had begun implementing more sustainable water practices after receiving comprehensive water information through PIM. This helped develop an understanding of a reservoir as a finite water resource. As a result, water saving awareness was fostered among farmers in order to maintain a water supply for all crop seasons. In addition, communicating compassionately through participating in PIM activities could foster further social action. The 2005 water crisis in the irrigation area was another factor which triggered a sense of urgency about the need for water conservation.